A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing. The official definition of Museum by the Extraordinary General Assembly of the International Council of Museums In Prague, on 24 August 2022.

I want to start by saying two things: first, the definition, above, is wrong, it ought to say should be rather than is because not all museums reach the lofty goals that follow. Second, for some strange reason, Michele and I go to way more museums when we are traveling than when we are at home. On this trip, it seems we went to every kind of museum under the sun (even using the term museum very loosely).

On this trip, we started the serious part of our museum run with the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center on the Maryland side of the Delmarva Peninsula.

As an aside, Maryland and Delaware sit side by side on the Delmarva Peninsula. When we cross over from Delaware to Maryland, they are hard to tell them apart even though, presumably, they are different. Interestingly, Maryland became a “free state” on December 1, 1864, before the 13th Amendment was ratified by Congress, and Delaware didn’t actually ratify the 13th Amendment until February 1901. End aside.

As another aside, on the way to the State Park and Visitor Center, two things stood out to me. One is the towns in this area are almost European in their compactness. We drive through a dense town and, then we’re out in the empty country. This is the result, probably, of the town being originally built when most people walked everywhere. But it is also the result, probably, of tough, restrictive zoning thereafter.

The second is nobody has fences around their houses or usable yards. Outside of the towns, in the country, it is especially noticeable with houses sitting alone in a sea of grass. In my imagination, at least, this is because nobody lives outside their houses. They may go for a hike outside or go to the beach, but nobody just sits on the porch and has lunch.

The only exception I saw to this in the two weeks we wandered around The East was when we were at Al and Arlene’s. They built a small patio in their backyard, which they actually used, and, looking up and down the row of nearby fenceless houses, they seemed to be the only ones in their complex outside. End aside.

In Maryland, while loosely following the route of the Underground Railroad, we visited two very different museums that covered almost the same material (for lack of a better word). They couldn’t have been more different. In the rural part of the peninsula, near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center. The Center is, apparently, a Federal Project on State land, and the building – designed by GWWO Architects, a Baltimore outfit that says they specialize in cultural and educational projects with emphasis on quality design that is inspirational and evocative – is perfect. It seems to be heavily influenced by Frank Gehry right down to the corrugated steel siding, with the outside looking like a group of disconnected buildings, both formal and humble, and the inside very much one interconnected space.

The problem is that the displays, though expensive and tasteful in the extreme, are not very memorable. It was so unmemorable that I didn’t take any pictures and had to resort to Google to refresh my memory.

Eleven miles to the north is the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in the small city/large town of Cambridge, Maryland. It is a storefront operation between The Canvasback Irish Restaurant and Pub on the left and The Sugar Plum on the right, and it isn’t even marked on the street, although it does have a seemingly permanent Yes We’re Open sign in the window. The Education Center waa founded in the mid-1980s and is dedicated to preserving Tubman’s connection to the local community and to helping young people see Tubman as a role model.

Inside, the museum is chock-full of pictures, magazine articles, books in reading areas, and artifacts of the slave period.

Of the two, it seems to me that the small, amateurish, Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center is the better museum. At least I liked it better.

Of all the museums we visited, the biggest disappointment for me was – for lack of a better name, I guess, but still sort of jarring- the National Museum of the American Indian. The building, which is terrific and designed by Douglas Cardinal Architect, a Native American – his description, not mine – is one of those buildings that seem much larger on the outside than on the inside, sort of like the original Mario Botta’s SFMOMA.

As an aside, the National Museum of the American Indian was one of Michele’s favorites because she “learned about how the Native Americans’ democratic principles inspired the US form of government”. Where I was bothered by the lack of passion and outrage in the displays that showed all the treaties the Europeans broke, she felt the lowkey, measured displays didn’t put off the visitor, instead walking people through early cooperative encounters and slowly revealing the horrors that became increasingly common as time went on. I pointed out the powerful impact of the displays in the Lorraine Motel at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. She pointed out that people going to the Lorraine Motel know that it is the place where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead, and they know what they are in for, but that the majority of people going to the National Museum of the American Indian, which is on the National Mall, are casual visitors, many with children in tow and would probably feel put-off by displays as strong as at the Lorraine. End aside.

My biggest complaint, however, is the lack of information on pre1492 American Indian societies, and the state of American Indians and American Indian societies today. Instead, there are several big spaces that seem to be filled with, for lack of a better word, filler. One of the rooms, filled with appropriated American Indian iconography, reminds me of a complaint about merchant builders in that they named their housing developments after what they destroyed; Deer Meadows or Silver Creek are a couple of examples that come to mind.

The most traditional museum we went to on this trip is The National Portrait Gallery which is off the Mall. It is also my favorite museum in Washington. Maybe I should say “Still my favorite.” because I first saw it in the mid-1970s and thought it was terrific then. The National Portrait Gallery is traditional in that most of the art on display is standard paintings and sculptures with a sprinkling of photographs.

As a bonus, the National Portrait Gallery is in a great old building, in the Greek revival style that became popular in the early 1800s, that wraps around a courtyard that was the site of Lincoln’s second inaugural ball. The courtyard is now covered with a freestanding canopy designed by Foster + Partners – the designer of the Apple Headquarters, among other notable buildings – and it seems to fit in with the old building very well.

The last time I visited the National Portrait Gallery, in the mid-1970s – more than half my lifetime ago – the feature show was Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year. I was going to say Man Of The Year, and times have changed, but the first woman to win the honor was Wallis Simpson way back in 1936, then Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, and Corazon Aquino in 1986 (even though it was still called Man Of The Year until 1999). Then it was 30 years to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015, followed by  Greta Thunberg in 2019 and, now, Taylor Swift. Times – as well as Time – have changed, and there are a lot more women shown in the National Portrait Gallery now. This year, the feature show was Portraits of a Nation 2022, which featured extraordinary individuals who have made transformative contributions to the United States and its people. The show included, among others, Ana Devernay, Anthony Fauci, entrepreneur Serina Williams, and equal pay activist Venus Williams.

Still, for me, one of the highlights are the presidents’ Official Portraits.

Lastly, I want to mention the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. The visionary art in the name refers to outsider art, untrained artists, or primitive art if you prefer.

The building – photo at the top of the post -was designed by Alex Castro, who is a local guy and was not an architect when he designed the building, which was permitted under the license and overview of Rebecca Swanston, AIA. It’s nice to see a museum walk its talk.

Of all the museums we saw Back East, the Visionary probably best fits the definition of the International Council of Museums. It is so inclusive that the only entrance is by a wheelchair-accessible ramp. It is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets, and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage, and it is a fun space that provides a unique experience.