This March 7, 1965, photo shows civil rights activists Hosea Williams and John Lewis facing off with Alabama state troopers during 'Bloody Sunday.' It's one of the images in the 'Eyewitness' exhibit at the National Archives. SPIDER MARTIN/THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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Exploring the American story If you go

Two exhibits in Washington highlights event sin U.S. history. By Paul Sullivan

Date published: 8/19/2006

THERE HAS BEEN so much ink devoted to explorers Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery the past few years that I had begun to tire of the topic just a bit. For anyone who, like me, has OD'd on those intrepid early explorers, there is a cure, which I came across last Saturday in a bit of discovery of my own.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington has the largest and most exciting Lewis and Clark exhibition I have ever seen. It goes far beyond the customary outline of their travels.

With some 450 items displayed, many of them actual equipment, artifacts, maps and documents from their intrepid journey, this really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Unfortunately, I had not gotten word of this exhibit when it opened in May, and found out about it only last week when a friend mentioned it. If this is your kind of thing, hustle, for it closes Sept. 11.

We set out from Alexandria with longtime friends Saturday for a day of museuming (my term) in the nation's capital. The idea was to take in an exhibit at the National Archives, then see if there was anything new to learn about Lewis and Clark and wind up the afternoon at the newly renovated Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery.

There was so much to discover about the discoverers that we had to forgo the new galleries until another time.

After taking Metro into town and grabbing lunch near the Navy Memorial, we began our foray on Constitution Avenue at the National Archives. Our object there was a multimedia exhibit of original materials from participants in key events in American history. It is called "Eyewitness--American Originals from the National Archives" and offers a rare chance for most Americans to read-see-hear in their own words the views of those who had the front-row seats to history.

For the most part they are the personal accounts of major figures--presidents, generals and so forth. But it was the small victories of ordinary people that most impressed me. People like Jeremiah Denton, a Navy pilot imprisoned by North Vietnam after his plane was downed in combat.

Lewis and Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition runs through Sept. 11 at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Eyewitness--American Originals From the National Archives runs through Jan. 1, 2007, at the National Archives in Washington.

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Date published: 8/19/2006