Everything has a story.
As the under secretary of history, art and culture at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Richard Kurin has taken it upon himself to tell the story of America since before its beginning as a nation.
Kurin’s latest book, “The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects,” acts as a corresponding, definitive guide to the Smithsonian Institution’s current exhibit of American cultural items. The book details the display of 101 objects from the National Museum of American History. Through cultural icons of television as well as historical artifacts, Kurin curates the country’s last 238 years of meaningful existence.
One in a series of talks about his book, Kurin plans to give a lecture at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans ­— the museum often receives objects and hosts programs in association with the Smithsonian Institution. Kurin’s talks come from a place of concern for American education, specifically a focus on history education.
“This is basically the treasures of the Smithsonian,” Kurin said. “It helps tell the story of our country, and the fact that kids these days don’t learn history. I made this book … to tell the story of how we got to be this way.”
Kurin included artifacts of considerable cultural significance to Louisiana as well as its surrounding states. The scope of Kurin’s work reaches as far back as before Christopher Columbus’ discoveries.
“I’m telling the story of jazz and American music with Louis Armstrong’s trumpet,” Kurin said. “Everything from popular culture ­— from Chuck Berry’s guitar to the polio vaccine to Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit to Kermit the Frog.”
Kurin thinks of the collection’s objects as “signposts to tell great stories about our country.”
With a career of nearly 40 years at the Smithsonian Institution, Kurin’s experience in history and culture is able to touch all corners of the American age. In an exhibit that spans the sizeable swath of American history, Kurin made an effort to devote equal amounts of importance and consideration to all influential periods.
“What I try to do is divide it up so I’m dealing with all of those eras and all of those currents in American life,” Kurin said. “I devote five or six or seven objects to the different eras. I try to give equal time and equal treatment. They’re all very important to the formation of the country.”
In writing this book, one of Kurin’s biggest challenges was deciding which of the Smithsonian Institution’s 138 million objects would be included in the list. The limit of only 101 objects proved for a difficult job of narrowing down a vast collection.
“Getting it down to 101 is an exercise in tremendous discipline,” Kurin said. “When I think of people taking a tour of our country, you can’t go see everything. I tried to hone it down … to get a sense of what it means to be an American.”
As a result of Kurin’s less conventional method of artifact presentation, some other museums within the Smithsonian Institution have considered creating condensed and concentrated exhibitions with their own objects.
“Some of the museums and departments of the Smithsonian are doing some exercises like this,” Kurin said. “‘Smithsonian Magazine’ did a thing on this, and we’ve had other museums around the country. The origins … of such an enterprise … give credit to [Neil] MacGregor at the British Museum.”
Kurin cites MacGregor’s popular project “A History of the World in 100 Objects” as an influence for his own book. When approached to write “101 Objects,” Kurin jokingly specified one caveat — to include one more object than MacGregor.
Kurin will be presenting his talk “Lagniappe Lecture: The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects” at 6 p.m. tonight in the U.S. Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.