#there's a lot of smaller and more niche museums & historical houses but these are the ones I'd look into for a first timer

[contrappostoes]

heyyy i'm visiting new york for the first time in a couple weeks and was wondering if you had any museum recommendations for a first timer? i'm up for anything but art museums would be great! ❤️❤️

Yes absolutely!! If it's your first time in the city these two are the must sees for art, imo:

The Met - ideal art museum for a first visit, it's got a huge & diverse collection! I'd recommend picking a few galleries to visit in advance because you can't do the whole thing in a day (unless you have a lot of energy and want to make that your day). If you're not sure what to go with, my favorites are the sculpture galleries (especially the European sculpture & the Rodins just outside the photography gallery), the Korean and Japanese art galleries, the Temple of Dendur, the costume institute...if the visual storage area is open, that's also very cool to see!

MoMA - obvious if you like modern art, it's also got some really amazing views if you care about that kind of thing. They've got all sorts of cool stuff going on but it's a great opportunity to see pieces by Pollock, Rothko, Agnes Martin, Hilma af Klimt, Picasso, and Van Gogh in person

Other great art museum options are:

The Frick Collection - its original home is still being renovated but the Madison Ave location is well worth visiting

The Rubin Museum of Art - amazing collection of Asian art

The Guggenheim - very cool building, but if you're looking for modern art, the MoMA has a better collection imo

The Whitney - will have expanded their free day options by the time you visit, has some great views of the city, and is conveniently located by the High Line

The Cloisters - it's a hike, but if you like religious art it's a must-see

The New York Earth Room - not really a museum but a single exhibit, I don't see people mentioning this one often though! It's a cool thing to see if you're in the area (and free!)

The Jewish Museum - cool collection of older and new art, free on Saturdays

If you want to go to the outer boroughs...

The Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn) - absolutely incredible collection and always showing something cool!!

The New York Botanical Gardens (Bronx) - it's right by Arthur Ave too, which has some of the best Italian food you can get in the city

Museum of the Moving Image (Queens)

Noguchi Museum (Queens)

Other non-art museums:

Museum of Natural History - self explanatory, crowded but cool to see! Awesome planetarium too, if you're into that kind of thing.

National Museum of the American Indian - haven't been myself yet, but throwing it out there because it's free!

Tenement Museum

The only ones I'd steer clear of are Ellis Island, the Intrepid Museum, Madame Tussaud's, the 9/11 museum, and anything by South Street Seaport. All just too touristy and not worth it to me.

Hope you have fun! If anyone else has recommendations feel free to throw them in the replies of course <3

[jlf23tumble]

Top 10 Niche Interests

Fixations? Obsessions? This is incredibly hard because I have wayyyy too many niche interests, so instead of stressing about it, I tried to channel the 10 things that immediately speak to me and maybe aren't so obvious from what I post here, like how much I'm obsessed with wigs, doll furniture, incredibly specific blogs, all forms of clothing with pockets, swimming pools, whimsical bus stops, over-the-top bathrooms, etc. etc Instead, I opted for some specifics that feel a little more evergreen and long tailed, like, so LIFE-long tailed that it's tough to nail down when or how they became part of the national psyche. I thank @alienfuckeronmain​ for the initial tag, and I'm tagging her AGAIN for round two because I know she has a billion additional niche things, and she'll post them, and I'll scream because it'll trigger five other things I neglected to post here, and I'll probably post my own round two, arggggh, insert aggressive sighing. Anyway, I tag ANYONE who wants to do it, just tag me so I can see! 

1. Indoor Trees

I have no idea why this concept PULLS so hard because houseplants are kind of meh to me, but you want to plant an entire-ass TREE indoors, in the place where you live? Me, too, and I'd add a conversation pit plus a combo gold/red bathroom, among other things, and, bam, we're in my imaginary dream home, which I have literally, constantly ALWAYS mentally constructed from the time I was about six or so. (If you're curious, it has multiple themed rooms, and the closest I've seen to it recently is the outstanding Dita von Teese AD feature, but Amy Sedaris’s apartment comes close, too). There are two (2) 1960s houses in Long Beach with magnificent indoor trees, but I can't find them online, so have this modern interpretation and cry with me about how I can't visit the multi-story fake tree inside Clifton's Cafeteria for a good long while:

