Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

Elvis is alive in Virginia

Our Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer exhibition has been swinging since Elvis' 75th birthday back in 2010. Enthusiasm for this exhibition, comprised of 56 black-and-white images taken by the acclaimed photographer Alfred Wertheimer, has never wanned. In fact, the buzz about Elvis has become something of a frenzy at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

A few weeks after throwing an incredible Elvis birthday gig attended by nearly 2,000 people, the museum hosted a screening of "Elvis '56," a 1987 documentary film narrated by Levon Helm, the Arkansas-born drummer-singer for "The Band." It was the first time I had seen the movie in full, but within the first four minutes, I was struck by two things: One was that Helm was the perfect interpreter of Elvis' story. With iconic hits like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," and "The Weight," he clearly understood the soul of Southern music and the culture that gave birth to it.

The other thing was that the viewers weren't just watching the clips, they were responding to the film. When Elvis sang, they came to life. He danced, and they were exuberant. Elvis was their hero. They cheered when the narrator recited John Lennon's words "Before Elvis, there was nothing." And when the girls in the original 1956 footage screamed, there were collective murmurs of understanding as if the crowd too remembered getting all worked up. When Elvis swung his hips aggressively, provocatively, in one performance, they felt the power of that pelvis, even now. In this YouTube-age of anything goes, that was as surprise. 

With every seat in the auditorium occupied by a fan, it almost felt like we were back at the Mosque Theater (Richmond, VA) on June 30, 1956. Here, the most memorable images in the exhibition were shot; here, the girls hung on window ledges trying to catch Elvis' eye during rehearsal, and here, Elvis stole away for a steamy, toungue-touching kiss in a back stairwell.

Some 56 years later, Alfred Wertheimer recalled that the fans screamed, "We want Elvis! We want Elvis!" I could hear echoes of those words again in the auditorium. It was truly the closest many of us would get to seeing Elvis live!

Special thanks to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for their fantastic programming in conjunction with "Elvis at 21, Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer." For more on the exhibition and discussions with other fans, visit the show on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

 

Test Your Astro-cabulary!

Do you know the difference between Nylon, Nomex, and Neoprene? What about the relationship  between a full-pressure suit and a rubber bladder? Gearing up for space means more than donning a special suit--you've got to learn some special lingo, too!

SITES' new Suited for Space exhibition is filled with stunning color photographs and x-rays of NASA spacesuits. But don't forget to read what's written next to the images, too--Suited helps skyrocket visitors' knowledge of astronaut argot with vocabulary lessons sprinkled throughout the show. So while you're stepping in Buzz Aldrin's iconic footprints, you can ask your friends what they know about the development of the Chromel-R covering Buzz's overshoes. Or while you're standing behind a replica suit for a photo-op, you can examine the way the convolute at the knees connects with the Beta cloth covering the legs, providing both mobility and protection from unpredictable dangers like micrometeoroids.

Suited for Space will be on tour for several years. There is also a Facebook page with tons of extras. The national tour of Suited for Space is generously sponsored by DuPont.

Conservation of Space Objects

During the first two Moon landings, astronauts did not have access to drinking water unless they returned to the lander. Starting with Apollo 13, however, spacesuits were equipped with a new accessory: an in-suit Teflon bag with a drinking tube. These drinking devices are the predecessor to today's CamelBak water bottles.

One of the most fragile and unique artifacts traveling with SITES' new Suited for Space exhibition is a rare example of these early drinking devices. Although the device has been stored in a climate-controlled environment since being acquired by the Smithsonian, it has deteriorated over the past 30 years. The object is so fragile, in fact, that conservators from the National Air and Space Museum expect it to have disintegrated almost entirely by the time the national tour of Suited is complete.

So, you might wonder, if the object is in such precarious condition, why is it traveling at all? Smithsonian conservators are closely monitoring this artifact to learn about its deterioration process. After the Suited tour, the artifact will be de-accessioned and studied in more detail. Conservators will take what they learn from the gradual deterioration of the drinking device and use it to improve their conservation of other artifacts made from similar materials. The visible deterioration of this device over time reinforces the importance of artifact conservation and helps visitors better understand why photographs and x-rays of spacesuits--rather than the fragile objects themselves--are included in the exhibition.

Suited for Space will be on tour for several years. There is also a facebook page with tons of extras. The national tour of Suited for Space is generously sponsored by DuPont.

--Robin Meyer, SITES publications intern