Before The Muppet Show, before Sesame Street, there was Sam and Friends, a 1955 series of local TV sketches created by a college student named Jim Henson.

Despite getting top billing, the star of “Sam and Friends” was not jug-eared Sam, whose round nose and bald head suggested Popeye. No, the show’s heart was an olive-drab, lizard-like creature named Kermit, who was sewn from one of Henson’s mother’s cast-off wool coats (that’s him, Sam, and a few other Friends at the top of this article, with Henson circa 1956 or 1957). The original Kermit had rounded feet instead of flippers, lacked Kermit’s classic crenellated collar, and viewed the world through a ping-pong ball that had been sliced in half and painted. Henson lined his creation with denim from an old pair of jeans.

Collector’s Weekly talks to Smithsonian curator Dwight Blocker Bowers about the history of Kermit and Henson’s other puppets, and gives us a glimpse at the collection of Muppet memorabilia on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Link

Believe it or not -tomorrow will mark 45 years since we first saw the USS Enterprise. The original Star Trek series premiered on NBC September 8th, 1966. I case you’ve ever wondered who ended up with the starship we saw in the opening credits, it’s in good hands at the Smithsonian Institution.

The model’s principal designer, Walter “Matt” Jefferies, worked with concepts provided by “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry. In the early stages of production, Paramount Studios constructed a rough 4-inch balsa and cardboard prototype. A 3-foot “pilot” model of solid wood was then built by model-maker Richard C. Datin under subcontract to the Howard Anderson Co. The 3-foot model resulted in the final 11-foot model shown here. This model is constructed of poplar wood, vacu-formed plastic, rolled sheet-metal tubes and plastic.

The model is on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Link

Image: National Museum of American History

Tomorrow is the 72nd anniversary of the U.S. debut of "The Wizard of Oz," and The Smithsonian Snapshot sent us details:

On Aug. 25, 1939, “The Wizard of Oz” debuted in theaters nationwide. Ray Bolger wore this straw-stuffed patchwork costume as the Scarecrow, one of the friends who accompanied Dorothy to the Emerald City in the 1939 Technicolor film. Designed by Gilbert Adrian, MGM’s premier costume artist, the straw-stuffed clothing fit loosely enough so that Bolger could perform his comedic dance number, “If I Only Had a Brain.”

Not shown in this photo is the most troublesome part of Bolger's scarecrow outfit—a rubber face mask designed to simulate burlap. Under the hot lights on the set, the mask was stifling and it frequently had to be replaced. The mask did not last for more than a day—Bolger went through more than 40 masks during the shooting of the movie.

Gwendolyn R. Bolger, Bolger’s wife, donated this costume to the Smithsonian in 1987 with a spare bag of raffia to stuff the costume.

This item is one of 137 million artifacts, works of art and specimens in the Smithsonian’s collection. It is on display at the National Museum of American History.

Thanks Jessica Porter!

See also: The Wizard of Oz items from the NeatoShop | Movie Trivia: The Wizard of Oz

There’s a fuzzy new exhibit coming to a museum near you that showcases the works of puppet messiah Jim Henson. The Fantastic Voyage is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute and showcases some of Henson’s most beloved and well known characters, like Bert and Ernie, Kermit, and Rowlf the piano playing dog, so you can see your Muppet pals up close and personal. Plus there’s lots of concept art, sketches and photographs spanning the entire career of the world’s most beloved puppeteer. Jim Henson fanatics unite and show the puppet master some love when the exhibit comes to your town!

Link image via Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

Have you ever wanted to see the inside of the Space Shuttle Discovery’s flight deck as the astronauts see it during a mission? If you answered yes then check out this 360 virtual viewer of the inside, complete with lots of shiny panels full of buttons and switches! Head on over to BoingBoing and see it before it ends up at the Smithsonian.

Link

On this Flag Day, we have the story of the Star-Spangled Banner from the Smithsonian. This is the American flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. Francis Scott Key was inspired by this particular flag when he wrote our national anthem in 1813.

Succeeding generations loved and honored the Stars and Stripes, but this flag in particular provided a unique connection to the national narrative. Once it was moved to the Smithsonian Institution in 1907, it remained on almost continuous display. After almost 200 years of service, the flag had slowly deteriorated almost to the point of no return. Removed from exhibit in 1998 for a conservation project that cost about $7 million, the Star-Spangled Banner, as it had become known, returns to center stage this month with the reopening of the renovated National Museum of American History on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Read the story of what happened to the flag from the time it was constructed in Baltimore to its permanent installation at the Smithsonian Institution. Link

(Image credit: Smithsonian Institution)

The Smithsonian National Zoo didn’t think it was right to name a baby anteater without input from his mom, so they gave her a choice. They attached names to three flowerpots with different tasty treats underneath – mango (Fausto), grapefruit (Demetrio) and hard-boiled egg (Pablo). You can see where her heart… er, stomach, ended up leading her.

Link via FlossyMatt

This specimen comes from the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian.

When the Depression and resulting banking crisis hit their community, the residents of the coastal town of Pismo Beach, California picked an unusual but logical medium of exchange… The Chamber of Commerce and no fewer than eleven merchants issued clamshell scrip.

Each piece was numbered, and each piece was signed on the front and on the back. As with the stamp notes of the Midwest, it was necessary to sign each clamshell on the back in order to keep it in circulation. No formal requirements may have existed, but informal pressure certainly would have endorsed the practice.

