”My, that`s a kind picture of Eleanor Roosevelt,” said one middle-age woman visiting the newly redone exhibit on the country`s first ladies at the Smithsonian Institution`s National Museum of American History.
”Well, she was very young,” snipped her companion.
”Oooh God, Mary Todd was ugly,” blurted out someone else.
The entrance to this popular, important exhibit, reopened in late March after a four-year closure for repairs and rethinking, is the perfect place to take the pulse of America. Gazing at the photos and illustrations of all our first ladies and their husbands, visitors can`t help but express their feelings.
”We have so many photographs of these women throughout the exhibit, we hope to present a variety of the way they looked, so you get some sense of the woman as an individual person,” said curator Edith Mayo.
Walking solemnly through the Christopher Columbus exhibit at the nearby Natural History Museum, visitors might not utter a single word as they pass artifact after artifact. But when confronted with the photos, the dresses, the china, the bric-a-brac that made up family life for the first ladies and their celebrated husbands, no one can keep silent.
”I don`t know why they all can`t use the same china,” said one woman, as she contemplated the different china patterns each first lady chose. Another woman, gazing at the six wine glasses at each place setting, wondered, ”With all that stuff on the table, how can they eat?”
A good question. Others might wonder how the Lincolns dined, what with the surprisingly tacky purple-rimmed china chosen by Mary Todd Lincoln. Mamie Eisenhower`s gold-edged service plates seem impossibly regal by comparison.
More than a face
The exhibit also traces the importance of first ladies as political partners (Roosevelt, Carter, Wilson, for example), the sad reality of the first lady in mourning, playing out her grief on a public stage (Roosevelt, Lincoln, Kennedy, Garfield, Taylor, Harding) and the first lady as an advocate of social causes. This last area covers Barbara Bush and literacy; Betty Ford and the Equal Rights Amendment; Eleanor Roosevelt and human rights and the New Deal; Lady Bird Johnson and highway beautification, ecological awareness and Project Head Start; and Lucy Hayes, who banned alcohol from the White House and was the first college graduate to become first lady.
Although the exhibit draws a gamut of visitors, invariably it is women who seem most interested in the clothing and costumes. The men cluster outside the darkened, cavelike opening to the costume area, awaiting the emergence of the females.
”There is no doubt it is a pro-women`s hall; no getting around that,”
Mayo said. ”It`s an advocacy hall for women`s place in politics. (Visitors)
still break along gender lines, though. This exhibit was designed to appeal specifically to women; I hope that doesn`t mean it is not also interesting to men.
”We were thinking that most women can see something of themselves in the first lady, that women would be able to make connections, and at the same time, see how these women had changed the role,” she said.
The women gaze and talk among themselves, forming an orderly procession that files slowly by the glass cases containing the glamorous gowns.
”I like the back on this one,” said one visitor of Lucy Hayes` gold damask and cream satin gown, with sleeves of lace.
”Oooh, she`s fat,” said a slender teenager, pointing to Julia Dent Grant`s seemingly ample hindquarters, represented by a mannequin wearing her dress.
There are many costumes to see here, including:
– Nancy Reagan`s red pinstripe suit, designed by Bill Blass, that she wore at the White House Easter egg roll in 1981.
– Mamie Eisenhower`s red silk damask ball gown with off-the-shoulder sleeves and a full skirt with a huge side pouf.
– Eleanor Roosevelt`s lavender velvet day dress that she wore to her husband`s first inauguration.
– Jacqueline Kennedy`s gray brocade dress and jacket designed by Oleg Cassini, worn to a White House reception.
– Barbara Bush`s camouflage shirt worn during a trip to the Middle East in November 1990.
There are also many dresses from a time we can only read about in history books, including Frances Folsom Cleveland`s cream satin wedding gown and Mary Todd Lincoln`s two-piece gown of off-white silk taffeta woven with black stripes and purple flowers.
Power players
But the exhibit isn`t merely about fashion. By introducing issues such as ”Inventing the First Lady`s Role,” the curators ask visitors to consider the historical perspective in a palatable way.
”Abigail Adams` foes called her `Mrs. President,` reflecting suspicions about her influence with John Adams. She set a precedent for future first ladies,” the exhibit notes.
Mayo explained: ”We were trying to put these women in context of presidential and women`s history. I don`t think you can properly understand these women just from a women`s` history point of view, because they`re so much a part of the presidential administration.
”I was trying to give some sense of how these women started out in a ceremonial position, and over 200 years have transformed it into a position of enormous political power.
”I was concerned that people might be more interested in the gowns and would not want to read about the women, but they want very much to find out about the women.
”People seem to find a lot of contemporary resonance, with questions about Mrs. Bush versus Mrs. Clinton, and how their style plays in the campaign. They`re surprised to know that this question about the role of the first lady goes all the way back to the beginning.”
The $1 million redo was planned when Mayo and others realized that the existing first-lady exhibit would need to be dismantled for planned renovations to the museum`s heating, electrical and air-conditioning systems. Although the Smithsonian won`t release visitor counts to individual galleries, the docents, guards and staff at the information booths can attest that the first-lady exhibit is a huge draw.
Why?
”They`re as close as we come to American royalty,” Mayo said.
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”First Ladies” is at the National Museum of American History, on the Mall at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W. Hours through Sept. 7 are 9:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. After Sept. 7, the museum is open daily 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. except Christmas Day. Call 202-357-2700.
