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National Archives shows Shaq's size 22 shoe and a dinosaur footprint
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The exhibition “BIG! Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the National Archives” features big records, big events, and big ideas, as well as big men for its big anniversary.
Many of these historic items have never before been seen by the public.
"BIG!" had a BIG reception last night in the National Archives' majestic Rotunda on the eve of its opening March 13. Invited guests celebrated with champagne, chardonnay, chevre, shrimp, and other delicacies including the tallest apple pie I've ever seen or eaten.
"There's a risk in getting too philosophical about an exhibit that includes a bathtub, a basketball sneaker, and Groucho Marx," said Marvin Pinkert, Director of the National Archives Experience. "But there's a serious purpose behind our observation that 'size matters.' Size is one of the distinguishing attributes of the authentic originals held by the National Archives."
Pinkert noted that "every year, more than a million people stand in line for hours to see the real, original Declaration of Independence" even when "every word, in perfect printed clarity, is online" with a click of a wee mouse.
The biggest attraction within the National Archives' “BIG!” exhibit -- drawn from its 10 billion records -- will probably be Shaq’s shockeroo size 22 shoe.
Shaquille O’Neal, NBA legend, makes the National Archives? That’s pretty big.
Seems Shaq, 7-foot, one-inch tall and about 360 pounds, likes to give his autographed sneaks to Presidents. The "BIG!" one, for President George W. Bush ("Bush 43", not Big Daddy "Bush 41") isn't as big as the size 23 Shaq gave President Obama in February (see photo).
Actually, the largest draw should really be the first printing of the Declaration of Independence, produced overnight July 4-5, 1776 -- one of only 25 surviving issues of that first printing. After all, what idea is bigger than the creation of our nation? The document is one of the Archives' greatest treasures.
Another is the 13-foot, 5-inch handwritten scroll of the Articles of Confederation -- America's first Constitution. Displayed for the first time in its entirety, the Articles of Confederation are on six pieces of parchment, stitched together. Congress adopted the measure in 1777 and it was ratified in 1781.
Also, a section of the 13-foot-by-13-foot map of Gettysburg Battlefield shows the site where Lincoln delivered his most famous address. This key section is one of 20 comprising the extremely detailed historic map. And like many of these items, it is artistic as well as historic.
Lincoln was mighty tall, as we know. However, the heftiest President was William Howard Taft, who tipped the scales at about 340 pounds. Tubby Taft’s tub, or a replica, will be displayed along with the 1909 White House order for the massive fixture and other made-to-fit items. Newspaper reports said the tub had "pondlike dimensions ... 7 feet, one inch long, 41 inches wide..."
A century before America's current obesity obsession, "Big Bill" Taft had been the butt of jokes -- often his own -- due to his weight. According to historian Paul F. Boller, Jr. in "Presidential Anecdotes" (Oxford University Press), when Taft was Governor-General of the Philippines, he wired the Secretary of War Elihu Root, "Took long horseback ride today; feeling fine." Root immediately cabled back, "How is the horse?"
Taft felt that his weightiest honor was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921-1930). He wrote, "I don't remember that I was ever President" (1909-1913). Taft is the only person ever to hold the highest office in both the Executive and Judicial branches of government.
A sampling of other "BIG!" items:
-- Radar plotting of Japanese planes approaching Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. "This was very big and it was very noticeable and it was just something out of the ordinary," a U.S. Army technician described radar signals as Japanese aircraft approached. It was the technician's second day on the job, and he had received no training, supervision, or staff, according to a Navy Court of Inquiry that acquitted him of any wrongdoing.
-- General Douglas MacArthur's military personnel file. Thousands of documents chronicle the famed five-star general's half-century of military service, including Harry Truman's controversial Presidential Directive relieving MacArthur of all his military commands.
-- Drawing of Lunar Excursion Module, 1964. Five years later, the LEM "Eagle" was used for the first moon landing -- of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong ("one giant leap for mankind") and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.
-- Map of Southeast Asia with 928 flag pins representing sightings of missing Americans after the Vietnam War. The large-scale map was prepared for the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs in 1992. Today, almost 1,800 Americans remain unaccounted for.
-- TV, with Groucho Marx hosting "You Bet Your Life", "The Lone Ranger", and other earliest television shows.
-- Cast of a gigantic dinosaur's footprint, one of thousands of dinosaur tracks found in Roseland, NJ in 1968. The cast was made and sent to then-President Nixon by a 16-year-old boy, who became a renowned paleontologist, Dr. Paul E. Olsen.
"...Think about the future historians, authors and maybe even future paleontologists who will see something here that will inspire them for a lifetime," Pinkert noted.
But what, no King Kong, that quintessence of big? Neither the gigantic gorilla nor the then-tallest skyscraper Empire State Building is a federal record. However, the 1933 film "King Kong" -- Fay Wray, not Naomi Watts -- will be shown on Saturday, March 28 at noon, one of several public programs associated with the exhibition.
"BIG!" is particularly noteworthy “at a time when many people struggle to see documents and images on smaller and smaller screens,” the National Archives said in a statement.
The National Archives itself was an enormous concept, and took a huge amount of time, 124 years, to become reality. In 1810, a Congressional Committee found that the Federal government's records were "in a state of great disorder...(which is) neither safe nor honorable to the nation." Government standard time (GST), in 1934, Congress created the National Archives
President Franklin Roosevelt once said that to collect and house records of the past and preserve them for the future, a nation must believe in "three things...the past...the future. (and) It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain judgment in creating their own future."
So here's to our past, present, and BIG future.
For more info: National Archives, www.archives.gov, is home to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It's on The Mall at Constitution Avenue at 9th Street, NW, Washington, DC. 202-357-5000. Hours and transportation.
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