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."

	The Smithsonian's Museum of American History's newest permanent exhibit: "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War" a multi-gallery, multi-media, mega exhibit covering the nation's wars from the Revolution to Iraq.

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.

By the way, elsewhere in the capital city region one can find seven important & interesting museums or monuments devoted to military subjects and three to agriculture...George Washington's farm at Mount Vernon, Claude Moore Colonial Farm and the National Colonial Farm. Washington, DC has numerous statues honoring military figures, but none come to mind recalling any producers of food, except the Washington and Jefferson Monuments.

Here is a map of the museums and monuments on or near the national mall home of the major Smithsonian Institution's museums.

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:

• Finding Congressional support to introduce a resolution supporting the idea.
  

• Seeking advice from the  individuals and groups who successfully organized the latest Smithsonian addition, the National Museum of the American Indian.
  

• Beginning a national petition drive in support of this effort.
  

• Setting up an advisory committee among the food history and farm heritage community nationwide

Contact Us

NOTE: Your privacy is very important to us. If you contact us we will not divulge your personal information to anyone for any reason, without your consent.

By phone: 505 898 0909

Mail: The Food Museum's Campaign for
a National Museum of Food & Farm
P.O. Box 67755
Albuquerque, NM 87193

Email:foodmuseum12345@yahoo.com
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Top

"Smoking the hunt"
Native American food traditions

"Inspecting herring catch"
Colonial era

"catching terrapins"
18th century

"hoeing sweet potatoes"
19th century

"tomato seed industry"
19th century

"roadside food landmarks"
20th century

restaurant history

drying almonds