For the john and Mabel Ringling museum of art in sarasota and the Sir John Museum in london. The lost world of James Smithson was her first book, and she resides in new york. So please welcome heather ewing. [applause] heather thanks for having me. Can you all hear me . Wonderful. It is really a pleasure to be here. And i very much look forward to speaking and meeting with you all afterwards. I just wanted to let you know that i will be bowing to you i am not shaking hands, per our current instruction. I encourage you all to do the same. Anyway, i wanted to thank you all very much for having me. It is a pleasure to be here to talk about this topic that i care about so much. And so, here we go. You all know the smithsonian well as the keeper of many of the most iconic objects of american culture. And, i thought i would run through a bunch of them. Dorothys ruby slippers, of course. Charles lindberghs spirit of st. Louis. Soon after i to the smithsonian. Abraham lincolns top hat. And, si
Museum in london. The lost world of James Smithson was her first book and she resides in new york. Please welcome heather ewing. [applause] heather thanks for having me. Can you all hear me . Wonderful. It is really a pleasure to be here. I very much look forward to speaking and meeting with you all afterwards. I just wanted to let you know i will be bowing to you and not shaking hands per our current instructions. I encourage you all to do the same. Anyway, i wanted to thank you all very much for having me. It is a pleasure to be here to talk about this topic that i care about so much. And so, here we go. You all know the smithsonian well as the keeper of many of the most iconic objects of american culture. And, i thought i would run through a bunch of them. Dorothys ruby slippers, of course. Charles lindberghs spirit of st. Louis. Abraham lincolns top hat. Since we are here in baltimore, this is the starspangled banner. Soon after it came to the smithsonian where it was conserved for
You know, id always heard a little bit about the lusitania, but i didnt really realize that there was a human drama at the core of that story as poignant, as moving as anything youd find with the titanic, but also that it was a story which had deep political ramifications. It was a story of an event which really changed the nature of warfare. Cspan the titanic was sunk in 1912. Guest thats right, just three years earlier. Cspan the lusitania was owned by what company . Guest it was owned by the Cunard Company. Shed been built up in scotland, on the river clyde, by the john brown company, launched 1906, made her Maiden Voyage 1907, and really was the technological marvel of her age. It wasnt just that she was a uniquely beautiful, elegant ship, with suites and public rooms, you know, modeled on the grand palaces of europe, like versailles and fontainebleau. She was also very technological advanced. She had revolutionary turbine engines. This was a ship that could cut through the atlanti
Including digging the trenches, which came out in hardcover in 2008. He was recently given the prestigious honor of being named a fellow he will be sharing onh us today his work archaeology. Welcome andrew robertshaw. [applause] good morning come everybody. Thank you very much for the invitation. Thank you very much for coming out today. I hope to make this interesting. I want to look at a number of things. A new discipline of archaeological i will field archaeological battlefield archaeology. Individuals on found in 2005. I want to start with a joke. Doing british way of things. I was asked to give a talk to a society of genealogists. They take themselves terribly seriously. Thes why im a member of society of family historians. The story i told them was based on the 1920s. The british comedian named max miller. When he was about 22, he went and saidsaw his father i want to marry miss green. His dad said you can marry her. I had a bicycle and i got around a bit. She might be your siste
Brought back from his service in germany when he served in the american military. The song is wooden heart. Some of you remember as a german marching song. So weve identified our soldier. We knew about his brother. Wed seen memorials. We wanted to try and find the family to get the photograph. Wed done it before so why not . Why wouldnt it work . We went to find where the family had lived. We knew the address. His father was an electrician. His mother ran a tobacconist. When we got there, there was nothing at all. It was a memorial park. We walked over to look at the black for the memorial park. It said it was a memorial for allied bombing in 1943, that wiped out the entire city block. Thats why there was no family. But it was one final twist to the story. Do i remember i mentioned that leopold was about 23, a real artist. He was a corporal. We knew that from his collar dogs. He was also a recipient of the iron cross 2nd class in the list regiment, the 16th bavarian reserve regiment. G