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At the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers lies Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a small town whose dramatic setting became the stage for one of the most consequential events in the struggle over slavery. Historian Christopher Hamner leads a day-long exploration of the site of John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, an attempt by the radical abolitionist to spark a nationwide slave uprising. Though the raid lasted little more than 36 hours, its repercussions reverberated across the nation and helped propel the United States toward civil war.
Explore the many creative ways to work with paper and make personal storybooks by hand. Participants build and bind several books using standard bookmaking papers and thread as well as unusual materials such as manila folders and matchboxes.
Bring your beaded creations to the next level with multi-strand clasps, cones, and spacers to create multi-strand designs with strung beads and decorative finishing.
Investigate new techniques as you have fun creating papers for collage and other art projects. Take home a glorious collection of one-of-a-kind papers accented by acrylic, inks, stamps, and other printmaking materials.
MTV in the '80s, fashion in the '70s, Pop Art in the '60s, and food innovations in the '50s all helped to define America’s recent past. Each day campers time–travel to a different decade and take a cross–cultural look at history through the lens of popular culture. Visits to the Hirshhorn, American History, and African American History and Culture museums spark poster designs, jingles, and recipes inspired by days gone by.
From Hokusai’s The Wave in the Asian Art Museum, to posters of celebrities at the National Portrait Gallery, to wallpaper and textile designs at the Cooper Hewitt, prints are everywhere at the Smithsonian. Campers explore the world of printmaking and learn about its many uses past and present and try their hand at techniques including relief printing, intaglio, and stencils. Visits to museums on the National Mall provide the inspiration for creating their own designs to be displayed at the Friday show-and-share.
Art historian Noah Charney reveals how some religious artworks function as intricate visual puzzles, inviting viewers to decode layers of symbolism, theology, and even politics. He highlights how painters embedded clues ranging from enigmatic objects to hidden narratives, and notes that one artwork even includes a recipe tucked into its imagery. (World Art History Certificate elective, ½ credit)
The early history of Florida is often cast as Spanish conquistadors coming to a miserable place and embarking on quixotic quests only to find death and despair. Yet this narrative obscures a more complex history. Historian J. Michael Francis explores the earliest decades of Florida’s colonial past, including the 1565 founding of St. Augustine—the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in what is now the United States. Francis tells the intersecting stories of European settlers, Native Americans, and Africans, revealing a dynamic, interconnected world.
Travel the world with the summer edition of Sketching the Smithsonian as you take an artful break and explore the fascinating, vast collections of this extraordinary museum.
In April 1429, Joan of Arc rode into the besieged city of Orleans. In May 1431, she was burned at the stake in Rouen. The 25 months between changed the histories of France, of England, and, as the Hundred Years War played out, of Europe itself. Drawing from his book Bloody Crowns, a critical revision of how modern Europe arose from medieval battlefields, military historian Michael Livingston re-examines the story of Joan—what we know of her, how we know of her, and how a teenaged girl could have such an impact on a male-dominated age.
