Weekly Move Update

This past week we continued packing ship models from the MOHAI and PSMHS collections, as well as several artifacts from the Century 21 Seattle World’s Fair. We have an exciting week ahead of us, where we will be moving Slo-Mo and the Boeing B-1 plane to the Armory for installation (by crane, of course!).

Monday, March 26
Favorite: Assorted vehicle components from Ford Model T Touring Car, 1913 (1973.5574.2)
MOHAI		PSMHS
94	Items	2	Items
1	Cat #	2	Cat #
5	Boxes	0	Boxes
0	Crates	1	Crates

Tuesday, March 27
USS Rattlesnake, Ship Model (1973.5623)
MOHAI		PSMHS
5	Items	0	Items
5	Cat #	0	Cat #
0	Boxes	0	Boxes
3	Crates	0	Crates

Wednesday, March 28
Favorite: Cigarette snuffer in shape of the Space Needle (/strong> (1992.72.3)
MOHAI		PSMHS
64	Items	0	Items
36	Cat #	0	Cat #
4	Boxe	0	Boxes
1	Crates	0	Crates

Thursday, March 29
Favorite: Pair of ceramic decanters in the shape of the Space Needle (1992.72.21
MOHAI		PSMHS
92	Items	0	Items
54	Cat #	0	Cat #
5	Boxe	0	Boxes
2	Crates	0	Crates

Friday, March 30
Favorite: Standard Oil Co. tube of RPM Chevron oil, souvenir from the Century 21 Seattle World’s Fair (2011.120.1)
MOHAI		PSMHS
37	Items	0	Items
20	Cat #	0	Cat #
5	Boxe	0	Boxes
1	Crates	0	Crates

…a Princess

This next icon is not a place, but a person. Chief Seattle, (often spelled Chief Sealth, which more closely matched the actual Lushootseed pronunciation) may have been the namesake of the city, but it was his daughter, called Princess Angeline by most settlers, who is the icon.

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Weekly Move Update

And the pack goes on… We continue to pack up our collection of ship models, along withe other artifacts that are difficult to pack just right. Lucky for us, Hansen Brothers is on the job. They are super professional and quick and knowledgeable even with all of our special and fragile artifacts. Thanks, Hansen Bros.!

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…On the Lake

Seattle may not be the only large city in the U.S. to have lakes within its boundaries, but we do have a very distinct geography based in part on those lakes. Imagine if Lake Union were just filled in. That would remove a lot of our transportation barriers in the north-south way, and it would be a heck of a lot easier to get from Queen Anne to Capitol Hill. (in fact, there was a preliminary plan to do just that; fill in most of Lake Union, but that is a blog topic for another day.)

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Weekly Move Update

After packing up the B1 the week before, this week was a little bit quieter. Only a little. There were a few ship models, which need lots of care and some Century 21 artifacts. We’re getting close, folks!

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…Moving for the First Time in 60 Years

So much is going on! Our builders have finished with the construction part of the new museum and we have started on the exhibit creation. This part of the move will continue until we open. It’s a pretty big job.

The week of March 5th, we packed exactly one artifact. However, it was one of our largest artifacts in terms of size and a very big deal for us because this artifact has not moved from its exhibit since 1951. Yep, we have taken down the Boeing B1. (Watching this MOHAI Minute to learn more about the B1.) Below is a day-by-day explaination of how MOHAI, Century Aviation and Hansen Brothers prepared this iconic artifact for its move to South Lake Union.

Monday, March 5
On Monday, Century Aviation arrived at MOHAI at 7:30 to put up scaffolding. They needed to make a level surface on the sloped ramp to lower down our Boeing B-1 Flying Boat Plane.

Tuesday, March 6
Century Aviation replaced MOHAI’s rigging with their own so that they could slowly and carefully lower the B-1 plane down. Then, the dismantling began. On Tuesday, the right side wings were removed from the plane and carried up the ramp and into Merrill-Green.

Wednesday, March 7
Century Aviation removed the left side wings on Wednesday and moved them to Merrill-Green as well. They will be conserved by Century Aviation before being installed in the Armory.

Thursday, March 8
Finally, the wingless, tail-less plane was detached from its engine. It was amazing how much of a boat it looks like! No wonder they called it a flying boat…

Friday, March 9
Here are a number of people from the wing moving crew, standing in front of the wings we moved (Unfortunately, the people took up more of the picture than the wings…)!From left to right: Karen Barrow (Century Aviation), Betsy Bruemmer (MOHAI, Kristen Halunen (MOHAI), Allison Loveland (MOHAI), Mark Smith (Century Aviation), Marcus (Century Aviation), Steve (Century Aviation), Clara Berg (MOHAI), Crista Alejandre (MOHAI intern), and Sarah Bishop (MOHAI)

…Under the Bridge

Seattle Icon

Like many Seattleites, I’m a transplant. I moved to Seattle due mainly to vague memories I had of visiting the city with my family when I was 13 years old. I remembered the laid-back vibe, the fun of riding the monorail and the waterfront.

