On loan
With only a few weeks left in the White House, President and Mrs. Bush are already giving away the wares.
No, we jest. As he spoke at the re-opening ceremony of the National Museum of American History, President Bush announced that he’s donated “one of the only handwritten copies” of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to the museum. Although it normally hangs in the Lincoln Bedroom, for “the next several weeks, it will be on display here at the Museum of American History.”
In the audience for the ceremony were Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, popular historian David McCullough, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif. PBS’s Judy Woodruff emceed.
On Tuesday night, the museum was transformed into a giant cocktail party. McCullough was on hand, as were Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., Roger Sant, chairman of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, and Kenneth Behring, who donated $80 million to the museum.
The floors of the museum were themed by era, with Revolutionary War “soldiers” manning the ground floor, Civil War soldiers on the second floor, and World War I doughboys on the third.
Guests were treated to a sushi carousel, experimental cuisine served by lab-coated “scientists,” long dining tables adorned in lace, and at least four different musical acts.
