Smithsonian Lecture
Schedule
Thu Apr 30 2026 at 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
1717 W 12th St, Davenport, IA, United States, Iowa 52804 | Davenport, IA
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Between Hope and History: Curating America at 250 with Dr. Abeer Saha.As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the Smithsonian Institution’s flagship exhibition, “American Aspirations”, invites us to consider a defining paradox: the United States has never fully realized the ideals proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence — and yet, generation after generation, Americans have continued to reach toward them. This talk explores that enduring tension between history and hope. The American story is neither a simple triumph nor a singular failure; it is an ongoing negotiation between founding promise and lived reality. The distance between the two has been the very engine of change.
But how does one curate aspiration? From millions of objects stewarded by the Smithsonian Institution, this exhibition brings together artifacts that do not flatten complexity or sanitize struggle. Thomas Jefferson’s writing desk stands beside Harriet Tubman’s hymnal and Martin Luther King Jr.’s handwritten speech — not as isolated icons, but as voices in an unfinished conversation. Sweeping visions of the West sit in tension with displacement; innovation and entrepreneurship coexist with inequality. These selections were guided not by nostalgia nor by polemics of the present, but by a commitment to honesty — the belief that confronting contradiction strengthens, rather than weakens dialogue and democracy.
Thursday, April 30
6pm | Putnam GIANT Screen Theater
FREE Event
For more information about Making History, Making Change, visit:
https://affiliations.si.edu/making-history-making-change
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Where is it happening?
1717 W 12th St, Davenport, IA, United States, Iowa 52804Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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