Lost in Translation

This mysterious sculpture is entitled "Antipodes" (Sam Sanborn, 1997) and it stands the garden outside the Hirshhorn Museum. Th...

Commemorative quarters for Hawaii, DC, and other US territories, photo taken mid-2009. Early in 2009 some media outlets were reporting on ...

The US Mint began its State Quarters Program in 1999, issuing commemorative coins in the order in which each state entered the Union. The s...

I've already posted about the National Statuary Hall Collection , but I thought I should follow up with one more statue. Helen Keller, w...

During a visit to the Freer Gallery of Art last year, I came across this 13th-century scroll painting that depicts the art of Chinese silkwe...

"Children at Play" Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, April 2010. Last year I saw this exhibition and I thought these paintings 齊白...

Guide to the Arabic alphabet, "Calligraphy of the Islamic World," Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art, 2007. This pamphlet offers a c...

A holy child writes in a book in this detail from Bernhard Strigel's Saint Mary Salome and Her Family in the National Gallery of Art (c...

Calliope (muse of heroic poetry), as sculpted Austin Pajou (c. 1763), in the French Neoclassical style. The name for Calliope comes from th...

Two poems are inscribed all the wall in part of Ocean Piece , an artwork by Jorge Martin (1995). As far as I can tell, the artwork honors t...

Painting of Pocahontas, after a Dutch engraving, National Portrait Gallery. Known by many names, this Native American woman supposedly saved...

One of the most interesting features of the US Capitol is the National Statuary Hall Collection , which consists of 100 statues (2 from eac...

This painting by Henry Inman at the National Portrait Gallery depicts the Sequoyah (d. 1843), the inventor of the Cherokee writing system. ...

It has now been two years since Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. There was much euphoria in DC at the time: above,...

November is officially Native American Heritage Month - so I'll be including a few postings throughout the month to honor this. The N...

This exhibition at the National Building Museum has now come and gone, but this ad was so clever I thought I should add it to this blog. I l...

Various items from churches and museums in London. This sign for the Chinese Church in London features a nicely stylized form of the Chin...

Earlier this summer I saw an exhibit in the Musée de l'Armée about the work of Jean Froissart , a medieval historian who wrote extensi...

More linguistically-interesting things I saw in Paris. A monument to peace within view of the Eiffel Tower. I can't tell how well the ...

Last blog entry about Paris. Displayed in a storefront window, this T-shirt offers a ironic, snooty twist on the "I [HEART] PARIS...