National Museum of American History reopening after two-year renovation

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will reopen next month after an extensive two-year, $85 million renovation.

The museum is scheduled to open to the public November 21 and will feature major architectural enhancements to the interior, a new state-of-the-art Star-Spangled Banner gallery and newly organized collections and exhibits. The renovation also updates the 42-year-old building’s infrastructure.

“For people of all ages, a visit to the National Museum of American History can be a defining moment—providing a deep and fundamental understanding of what it has meant to be an American,” said Museum Director Brent D. Glass. “Millions of visitors will enjoy new opportunities to explore the American narrative and the core stories of our national experience in an inspiring and memorable setting.”

From transportation history to the Presidential Gallery, classes visiting the museum will find a variety of exhibits to catch students’ attention and to complement topics they are learning about in the classroom.

“It’s a diverse array of exhibitions that we have,” said Harry Rubenstein, political curator at the National Museum of American History. “These are all topics we’re hoping would have wide appeal. Teachers and students will find any number of things of interest to them.”

The new Star-Spangled Banner Gallery is expected to be a major attraction. The gallery features the original preserved Star-Spangled Banner behind a 45-foot-long floor-to-ceiling glass wall. Visitors will find dramatic lighting meant to evoke the atmosphere of the “dawn’s early light” and additional information about the history of the flag.

The museum will also feature an updated Presidential Gallery, including a timeline of the presidency with the faces of those who have held office. Curators are holding out on finishing the last panel, which will be completed after Election Day. They made both candidates’ faces in preparation, Rubenstein said.

Classes taking Smithsonian Student Travel’s Washington, D.C.: Inauguration 2009 tour will also be interested in an exhibit featuring presidential inaugurations. The exhibit will feature fascinating memorabilia from past inaugurations, including invitations to inaugural balls, the carriage Ulysses S. Grant rode in to his second inauguration and the coat Benjamin Harrison wore to his in 1889.

In addition, the museum will boast one extraordinary piece of presidential history.

“For the opening of the museum we are borrowing the White House’s copy of the Gettysburg Address. There were five known copies of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln’s hands, and this was one of them,” Rubenstein said.

For more information about the National Museum of American History and the renovation, visit http://americanhistory.si.edu.