But what struck me 13 years later was the public art everywhere. Seriously. It is like every wall must be covered with the most gorgeous mural, every park must have a sculpture, and  yeah, some of them are huge! Not just a tiny concrete fountain, no our fountains are made to be like a mountain river, rushing down this hillside, then turning into rapids and waterfalls through a canyon. Oh, and did I mention that all this was located over the freeway? I got the distinct feeling that even the graffiti artists were upping their game. Look at any wall on Capitol Hill and see some pretty great sketches, slogans and sticker art. It is magical.

It is in that spirit that I nominate the Fremont Troll for this week’s Seattle Icon. To me, this distinctive and lovable sculpture represents all the public art that is in this city. Much of it may have come from our pioneering 1% for Art, where any construction project receiving city monies must include 1% of the budget for public art. The Troll, located under the Fremont end of the Aurora Bridge, was part of a local response to do something with this little-used space, to bring beauty to a nondescript dead end. The Fremont Arts Council staged a contest for art to replace the erzatz

The winning entry was by a group calling themselves the Jersey Devils, led by sculptor Steve Badane. The artists donated this model to MOHAI, used to convince the Fremont electorate to choose their sculpture from all the other entrants in 1989. The large, imposing sculpture was finished in 1990.  This is the only model made of the Troll.

The Troll is such an icon of Seattle that Helen and Peder made a MOHAI Minute about it almost three years ago. Check it out:

In addition, Michael Falcone and Hank Graham submitted this awesome film to last year’s History Is____ Film Competition.

So now it is your turn: Find your Seattle Icon and make a video for the History Is____ Film Competition.

…In the P-I, continued from Page 1

Seattle Icons

In 1947, Seattle was a changed city from ten years before. World War II skewed the demographics, the industry, and connections Seattle had with the rest of the world. No longer were we just a city way off in the corner who sometimes called itself the “Gateway to Alaska” or the “Gateway to Asia.” We were now actually a gateway. People had come here to get jobs at Boeing or Paccar, or even just because they had been stationed here during the war and fell in love.

In 1947, one of Seattle’s newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was finishing up their new headquarters at Sixth and Wall Street in the Denny Regrade. They hosted a contest for a new emblem for the paper. Perhaps it was Seattleites’ new awareness of the world around them that inspired Jakk Corsaw to design a circular mural of the world. Designers decided that a three-dimensional globe fit in better with the building and new modern era.  The globe is topped with an 18-foot tall eagle, and is circumnavigated by a spinning “It’s in the P-” All of this, continents, letters, eagle, are outlined in neon.

And now it is another historic treasure that MOHAI will be caring for. When the P-I stopped its paper edition in 2009, the city and MOHAI started working with Hearst to preserve this Icon. For me, the globe represents the outward looking nature of Seattle. What else is out there? It represents the spread of information, from telegraph to wireless phones to the Internet, all of which Seattle has participated in wholeheartedly (perhaps due to our somewhat isolated nature.)

Also, I’m a sucker for a good neon sign. With the P-I Globe, we are a step closer to my personal never-gonna-happen dream of a Neon Sign Sculpture Garden in Seattle. (This is my own personal dream, not a plan of MOHAI’s, nor a remote possibility.) In my dreams, the Globe is a bit like the Unisphere in Queens. But in Neon!

Where ever the Globe gets sited, it is now assured that it will stay intact in Seattle. Help us with the conservation of this Seattle Icon, to Light Up the Globe. You can donate here. Thank you!

And if you were unsure before as to how a gigantic symbol of a defunct (printed) newspaper can be an icon of a city, we had two different films contributed to the History Is____ Film Competition last year. Below is the film by Jameson Kelley, who took a more documentary approach to the P-I going out of the old-fashioned business of printing their paper.

Weekly Move Update

We spent the majority of last week moving the Slo-Mo-Shun hydroplane up the Johnson Ramp to the Merrill-Green Gallery.  “Slo-Mo” will be in place waiting by the roll up doors in Merrill-Green for transport to the Armory building during the first week of April!   In other news, we packed a few larger items that will be transported to SLU for exhibit.  This upcoming week will be a bit slower as we set up scaffolding and de-install the Boeing B-1 flying boat airplane – exciting times!

Tuesday, February 28
Figurehead from Iolanda (1955.970.485)
MOHAI		PSMHS
2	Items	0	Items
2	Cat #	0	Cat #
0	Boxes	0	Boxes
2	Crates	0	Crates

Wednesday, February 29
Nothing was packed in boxes, but our beloved hydroplane, Slo-Mo-Shun IV crept up the ramp…

Thursday, March 1
…And through the exhibits. Later on, it will take a soaring exit from Montlake on to its resting place in the Armory, hanging from the ceiling.

Friday, March 2
Favorite: Gasoline pump, ca. 1920 (1963.3185)
MOHAI		PSMHS
1	Items	0	Items
1	Cat #	0	Cat #
0	Boxe	0	Boxes
1	Crates	0	Crates

…Icons

Seattle Icons

Working in a history museum, I think often about the soul of a city, that which makes a place different than any other. Then I stop thinking and play the Sims. But when I am thinking, one of the concepts I ponder is icons.

If I may quote Dictionary.com, an icon is “a sign or representation that stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it.” So by that measure, we will be examining eight different Seattle Icons in the coming weeks, discussing what they tell us about the city and the people who live here. And if you forget where we are in the list, you can use this handy graphic to keep track. So stick around, cause we start next week!