2. Conventions of Fans of Any Kind

One thing that I don't think I'll ever lose is how much I *love* people who are fans of SOMETHING, people who have a passion and create something about it or cosplay it or simply gather to celebrate it and connect to other people through it. The Internet provides in all kinds of ways, but I'm talking specifically about IRL conventions and the way my heart pitter pats when I first walk in those doors, SWOON! And it doesn’t matter how big the convention is or how random, I've been to smaller events like CatCon and the My Little Pony convention all the way up to biggies like WonderCon and Comic Con, and I have yet to be disappointed. I might know jack shit about what I'm walking into, but I want to see the merch, hear about the panels, and check out the people who are fucking PUMPED to be there. Sadly, I think it's gonna be a lonnnnng time until these come back, but I can live vicariously through my old photos, sigh:

3. Dutch Wax Fabrics and African Fashion

I'm not the snazziest of dressers, but textiles, colors, and patterns have been an obsession that has soothed my visual soul for as long as I can literally remember. Wax fabric marries all three of those touchpoints, plus throws in a healthy dose of style, and I count myself lucky to have seen two big exhibits on the subject (this was one of them), oh, how I wish there were more! For sure, there's a fucked up underlying colonial/imperialist history here, but there's also humor and color and vibrancy, a reclamation of sorts, and multiple levels of fashion that take my breath away. I cannot do the different patterns justice at all, but the fan motif is one of my faves:

4. Hearst Castle vs. Madonna inn

These two fall into my #home tag because they're where I'm from, and they speak to me as equally sublime and ridiculous, camp and kitsch writ large and small, different (yet similar!) versions of Xanadu that two rich white men built as shrines to their own personal "taste." And the irony is that a lot of people shit on Alex Madonna for being tacky (the Madonna Inn is...uh, something else), yet praise WR Hearst for all the high-class art and architecture, most of which is fully lifted from desperate churches between and after world and yet they're both more or less the same concept (lodging for weary travelers, self-aggrandizement, questionable taste-mixing). Hearst Castle edges out slightly for me because it's bigger and has spectacular scenery and history, plus it gives me doses of LA noir thanks to the way Hearst killed a guy in a jealous Charlie Chaplin-related rage and Hedda Hopper covered it up, all kinds of old Hollywood shenanigans happened up there, etc. But I'm low-key an expert on both houses of the holy, I'm OBSESSED with both, and we can leave it at that. I mean, come on:

5. Snow Globes

I had to cull my personal collection slightly just to fit it all on the dedicated shelf in my bathroom, and I seriously need to refill all the water lines, but nothing beats a snow globe in terms of memorable souvenir, especially when you put it in a bathroom. The majesty!!! The jewel of my collection is the one from Sherwood Forest because WHY NOT celebrate a historic place and moment in the basic way?? He robbed from the rich to give to the poor, and the gift shop about 100 feet from the tree he hid in does the same! The circle of life! The irony of all the watermarks on this blessed image...protect:

6. Highly Specific Museums

Look, we can all agree that the more venerated museums in the world are a form of garbage in terms of what they represent, what they've done, and who runs them, but I'm here for the museums that collect and celebrate things that tend to get overlooked. There are too many to list that I love that are still thriving, so I'm going to say goodbye to four recently departed faves. RIP to the Pez museum, I'm so glad I saw you and purchased your stale candy souvenirs. RIP to the museum of terrible food, you were a pop up when Phoenix and I saw you, and I will forever think about the worker describing people literally vomiting during their visits. RIP to the currywurst museum in Berlin, I've had currywurst exactly once and it was not for me, but I respect the Journey you took me on, including obscure east German TV shows that helped make you so popular (??). Finally, RIP to the velvet painting museum, there's no way to mince words, the person who owned you was crazy AS FUCK and had zero clue how to run a business, but I'm so glad I saw you multiple times and purchased my own velvet treasure (not this exact one, but remarkably similar):

7. Liminal Spaces: Grocery Store Edition

Confession time for those who don't know me all that well, I'm a big time voyeur, and nothing fills my heart with joy like a walk at 7 or 8 pm, the witching hour when people haven't pulled the curtains, and I can scope out their decorations/furnishings without it being "weird." Another confession is how much I unabashedly adore grocery stores in other countries and will spend at least an hour wandering aisle by aisle, falling in love with how much everything is different yet completely the same:

