Smithsonian Magazine July/August 2024

“I was intrigued by the idea of going into one that was still warm.” A Stellar Statesman As an admirer of Benjamin Franklin, the first polymath and autodidact of note in the American colonies, I thought this was an excellent article (“Start the Presses,” June 2024). He is the one historical individual who I believe would fit in the 21st century because of his well-rounded intellect and understanding of people. Printer, scientist, diplomat, celebrity, signer of the Declaration of Independence, author and the one individual in U.S. history who embodies American freedom and American exceptionalism. Not perfect, but an exemplar for curiosity and personal dynamism. Thank you for this wonderful work. Eric S. Hall | Cary, North Carolina A Route by Any Other Name Writer Teddy Brokaw (“Taking the Scenic…

DURING MY FIRST YEAR at the National Museum of American History, I accepted the enormously daunting task of curating “The Smithsonian’s America: An Exhibition on American History and Culture” for the American Festival in Japan. Imagine not only having to encapsulate the nation’s spirit in one installation, but also doing it for a Japanese audience. At that point, the only knowledge I had about Japanese culture came from my tenth-grade Japanese language class. But the opportunity to think broadly about the scope of American history and culture and to help bring the Smithsonian to another part of the world was one that I could not pass up. It also turned out to be a proving ground for our ability to reach far beyond our physical museums in Washington—the exhibition later…

IN FEBRUARY 1973, Dave Arneson, a history major at the University of Minnesota and part-time security guard, drove with a friend from the Twin Cities to the resort town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. They were on a quest to meet Gary Gygax, an insurance underwriter. What brought the three together was a deep devotion to playing strategic tabletop war games. Gygax had co-written a medieval fantasy game inspired by The Lord of the Rings, full of elves and orcs. Together, the trio embarked on a novel approach: Instead of pitting player against player, Arneson suggested having all characters fight their way together through a mystical realm—sometimes as friends, sometimes as foes—under the watchful eye of what Arneson envisioned as a “sadistic referee.” Gone was author J.R.R. Tolkien’s Shire. In its…

A MONSTROUS MARRIAGE In legends of Persia—the region now known as Iran—dragon-like serpents are known as azi. A particularly ruthless, three-headed azi called Azi Dahaka once stole a shepherd’s two lovely daughters and made them his wives. A hero, Thraetaona, rose to the now-familiar challenge: He slayed Dahaka and brought the girls home. SCALING BACK According to the Rig Veda, an Indian text more than 3,000 years old, a dragon once presented a challenge for a Hindu god. The draconic demon was withholding water, to the dismay of a people suffering through drought. When Indra, the deity of war and storms, battled and killed the serpent, he freed the rain, enabled sunlight and created a new order. ELEPHANT HUNTER Roman scholar Pliny the Elder wrote a good deal about dragons,…

PRINTMAKING, which dates to ancient times, was long considered a craft, useful mainly for reproducing religious illustrations. But with his intricate woodcuts and engravings, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) elevated it to a fine art. “One cannot overstate the influence of Dürer on the history of the print,” says Naoko Takahatake, curator of a new show at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum, “Sum of the Parts,” which covers 500 years of printmaking. “From a purely technical point of view, engraving and woodcut for centuries have been measured against his example.” A series of the German master’s “knot” prints, which are based on designs by Leonardo da Vinci, is a highlight of the exhibit, which aims to demonstrate how artists use sequential prints to explore ideas, develop a theme or…

IN MAY 1951, REPRESENTATIVE Peter F. Mack was in his southern Illinois district on what promised to be an unremarkable listening tour among his constituents. Amid the usual glad-handing and baby-kissing, Mack received a surprising challenge from his friend John W. Hobbs, an automobile parts manufacturer. Hobbs noted how scary things looked world-wide: Europe was still a mess after World War II, the Soviet Union had recently gotten the bomb, conflicts were raging in Korea and French Indochina, and anti-Western protests had begun in Iran. Conventional diplomacy had failed at the mighty task of bringing peace, Hobbs argued, in large part because U.S. diplomats rarely tried to communicate with ordinary citizens in other countries. “Our top brass just talks to the top brass of other countries,” Hobbs told Mack. “They never…