6 December 2008
The Library of Congress – Exploring the Early Americas
The Heavens and Time – Coiled Stone Rattlesnake with Day Sign
Created by the Aztecs -1400-1521
This basalt sculpture created by the Aztecs is a cylindrical shaped representation of a rattlesnake that is coiled up in a circle. The head of the serpent rests at the top of the sculpture. On the underside of the rattlesnake (not visible unless you flip it over) is a carving of a rabbit and a circle side by side. The entire sculpture is about two feet tall and one foot wide.
This Coiled Rattlesnake with Day Sign shows how the Aztecs respected and idolized other living creatures enough to use them as a basis of their calendar. The rattlesnake represents one of the months in a year, and the rabbit symbolizes the number eight. The circle next to the rabbit is a symbol for the number one, so the circle and the rabbit together may represent the eighteenth day of the month that the rattlesnake stands for. This sculpture shows the not only the sculpting talents of the Aztecs but also their respect for animals.
1507 World Map
This map, created by Waldeseemüller in 1507, is a map of the world according to the Europeans. The map was printed on twelve separate sheets of woodblock and pushed together to form one giant map whose dimensions could range anywhere from 8-10feet wide and 5-8 feet tall.
This is an extremely important map because it is the first map to coin the name ‘America’ for North America after it was discovered by Columbus. It was previously believed that sailing across the Atlantic would take the Europeans to Asia, so the fact that the map is the first to recognize America and the Pacific Ocean is what makes it so important.
A Different View of Conquest
“True History of Spanish Conquest” by Bernal Diaz del Castillo in 1522
This exhibit was a collection of notes written by Spanish soldiers. The notes discuss Spain’s conquest of the Aztecs from the vantage point of the Spanish soldiers.
The notes reveal the arrogance of the Spanish soldiers as they clearly stated how the Aztecs were an inferior race that needed to be civilized by the ‘superior’ Spaniards. They completely disregarded the facts that the Aztecs calendar was extremely accurate and that their culture and society were developed relatively well.
The Air and Space Museum – Space: Our Journey to Our Future
The Hubble Space Telescope
The exhibit for the Hubble Space Telescope was a giant poster with an interactive video that showed pictures that the telescope took as well as short clips that gave info on the telescope. It discusses the various wavelengths of light that the Hubble detects as well as what scientists have used Hubble to look at.
Hubble was launched in 1990 and has long outlived its expected lifetime and is still in use today. The main reason Hubble has been so successful is because it does not have to look through the Earth’s atmosphere. Turbulence in the atmosphere causes the resolution of objects being viewed to be much worse than when it is outside of it. The Hubble has been one of the greatest engineering achievements by NASA ever.
The Sawes Webb Space Telescope
Like the Hubble exhibit, this exhibit also consisted of a poster and interactive video. It discusses the future missions of the telescope and what it will be looking at.
The proposed launch for this telescope is in 2013. The telescope will look at celestial bodies in the infrared wavelength and analyze theories about the Big Bang and the cooling of galaxies. This telescope will be an improvement on Hubble as we have had over 15 years to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Hubble and managed to correct for them.
Orion Rocket – The Constellation Program
The exhibit consists of a poster and model of the rocket that will launch to the space station and eventually the moon.
Another future mission, this rocket is supposed to launch no later than 2015. It will take six astronauts to the space station and eventually the moon. The main purpose of this mission is to learn more about our present moon and therefore discover more clues about its past.
General Review:
Both the Air and Space Museum and the Library of Congress did a very good job in explaining the exhibits and giving out information that is both interesting and easy to understand. They both offered a little bit of background information so as to give the visitor some insight on the subject but at the same time not confuse them. The environments of both places are what stood out as the biggest difference between them. The Library of Congress had a general feeling of appreciation for the past while the Air and Space Museum was filled with more excitement and questioning of the future and all that we have yet to discover.