8. Agatha Christie Novels:

As a child, I was a fairly compliant reader--I had to read something for school? Okay! For my mom? Sounds good! But the books that sparked the initial fire for me to read something purely for myself were second-hand (probably fourth- or fifth-hand, judging by cover art) Agatha Christie short story anthologies, which were the gateway drug to full Agatha Christie novels, then other mystery novels, and so on. But getting back to Agatha, I obviously loved all the stories, but every decade spawned incredibly good cover art (like, exceptionally good), and this particular artist's are right up near the top for me (I go back and forth on a lot of the '50s and '60s ones):

9. Scopitones

I link my obsession with scopitones both to my love of music videos in general and a shop in Austin, TX, that sold DVD compilations of them in particular, but either way, they're underappreciated and kitschy all in one! Francoise Hardy and the rest of the ye-ye's are my forever girls for this medium, but seemingly every country cranked them out, both actual set videos and "live" performances? If you don't know what they are, scopitones were machines that played music videos in French cafes in the '60s (??), so it was sort of your proto-MTV way to see your faves sing and dance. Oh, Francoise...so moderne!!

10. Cover Songs

I have so much patience and love for cover songs of any stripe, the more genre-bending and/or surprising, the better! My only minor beef is the trend in slooooooooowing down songs to make a point, but even those ones have a special place in my heart if they're effective. Live Lounge feeds my hunger the best, but my meta fave for representing this concept is Pulp's Bad Cover Version, which was already lyrically INSPIRED, a song about bad cover versions in terms of relationships, but then they did a video that was a visual "bad" cover version, with actors lip synching over an audio "bad" cover version, and all of it just worked? The cover for the single is someone in the band as a boy, making his own bad cover version of a Bowie album cover, it's meta meta meta, and I love love love, here's the video, if you're curious. In the more sublime cover category, I'm absolutely addicted to all of Orville Peck's covers, I truly hope he officially releases them sometime soon, but I wholeheartedly support any artist who does it:

[johnesmithiii-blog]

Trump Rant, Research, and a New Job!

LOVE TRUMPS HATE! SHOW ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE! THIS IS…Oh, ahhhmmm, excuse me! I was still in protest mode; seems like the only productive thing to do nowadays. I wanted to take a brief moment away from protesting, tweeting, and agonizing over humanity’s future to update everyone on my graduate work. Recently, I narrowed down my research topic despite the noisy and disturbing outside world. Still, I can’t help feeling overwhelmed not only with approaching academic tasks but also with reality. I just wrote a research proposal for a seminar paper which I’m excited to begin, but it felt incredibly awkward justifying my topic to fellow graduate students and instructors while history as a profession is under attack. Of course my cohort and advisors appear interested in the racial dynamics of Philadelphia’s Grand Army of the Republic posts, but does anyone outside these welcoming walls really care? Not only do I have to defend my research to other historians, but now I must defend history altogether.

The rise of Trump’s America has attacked numerous history-related organizations including The National Endowment for the Humanities, one of the largest funders of humanities projects in the country, and The National Park Service, “America’s Best Idea.” Besides defending these incredible programs that encourage critical thinking, free expression, and diversity, I feel inclined to defend history as a profession. Throughout the campaign, historians rarely appeared on television or in the papers, but if they received a brief moment of fame, they delivered a banal report on presidential politics or the electoral process. Evidently, the larger American public lacks respect for the professional work of historians. They seek historians when they demand interesting facts or entertaining anecdotes, but history is more than memorizing names and dates! Let me repeat that…History, despite the stereotypical true/false quizzes in high school, is more than memorizing names and dates! History provides amazing insight into the past and illuminates modern issues. Instead of examining the 1826 Presidential Election or why presidents use certain Bibles on Inauguration Day, historians who engage public audiences (what are they called again, public historians?) can provide valuable lessons for our civic society.

