If you can lift this book up (it weighs about 5#s) you won’t want to put it down. It’s published by the Smithsonian and is the kind of book I’m a sucker for. First, it is interesting how they narrowed it down to 101 objects. The Smithsonian owns 137 million items and that isn’t counting photographs, books, films, and archival documents. But they also have thousands of scholars and curators and hundreds of millions of people visiting and requesting information on objects which interest them. So using this pool of knowledge they came up with about 400 items related to American history and asked themselves if the objects had an interesting story to tell about the American experience. Then a group of about 300 curators and experts from across the Smithsonian museums (there are about 20 of them) narrowed it down to the 101.
It is also interesting that the estate that was the beginning of the collection was from an Englishman, James Smithson, who stipulated in his will that if his heir, a nephew, were to die childless, his entire estate would go to the United States “to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” So, how lucky was that!
The book is roughly chronological from before Columbus to the new millennium. Each object is pictured, and has 3 to 5 pages of information. I guarantee a great read (as soon as I can bring myself to return the book).