When: closing February 6, 2019
I think the Smithsonian must have changed the closing date for this Archives Center display, as I saw it in my mad rush to see as much as possible before the shutdown, when I was trying to see everything I could that was closing in January. [Spoiler alert: I managed to see all the shows closing this month!] This is now scheduled to run until early February, so I hope there will be plenty of time to see it.
I know Archives displays are not everyone's cup of tea; I'm frequently the only person looking at them, even when the museum is crowded with school groups and families. But, having worked in libraries for 30 years now (how can this be?!?) I have a great fondness for the displays that librarians and archivists put on, so I make a point of going to see them.
Are they all fascinating? Well, no. Some of them only an archivist could love. But sometimes, they are pretty good, and this is one of those times. If you've ever rolled your eyes at an inspirational poster, and you think nothing could be more annoying than a Jonathan Livingston Seagull picture, you ain't seen nothing yet.
The 1920s were the heyday of these hangable bromides; work hard, pay attention to detail, care about the quality of your work - and you will get ahead. In 1929, that was revealed to be a questionable assumption at best, and the posters disappeared. Not that I have anything against hard work, attention to detail or caring about quality. I care about those things a lot. But I'm also a cynic, and looking at these made my eyes roll so far back in my head, I was afraid they would never roll forward.
In particular, I noticed one of a series of posters with the sayings of a fictional salesman, Bill Jones. Jones advised workers to keep their nose to the grindstone and never slip up in what were called his words of wisdom. One of them went: "Mistakes in every language cost money / The more interest, the less mistakes." I would have been more willing to follow his advice, if he hadn't made a mistake in the English language in his own poster! It's "fewer" mistakes Bill, not "less."
Verdict: Lots of fun, even (or perhaps especially) if you don't like motivational posters.
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