I hate when my friends and family expect me to recite every Revolutionary War figure or every wife of King Henry VIII because no one cares (gasp)! Why would I spend time studying those things that have no valuable impact on our modern world? Instead, historians can provide unique insight into contemporary issues that affect us all, and I hope to see historians better engaged in political discourse.

Want to know why race is such a divisive issue in the United States compared to other industrialized nations? Ask a historian. Why was the Civil War fought and what lessons did it teach? A historian has an argument for that. What’s up with socialism, that’s a radical idea, huh? Well, some historians devoted their entire careers to Marx and his writing, why not consult them? Historians provide arguments, not conclusive answers, but historical arguments that can be challenged. Historians devote entire sections of their research to critiquing the way that previous historians approached the subject. We love being challenged. We want the public to engage our research and examine our sources. Historians are ready to share their knowledge and engage the public in interpreting their past to build a more companionate and understanding world! When you need us, we’ll be waiting in the archives…

And just like that, I’m already off topic, but who respects organization in a Tumblr blog anyways?  

 I knew entering the second semester of graduate school that I needed to focus on my approaching thesis and seriously consider my interests and passions, but I struggled. I always had a keen interest in the American Civil War, but as a Civil War enthusiast studying in the heart of Philadelphia, I struggled to find my niche in a city defined by its colonial, revolutionary, and industrial past (seriously, everything is named after Ben Franklin). Over winter break, however, I studied Philadelphia’s role during the Civil War and even visited the Union League of Philadelphia which houses an amazing collection of Civil War memoirs. I discovered that Philadelphia played a major role in preserving the Union and assisting Freedmen in their fight for racial equality. During the war, Philadelphia raised tens of thousands of Black troops, created the first military training camp for African Americans, and operated as the heart of the [radical] Republican Party. Despite its unique role in regards to race and the war, Philadelphia lacks a clear collective memory of the war. In an effort to explain the disconnect between Philadelphia history and the Civil War, I will examine how the city’s veterans commemorated the war in its aftermath. An examination of veterans’ organizations will shed light on how Philadelphians remembered—and unremembered—their city’s Civil War history.

 I will spend many hours at the Grand Army of the Republic Museum and Library to investigate how these veterans defined the war and its relationship to race. Did they see the Civil War as a nationalist reunification, a celebration of emancipation, or a patriotic defense of federalism? By studying their ceremonies, annual encampments, scrapbooks, and published papers, I will reveal how they shaped Philadelphia’s Civil War memory. If the GAR posts only celebrated reunification and their military success on the battlefields, then that could explain why Philadelphia lost its role in the Civil War narrative. Unlike Gettysburg, Richmond, and Washington D.C., Philadelphia had no real physical connection to the war, therefore, it was not unique in the Union’s military triumph. If, however, the GAR enthusiastically celebrated emancipation and “a new birth of freedom” for millions of African Americans, then Philadelphia has enormous potential to improve its current reflection of Civil War history.

 Stayed tuned as I plan to turn this research into a smaller digital project for my Digital History class. I am not entirely sure what the end project will look like (map of Philadelphia’s Civil War monuments? Omeka collection? Podcasts? Scalar scrapbook?), but I hope to use digital technologies to interpret Philadelphia’s Civil War memory. The two projects for this semester will conveniently contribute to my thesis that will examine how Civil War historians can use digital history to combine heritage tourism with a critical understanding of the event. Perhaps no other subject receives as much controversy as Civil War interpretation, but how can a digital presence amend the process?

 In other news, I began working with the Digital Library Initiatives Department at Paley Library and will be responsible for digitizing their special collections. I have already begun scanning and cataloging images in the George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Clippings, and I am excited to see the items go live. Although boring and rudimentary, the digitization process makes incredible resources accessible to researchers world-wide, and I am happy to contribute to the dissemination process. This is also my first time getting an actual pay check for history-related work, so that’s awesome! I can’t wait to share the images that I recently cataloged that capture Philadelphia’s response to the 1933 Cullen-Harrison Act (the bill that essentially made beer legal again after Prohibition).

I have a lot on my plate this semester, but overall, I am excited to focus on my personal research and progress on the thesis. I hope to post a (more focused and thematic) weekly blog that documents this journey, but in the meantime, explore my posts from last semester that explain the practical and theoretical issues concerning history. Now, let me resume the fight….THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!