National
Museum of Food
& Farm
A
Proposal for a New Branch of the Smithsonian
on Washington's National Mall
Let's
add
a National Museum of Food & Farm
to the USA's Smithsonian network!
The United States is one
of the only developed nations that has
not honored its food and farm heritage
with an up-to-date public-friendly facility.
Canada,
Britain,
France,
Poland,
among others, have national or major
museums of agriculture and food.The
Smithsonian
Institution, described as our national
attic, is the collection of museums
and research enterprises that line the
national mall in Washington, DC.
A--National Museum of
American Indian; B--National Air &
Space Museum; C--Hirshorn Art Museum;
D--Arts & Sciences Museum; E--National
Museums of Asian Art & African Art;
F--Freer Art Gallery; G--National Museum
of American History; H--National Museum
of Natural History; I--National Gallery
of Art; J--East Wing of National Gallery;
National Museum of Food & Farm proposed
for the USDA building.
The National Mall's last "open"
space, (marked "A" above)
has been filled by the National
Museum of the American Indian. The
only non-museum building on the mall,
is occupied by the United States Department
of Agriculture. We are proposing that
this be transformed into a museum dedicated
to American food and farming.
The USDA building is out of place on
the mall, nearly surrounded by
museums. It is next to the Freer
Art Gallery, across from the National
Museum of American History and near
the National Museum of Natural History,
the Sackler Museum of Asian Art and
other components of the Smithsonian
family of museums. (Out of the
ten museum buildings on the mall, six
are devoted to art, one air & space,
one natural history, one American history
and one Native American history). Why
not find other offices for the USDA
employees who work in this building
and install a museum dedicated to the
nation's food and farm heritage? The
Department of Agriculture is one of
the only departments of the federal
government without a museum. The Executive
branch, the Congress and the Supreme
Court all have museums and visitor centers.
The departments of the Interior, Treasury,
Health & Human Services, Defense,
Post Office and others have museums
too.
So what is the Smithsonian showing about
the US's food and farm history? Not
much....here's what we found when we
looked around. The most likely
place to find exhibits about how we
have fed ourselves would be at the National
Museum of American History.
Evidence
that the subject of our nation's food
heritage is not on the menu or at least
on the back burner are the following:
On a January visit to the vast museum,
I found only a few unconnected food-related
exhibits. In the Hall of Transportation
is a display about the history of refrigerated
railcars carrying California produce
and a pickup loaded with produce giving
meaning to the phrase "truck gardening."
At the entrance to the museum's cafeteria
is an exhibit devoted to the history
of school lunch boxes. There's also
a section of a Horn & Hardart automatic
food dispensing machine in another food
court. The "Field to Factory"
exhibit shows slaves laboring in the
fields and doing domestic cooking chores.
Finally, there's the long term but tiny
exhibit featuring Julia Child's actual
TV kitchen. The crowd that crammed into
this display area was enthusiastic,
and lingered long in front of the video
terminal featuring the French chef doing
her thing. This was a sure sign that
Smithsonian visitors are hungry for
more food history exhibits.
National Museum of American History
food related exhibits photos (clockwise
from top):
pickup truck carrying farm produce;
Horn & Hardart Automat; school lunchboxes;
Julia Child's kitchen exhibit
The
multi-year
three phase plan for renovation of the
museum does not include the Hall
of Agriculture or any mention
of food history. The website
for the hall was not linked when
tried recently. Exhibits were missing
with no explanations. An entire temporary
section of the exhibit space was partitioned
off with also no explanation. Furthermore,
implements on the cultivation of cotton
were the most prominently featured display.
 |
 |
 |
Photos
of Smithsonian's Hall of Agriculture
in the National Museum of American
History. In the photo above, notice
beyond the display about cotton
cultivation a blank temporary wall,
partitioning off a part of the exhibit
space. The photo to the left shows
a missing object. During a visit
in January 2005, there were no explanations
about the missing implement or the
partitioning. |
Let's
compare the treatment the National Museum
of American History gives to the subjects
of agriculture and military history.
Both subjects are important, complex
and colorful. The Smithsonian devotes
one outdated gallery and one web page
to the subject of agriculture.
On
the other hand the museum is featuring
a huge, state-of-the-art exhibit on
American military history staged in
a permanent new space and filled with
artifacts and exciting AV presentations
at every turn. Have a look at the one
web
page devoted to Agriculture Hall
and then compare it with the multimedia
presentation entitled:
"The Price of Freedom: Our Nation
At War."
(By the way, elsewhere in the capital
city one can find seven important &
interesting museums or monuments devoted
to military subjects but only one to
agriculture...George Washington's farm
at Mount Vernon. Washington, DC has
numerous statues honoring military figures,
but none come to mind recalling any
producers of food, except the Washington
and Jefferson Monuments.)
As far as research goes at the museum,
a look at the current 2004-2005 Office
of Fellowships
Smithsonian Opportunities for Research
and Study reveals that in the Division
of History of Technology, there was
one scholar concentrating on agriculture,
four on military history, six on transportation
issues and four on other technologies.
The Division of Social History had no
food or culinary historians out of the
14 scholars. The closest research interest
listed was domestic furnishings.
Next
door to the American History Museum
is The National Museum of Natural History
which staged in 1992 the popular "Seeds
of Change" exhibit on the 500th
anniversary of Columbus' arrival in
the Americas.
The five "seeds" featured
were disease, the horse, slaves, sugar,
corn and potatoes. This was the
most major nod the Smithsonian has given
to the subject of food history. The
museum's ethnographic permanent exhibits
do feature food folkways and the hunting,
fishing, gardening and cooking apparatus
of various indiginous peoples of the
world. A food theme is not presented
in any coherent manner. It is a hit
and miss experience. The
Seeds of Change Garden was a positive
step in the direction of a food presence
on the mall. The companion website
is no longer maintained by the Smithsonian,
but its pages are archived as an educational
resource. Does this garden still exist?
Incidentally,
the Smithsonian's
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
has always featured food history heritage
and food folkways at their annual National
Folklife Festival on the mall each summer.
This year they are devoting one third
of the festival to
"Food Culture USA." This
important contribution is unfortunately
only a temporary event.
The
newest Smithsonian component...the
National Museum of the American Indian
(opened in September 2004) as mentioned
above filled the last space on Washington's
National Mall. NMAI is full of
admirably displayed food-related exhibits
and objects as is fitting a museum devoted
to the people who domesticated potatoes,
corn, chocolate, chiles, squashes, beans
and many other foods of the Americas
that now feed the world. The museum
features garden plots devoted to many
of these plants.
What
do you think?
Should we try to mount a campaign to
get this idea discussed?
We
continue to receive favorable feedback
on this proposal. To add your thoughts,
click "Blog" above right and in Categories
click "USA's National Museum of Food
& Farm: a proposal." At the
end you will find a place to leave your
comments.
Our
plans to promote this idea include:
