Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_8629,size=350,left]C. Malcolm Watkins was an unlikely revolutionary; nevertheless, he would lead a vanguard of curators who brought African American history into the Smithsonian in the 1960s and 1970s. C. Malcolm Watkins, Smithsonian curator and cultural historian, brought African American history into the Smithsonian in the 1960s and 1970s. Attentive
Description: On May 16, 1929, an exhibition of American Negro Artists opened on the ground floor of the Smithsonian’s US National Museum building. The exhibition featured fifty-one works by twenty-seven black sculptors and painters who won a juried competition sponsored by the Harmon Foundation.1Though the work selected remained distant from the most radical new work being created by
Description: [caption id="attachment_541" align="alignleft" width="144" caption="Inscription inside Lincoln's watch, by Hugh Talman, 2009, National Museum of American History"][/caption] Does photography always report on the past? Recently, as part of the Lincoln Bicentennial celebration, the Smithsonian took a closer look at a rare Lincoln object that possessed a secret message.