I went to the New Newseum in DC last week. Impressive building and location, with a great view of the Capitol. Some amazing news-related displays, including Don Bole’s car, and the TV antenna from the top of the World Trade Center. In the 911 display, they had a tribute to a photographer who died when the second tower fell. His crushed cameras were on display - pretty heart-wrenching. Anyone else been there?
I haven’t been yet, but I’d love to go. History of media is a professional interest of mine, and I’ve been waiting for quite some time for this. We’ll probably take a weekend to go down to see it.
Robin
Wasn’t there some sort of movement to boycott the opening for some reason?
I went last month with my son’s class, and I wasn’t looking forward to it (fretting over all the Smithsonians we could have gone to instead) but it turned out to be really neat. It was still unfinished so a lot of stuff wasn’t opened yet, like the section with Pulitzer prize-winning photographs, which I would have liked to have seen.
I liked the display of the front pages of newspapers from all over the world on Sept 12, 2001. And there’s a long wall displaying today’s front page from one newspaper in every state and from newspapers in lots of different countries.
OK, who is Don Bole, and why would his car be on display? (My Google search came up empty.)
Because I’m a moron. It’s Bolles:Don Bolles - Wikipedia
I used to work directly across the street from the Newseum (back when it was in Roslyn, VA), and would head over there all the time. I haven’t been to DC in a few years, so never made it to the new location, but imagine it’s just as great. Man I miss that place!
Some photos:
When I was a junior in college, one of our journalism professors took a group of us to DC to visit his friend at USA Today and the Newseum. I remember thinking it was pretty cool, and inspiring (this was pre-9/11).
Oddly enough, the only specific thing I remember was that I purchased a small ashtray with a licensed Yellow Submarine picture on the bottom from their gift shop. This was my “main” ashtray when I was still smoking, and it always amused me that I had to go to a news museum in DC to get myself a decent Beatles ashtray.