January Museum Round Up

Parade - Hoboken, New Jersey by Robert Frank. Copyright © 2009 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Whether past or soon to be present, the area's museums have your Presidential fix covered. So take a gander and soak in the history.

>> The National Gallery of Art opens two exhibits on American photography on January 18. Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans" presents all 83 photographs from Frank's photography book which is heralded as the most important photography book published since World War II. Held in conjunction with Looking In, Changing Perceptions: Reading the Modern Photography Book will display twenty-one books drawn from the Gallery's library to show how the photography book is a significant conveyor of contemporary experience and a witness to historical events. Both are on display through April 26.

>> There are only five copies of the short and famous Gettysburg Address handwritten by Lincoln himself. View the White House copy at the National Museum of American History. The exhibit has been extended until the 11th.

>> The Museum of the America Indian gets in on inauguration fever with Out of Many: A Multicultural Festival of Music, Dance and Story taking place the 17th through the 19th. The festival will feature 40 groups that will perform a variety of cultural traditions. In addition to the inauguration festival, the museum will open a small photo exhibition titled A Century Ago…They Came as Sovereign Leaders on the 14th. In honor of the 2009 inauguration, the exhibition focuses on President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1905 inaugural parade and the six great chiefs who participated in the procession. On view through February 17.

>> Did you know that almost one-third of America's presidents were vice presidents? Learn more about this office and the men who served there in the National Portrait Gallery's Presidents in Waiting, opening January 20.