"Within These Walls..." Exhibition
Visit the Groundbreaking "Within These Walls" and See the Newly Preserved Star-Spangled Banner Exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® is the sole sponsor of the "Within These Walls" exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. This sponsorship relationship between one of the world's most-visited museums and the largest professional trade association is the first of its kind. NAR and its more than 1.1 million members are proud to showcase their commitment to educating the public about homeownership and its role in the American Dream.
For REALTOR® Members Only: Share your pride, spread the excitement, and learn more about NAR's sponsorship of "Within These Walls".
About "Within These Walls"
The "Within These Walls" exhibition centers on 200 years of American History as seen from the doorstep of a house erected in the 1760s in Ipswich, Massachusetts, 30 miles north of Boston. Ipswich citizens saved the Georgian-style two-and-a-half story, timber-framed house from the bulldozer in 1963.
The largest artifact in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, this 4,200-square-foot house features people whose lives became part of the great changes and events of the nation's history. These occupants bring the past to life for visitors.
Through the exhibition, you’ll discover the stories of these five courageous Americans and the important role their homes played in their lives. See how they made history in their kitchens and parlors. Inside this house, American colonists created a new, genteel lifestyle, patriots set out to fight in a revolution, and an African-American slave struggled for freedom. Neighbors came together to end slavery, immigrants earned a livelihood in their new home, and a woman and her grandson served on the home front during World War II.
Now visitors can once again peer through its walls, windows, and doors to view settings that would have been familiar to residents in colonial America and during the American Revolution, the abolitionist movement, the industrial era, and World War II. If you can't make it to D.C., take an online tour of the house.
About the Star-Spangled Banner and Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History was closed for renovations from September 2006 through November 2008. Included in the renovation was the construction of a state-of-the-art gallery to display and protect the Star-Spangled Banner. In 2006, NAR became a partial sponsor of the Museum’s Star-Spangled Banner exhibition, which features a huge, restored American flag that was raised in victory in 1814. This flag inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that became our national anthem and it is the centerpiece of the renovated museum.
