The Object at Hand: Intriguing and Inspiring Stories from the Smithsonian Collections

by Beth Py-Lieberman, Richard Kurin (Contributor)

From Dorothy's ruby slippers to a speech that saved Teddy Roosevelt from assassination, this authoritative guide delivers in-depth reportage on the history of remarkable objects from the Smithsonian's collections

For American history, pop culture, and museum enthusiasts

With charm and exuberance, The Object at Hand presents a behind-the-scenes vantage point of the Smithsonian collections. Veteran Smithsonian magazine editor Beth Py-Lieberman weaves together adaptations of the magazine's extensive and compelling coverage and interviews with scholars, curators, and historians to take readers on an unforgettable journey through the Smithsonian museums.

Objects are grouped into the themes audacity, utopia, fierce, haunting, deception, lost, desire, triumph, scale, optimism, playful, rhythm, and revealing to engage with the emotional dimensions of each object, how they relate to each other, and how they fit into the larger American story. A sampling  

The Star-Spangled Banner Frida Kahlo's love letter to Diego RiveraAmelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5BNat Turner's BibleAn AIDS quilt panel honoring Roger Gail LyonA signpost from the Standing Rock protest A glass-plate portrait of Abraham Lincoln Life-sized model of a MegalodonThe Hope DiamondChuck Berry's CadillacPortrait of Henrietta Lacks
Py-Lieberman reflects on the profound connections between even outwardly dissimilar objects, and offers insight and stories from Smithsonian experts. The book explores artworks, scientific specimens, historical artifacts, airplanes, spacecraft, plants, and so much more, contemplating how each item represents different facets of humanity and resonates with cultural meaning in surprising ways. Whimsical, affecting, and insightful, The Object at Hand offers an intimate and exclusive tour of the Smithsonian collections.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

292 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 26, 2023

Reviews

[MKF]

This book has almost 300 pages of entries for different items and because of that I flipped through it and read the entries that interested me. Would have been better if it was a picture book like many of Smithsonian's other books because I hate having to stop and google an object to see what it looks like. There are a few photos for certain entries but they're not even in color.

[Tina Panik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun, creative biography of items in the Smithsonian’s collections. The chapter headings set a fitting tone for the excellent research that defines each object.

[Keeks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Super interesting but most objects were described on a surface level. I wish there were more visuals so I could see the object at hand but was an interesting deep dive into the Smithsonian. A small critique I had was the adjectives used to categorize the objects were quite liberal in meaning- wish they were more literal and tied back more explicitly.

[Lingonberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs more pictures! Based on the front cover, I thought there would be pictures of each object, but only one or two items in each chapter have an image. Featuring an image of each museum item would be helpful, especially for the art that's mentioned. The stories were interesting, but it really lacks visuals.

[LA Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

2024 Book #16
The Object at Hand: Intriguing and Inspiring Stories from the Smithsonian Collections
by Beth Py-Lieberman
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 (2023)

Objects from the Smithsonian Museums (for example, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Amelia Earhart's plane, Teddy Roosevelt's speech that was folded in his pocket when he got shot) are grouped into 13 themes: audacity, utopia, fierce, haunting, deception, lost, desire, triumph, scale, optimism, playful, rhythm, and revealing. It's an interesting way to group materials and explore their emotional dimensions as well as trying to explain the historical significance. I particularly like the famous human-object connection entries, with stories of how the objects contributed to famous biographies. Unfortunately, only a few items included black-and-white photographs. This book would've been four star with color photographs of each item. I love the Smithsonian, and this is an alternative to taking a drive to DC.

[Wisconsin Alumni]

Beth Py-Lieberman ’83
Author

From the author:
With charm and exuberance, The Object at Hand presents a behind-the-scenes vantage point of the Smithsonian collections. Veteran Smithsonian magazine editor Beth Py-Lieberman weaves together adaptations of the magazine's extensive and compelling coverage and interviews with scholars, curators, and historians to take readers on an unforgettable journey through the Smithsonian museums.

Objects are grouped into the themes audacity, utopia, fierce, haunting, deception, lost, desire, triumph, scale, optimism, playful, rhythm, and revealing to engage with the emotional dimensions of each object, how they relate to each other, and how they fit into the larger American story.

[Laura Bray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished it, but only because I adore the Smithsonian. It *begged* for color photos of all the featured artifacts. The cover had some small color photos, interior had only a few inadequate black and whites.

The chapter divisions were contrived and at times made no sense at all. (Lincoln's top hat in the "Playfulness" section for his sense of humor??? That hat was at his feet when he was shot.)

The recent book about their gem collection was magnitudes better.

I expect better from the Smithsonian

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book great if you have or have not been to the Smithsonian Museums. Author had 13 words such as playful, optimism haunting, audacity and the featured items in the collections the word described. Examples- Apollo Flight. Guidance Computer Software created by Margaret Hamilton, a glass ballot jar, and a stamp album owned by John Lennon. Make the reader want to get in the car and head to DC.

[M Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

It needed pictures.

Also, almost every object was involving in overcoming the oppression of the white, male patriarchy and that triggered me. I mean, some of that would be OK, but surely we did not build the most prosperous country in world history solely through oppression. There must have been some bravery or ingenuity mixed in there too. Did the NASA item have to come from a woman, etc?

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

There needs to be pictures of ALL the objects and not just some of them. This is especially necessary because many of the objects are works of art, which obviously lose much of their impact by being described instead of pictured.

[Collette Mcdonough · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a public historian this book will be right up your alley. I just wish that the images of the pieces from the collection were better. Frankly, each of the museums that is part of the Smithsonian could have a book.

[Deb Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

In agreement with others who have said the book would be much better with pictures of the objects. I would probably rated this book 3.5 if available. Some of the descriptions are more interesting than others.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this, but I feel like all (or nearly all) of the items should have had photographs. As it was, I had to look up a lot of the items to see what they looked like.

[Sam Talkington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot about historical artifacts I knew nothing about.

Book is written and mainly highlights less known “marginalized” communities historical documents.

Slanted but still good.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely engrossing. Only quibble is that there aren’t photos of all the objects.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun. Love the way they structured the book.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have loved more visuals (especially in color).

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up off the “new” shelf at the library because the premise intrigued me, and my interest was right to be piqued. As a casual museum-lover, it was a fascinating look behind the scenes of what it takes to not only research the history of a given piece, but also to receive it, to present it, to reflect on it. There wasn’t a chapter that went by that I didn’t learn something new.
Like a few others have said, I do wish more visuals were in the book itself, or even a reference to where visuals can be found. I went and looked up a few when I felt I needed to, and would strongly suggest other readers do the same.
My biggest gripe with this book was some of the pieces chosen, not just by the author but by the museum as a whole - the introduction, themes, and Smithsonian lens all tells a very American-centric story, which made the outliers that have no connection besides providence stand out like a sore thumb to me. Regardless, every piece held my attention and taught me details and history I didn’t hold before, and am grateful to now have.