The National Archives is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and in honor of the event has put together a rather, um, notable collection of artifacts for an exhibit they are calling "Big!" Included, for instance, is a 16-inch-long size 22 sneaker belonging to Shaq(!), and a stitched-together parchment that was the first official copy of the 1777 Articles of Confederation that measures 13 feet and 5 inches long. The fact that these two objects don't belong in the same room is not a subject that is brooched in the exhibition...standing in the middle of even more objects of contradictory purpose and meaning (and signifigance and importance and etc. etc. etc.) you can't help but feel like somehow there's a joke you are failing to get.
Anyway, I wanted to visit the archives for the same reason most people do: to run speedwalk directly to the rotunda and gawk at the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights (although the Magna Carta was an unexpected bonus!). I was geeking out, shoving myself elbow-to-elbow with all the other tourists who couldn't help themselves from snapping away with their non-flash camera phones in the archival-friendly low light. (hint: taking pictures of documents in low light under thick glass at an odd angle makes for a crappy picture)
Once I was able to pull myself together, I realized there were other, better lit things to see in this place. Notably (and I guess this is really just too appropriate for an exhibit called "BIG!") there was president Taft's infamous, 7-foot-1-inch-long custom made bath tub. The information card mentions that people at the time proclaimed it to be of "pond-like dimensions." At 340 pounds and 6 feet tall, the president certainly did stand out among his contemporaries, and it seems that everyone was eager to vocalize that point, making fat jokes and taking special note of the way Taft would "struggle for breath at every step," and how he "seemed mentally dull after large meals." Awww, doesn't Taft sound adorable? Sorta like some blustery, narcoleptic cartoon walrus who could influence policy.
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