Smithsonian Institution

Actor, spy, captive. Pauline Cushman's life and career had it all. During the Civil War, the war widow and mother gave up performing on the theatrical stage for “method acting” as a spy for the Union Army. Cushman briefly worked as an actor in New York City and New Orleans, before landing a role in Kentucky, where she was welcomed into Confederate circles by publicly feigning Southern sympathies. As a spy for the Union Army, Cushman discovered locations of supply routes, uncovered a plot to poison the Union soldiers’ food, and gained access to Confederate camps. Her acting skill may have also saved her life. Caught by the Confederate Army and sentenced to death, Cushman fell ill—or so it seemed. Her sentencing was delayed long enough for the Union Army to rescue her. For her bravery, she earned the honorary rank of Brevet Major. Because there’s no business like show business, after the war, Cushman returned to the stage in a one-woman show produced by showman P.T. Barnum. ??? : National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Frederick Hill Meserve Collection, 1864. #SmithsonianWHM

Looks like a few presidents snuck out of their frames… ?? The Washington Nationals Racing Presidents stopped by our National Portrait Gallery before their #OpeningDay game tomorrow. If you’ve been to the Portrait Gallery’s “America’s Presidents,” these four will be familiar faces: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927) founded Girl Scouts of the USA, which has served over 50 million members for 113 years. The 1948 3-cent Juliette Gordon Low Issue stamp from the National Postal Museum collection features her portrait and the Girl Scout Trefoil. Today, Low appears on the newest coin in the American Women Quarters? Program, a collaboration between our museum and the United States Mint. ??? Celebrate her legacy this Wednesday, March 26, at 4:00 p.m. at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC, with Girl Scouts of the USA and Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Museum. RSVP: https://s.si.edu/4l0815L ??: Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.

Pippin Peppers add color and flavor to dishes, but did you know they were almost lost to history? When Harlem Hellfighter and artist Horace Pippin returned from World War I, he collected fish peppers in the Philadelphia area. Pippin traded these rare spicy peppers seeds with farmer H. Ralph Weaver in exchange for bees, which Pippin used to treat a wartime wound. Decades later, Weaver’s grandson found the seeds in a freezer and shared them with the public. Today, Smithsonian Gardens horticulturists plant a variety of peppers associated with artist Horace Pippen in the Heritage Garden at our Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. The colors are bold and vibrant, a reflection of Pippin’s career as a painter. Discover Pippin’s story and more Smithsonian connections to plants, gardens, and the natural world in our new educational activity guide with USA Today. s.si.edu/HumanNatureGuide ??? : Portrait of Horace Pippin by Carl Van Vechten in 1940. In the collection of our National Portrait Gallery.

We remember boxing heavyweight champion, Olympian, and businessman George Foreman. In this photo, Foreman is hyping up the crowd in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, before facing Muhammad Ali in a match known as "The Rumble in the Jungle." Watched by 60,000 attendees and TV viewers around the world, the match has often been called one of the greatest sporting events of the 20th century. Heading into the Rumble, Foreman had been undefeated. He won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics and beat Joe Frazier in a stunning 1973 matchup in Jamaica. In Kinshasa, Ali won by a knockout, putting Foreman down just before the end of the eighth round. Years later, Ali and Foreman forged a friendship. This photo is in the collection of our National Museum of African American History and Culture.

If you know, you know. Neon lights, televisions, steel, and wood make up Nam June Paik’s “Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii” at our Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Korean-born artist included a mix of borrowed and original footage in his 51-channel video installation. Some collages are inspired by Paik’s personal connections to a state. Others incorporate existing media representations, such as musicals and documentaries. Over the decades, Paik considered how new technologies would reshape the world. “Electronic Superhighway” engages with three of these forces—the U.S. interstate highway system, cable television, and the emergent internet of the 1990s. ??: Hozier, "Northern Attitude" Artwork credit: Nam June Paik, “Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii,” 1995, fifty-one channel video installation (including one closed-circuit television feed), custom electronics, neon lighting, steel and wood; color, sound, approx. 15 x 40 x 4 ft., Smithsonian American Art Museum

While crossing a bridge in Selma, Alabama, 600 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were forcefully attacked by law enforcement officers 60 years ago this month in 1965. The peaceful march to Montgomery was in protest to the obstructions restricting Black Americans from voting—poll taxes, literary tests, and intimidation—as well as the killing of voting-rights advocate Jimmie Lee Jackson. Scenes of the violent confrontation interrupted television programs across the nation, sparking greater public outrage. On March 21, 1965, Selma captured headlines again when Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators on a four-day march that finished on the steps of the capitol in Montgomery. The commitment of these protestors in Selma accelerated the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act five months later. ?? Collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture ? 1965 Spider Martin

The 100th woman in space: Emily Calandrelli. She didn't go alone. ?? The engineer, author, and TV host honored the previous 99 women who'd been to space by bringing their photos along on her mission. But there are some women whose pictures are not on Calandrelli's paper. Unofficially known as the Mercury 13, these women pilots aced the same astronaut tests NASA gave to its original Mercury astronauts in 1961, but most never made it to space. Our Sidedoor podcast explores the accomplishments and challenges of the Mercury 13 with Calandrelli and Margaret Weitekamp, chair of the space history department at our National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. s.si.edu/4iD3hB5

?? Smithsonian saucer magnolia peak bloom: March 20 - March 23 ?? Located in the Enid A. Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle, our saucer magnolias are part of our Smithsonian Gardens’ Tree Collection. Their blooms are pinkish purple on the outside and white on the inside. While cherry blossoms have smaller, clustered flowers, saucer magnolias have cup-shaped ones, with nine petals each.

This invention didn’t just suck. It ~vacuumed~ With spring cleaning right around the corner, we’re throwing it back to this 1908 Hoover vacuum cleaner in our National Museum of American History. The electrical sweeper was designed by Ohio janitor James Murray Spangler. The machine featured a fan that vacuumed and pushed air into a dust bag. Rings on the bottom of the unit to protect the carpet from being pulled into the fan. To manufacture his invention as a product, Spangler assigned the patent to William H. Hoover, founder of the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. Hoover's company was not alone in selling electric cleaning solutions, but its marketing team was topnotch. The business arranged free, in-home trials and demonstrations by trained salespeople.