Restwell Cabins issued “notes” in three denominations: twenty-five cents, fifty cents, and one dollar. The larger the amount, the larger the shell. The issue may have been partly intended as a spoof, or for sale to tourists, in the manner of German notgeld around 1920. Redemption would never be a problem because collectors would want to keep these pieces in their cabinets or trade them with their friends.

Link.

Farrah’s longtime boyfriend, Ryan O’Neal, and her nephew, Greg Walls, donated iconic items from her estate to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History for inclusion in their pop culture collection.

“I don’t think that Farrah realized the impact that poster would have on the world,” Ryan said. “She was one of a kind. She had energy and an aura I have never seen before or since. She was magnificent.”

There’s a video of the donation ceremony at the link.

Link

The National Air and Space Museum, a part of the Smithsonian Institution, keeps these very special jingle bells as a part of history.

These bells are part of the harmonica and bell set carried by astronauts Walter “Wally” Schirra and Tom Stafford aboard Gemini 6 in December of 1965. The mission was to test the docking and maneuvering capability of the Gemini spacecraft.

Approximately five hours after the successful maneuvering of the the two spacecraft to within six inches of each other, astronauts Schirra and Stafford played “Jingle Bells” with these instruments and pretended to see a UFO called Santa Claus.

Forty-five years later, they are on display in Washington as part of the “Apollo to the Moon” exhibition. If you can’t go, you can see a lot of history at the Smithsonian Institution’s website. Link

(Image credit: Eric Long, National Air and Space Museum)

These spacesuits look very retro today but were cutting edge back in the day. The astronauts who wore them were national heroes who inspired dreams of space travel in a generation of Americans. It’s not surprising that these spacesuits are among the Smithsonian’s most popular artifacts.

The spacesuits worn by the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts are among the most asked for, and asked about artifacts in the Smithsonian national collection. It is true that explorers of remote, inaccessible, and environmentally inhospitable regions of Earth (notably of the Arctic and Antarctic regions), and test pilots since the 1930s, have required specially designed clothing of various sorts. It is a testament to the extraordinary cultural significance of spaceflight, however, that spacesuits attract far more attention than the parkas, snow shoes, flight jackets, and even pressure-suits and “crash helmets” of Earth-and-air-bound explorers.

Link

Photo: Hugh Talman / Smithsonian Institute

Remember Vince and Larry, the crash test dummies in the 1980s public service annoucements promoting seat belts?

[YouTube Clip]

Well, the dynamic duo have a new gig - they're headed to the Smithsonian:

Washington's Smithsonian National Museum of American History has acquired the costumes and assorted body parts of the dummies Vince and Larry that were used as part of the road-safety TV campaign through the 1980s and 1990s. The ad's tagline was "You could learn a lot from a dummy." [...]

General Motors donated an actual crash test dummy. The Hybrid III dummy spent 15 years taking a beating in the company's testing units, suffering barrier crash tests, sled tests and out-of-position airbag tests.

"He didn't live the celebrity lifestyle of Vince and Larry," GM vice president Michael J. Robinson said. "So, it's good to see him retire in the relative comfort of the Smithsonian."

Link

It goes without saying that the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has some of the neatest collection of planes in the world, but this one is particularly intriguing: fly-powered aircrafts built by famed aircraft modelered Frank Ehling in the 1970s.

The AirSpace Blog has more:

Designed and built by famed aircraft modeler Frank Ehling in the 1970s, they are the smallest flying models the Museum owns. But more unusual than their size is that they are powered by flies – yes, you heard right, houseflies, the insect. Constructed from balsa wood and red tissue paper, the one-fly design has a wingspan of two inches, and the two-fly version, which features a delta-wing design, is four inches wide. In both cases, contact cement was used to attach the live powerplant to the fuselage.

Link

If you’re skeptical, there’s a video clip of another fly-powered airplane, this time by inventor Thomas Fetterman (oh, you can also buy the kit from his website)

Biologists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama are suggesting that the rain forests may not be doing so badly after all. While it’s certainly true that original rain forest is being destroyed at an unprecedented rate, until recently biologists have ignored the effect of secondary forests, which are growing on land that was once farmed, logged, or destroyed by natural disaster.  According to the New York Times, "By one estimate, for every acre of rain forest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of new forest are growing in the tropics." 

Environmentalists argue that this secondary forest is not as valuable as the original rain forest, but scientists at the Smithsonian and the United Nations point out that the new forests could blunt the effects of rain forest destruction by absorbing carbon dioxide, the leading heat-trapping gas linked to global warming.

Farming lands have been abandoned as previously agricultural people seek higher-paying jobs in cities, and more efficient farming techniques that require less acreage to produce food means that more land can revert to its natural state.

The United Nations is undertaking the first global catalog of the new forests, which vary greatly in their stage of growth.

Photo by Tito Herrera for the New York Times

Link – via pajamasmedia

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Most offices in DC were closed for Inauguration Day, but some employees of the National Museum of American History got to have a sleepover in their offices so they could be front and center for the festivities on the Mall when they woke up. 

Before they went to sleep they all watched "A Night at the Museum," and one staffer couldn’t help peeking in to the exhibit area afterwards to make sure none of their artifacts had come to life!

Link