Author Goes Sightseeing in Washington DC

I had one destination I wanted to see more than anything else: the George Catlin Indian Gallery at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery. The Renwick Gallery located three blocks north of the White House is one of Washington's most famous old buildings. 287 of Catlin's Indian portraits and landscapes are on permanent exhibit in the Renwick's Grand Salon, hung floor to ceiling in the old manner. Catlin painted many of the Indian tribes visited by Lewis and Clark, and is the source of much of the first hand knowledge we have today. He was a friend of William Clark's.  Read more about his fascinating life in the Smithsonian Magazine. Catlin's paintings were acquired by the Smithsonian in 1871 and first exhibited in the Smithsonian Castle. They have only recently been placed on full exhibit once again. The Renwick, like all Smithsonian institutions, has free admission.

This was very much a working vacation--what with Book Expo and the Lewis and Clark Road Trips congressional briefing--but I did manage to get in some sightseeing. I was glad to be in a taxi to get an orientation to America's National Mall.  At 2.5 miles, it's a big place!  It was a thrill to see the Washington Monument as the plane landed at Reagan National Airport across the Potomac River from the Mall. I wished I could have had the time to visit the monument and see the view.

After obtaining a pass from a congressional office, I walked along the Mall one evening to see the House  in session at the Capitol. I sat in the galleries next to a high school civics teacher who explained what was going on. They were like a flock of birds, swooping in and out of the legislative chamber.  They do their business elsewhere and return to vote. The most surprising thing to me was the full length portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette in the chamber flanking the portrait of George Washington.  As I left the Capitol I saw one of America's most famous paintings, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way by Emmanuel Leutze (1861). It is the premiere symbol of Manifest Destiny, a concept embedded in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The giant wall mural is displayed near the house chamber at a marble staircase landing. There's a  book by a Native American lawyer just published on the subject: Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny by Robert J. Miller. It's one of my Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books picks, available through the Lewis and Clark Road Trips Amazon Associate bookstore. It's one of the most important books to come out of the bicentennial observances.

Herman Viola gave me a tour of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Exhibit which ended its national tour at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Dr. Viola was one of the experts who helped put it together. I had seen it in St Louis, Missouri in 2004, but it was worth seeing many times over. The exhibition book,  Lewis and Clark Across the Divide by Carolyn Gilman, which is very beautiful, is another one of the Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books. The exhibit was a collection of authentic artifacts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, loaned by over 50 institutions. What struck me most forcibly was how rich looking the objects were--both what the expedition carried, and what they obtained from the Native American tribes.

 I visited  Politics & Prose Bookstore, which I often see hosting book talks on C-SPAN's Book TV. I am a native of Washington DC; my mother told me that when I was a toddler she would take me to book talks at a DC bookstore, and I would play in a playpen made out of stacks of books! I am still surrounded by stacks of books--only now I can read them--and I still  hear book talks on weekends with Book TV. Politics & Prose is just as neat as I thought it would be. There was a book talk going on, the place was crammed with books,  and there was a coffee shop in the lower level. It's located at 5015 Connecticut Avenue in a pleasant neighborhood with nearby restaurants.

All of these destinations (except Politics & Prose) are included in Lewis and Clark Road Trips.

Posted by on 10/28/2006 at 01:01 PM

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