MOHAI

We haven't been to the Museum of History and Industry for years, so drove over there on new year's eve day. A good time to get some perspective on history, and they had a Arts and Crafts in the Northwest exhibit that I wanted to see before it closed. This old museum is in a beautiful location, near the Arboretum on Lake Washington and adjacent to Foster Island, a popular birdwatching trail.

It was too cold and wet to walk along the lake, but here's a picture of John in the parking lot in front of a BIG bell. And free parking is also a BIG deal in Seattle.
Here I am in the lobby in an antique sleigh. (I didn't break any rules, they let you climb on it for hokey pictures like this one.) Only thing missing is the horse...

MOHAI is a wonderful history museum, and I love dioramas. This one shows a native person glumly watching the arrival of the first European boat. When the visitor presses a button, the projected image of a ghostly ship moves slowly across the scene.
And here's a graphic mural of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 when our city burnt to the ground. Anyway, along with many more displays like this, there were rooms full of historic photos and enough trivia about local industry to keep the history buffs interested. Like all museums, what you see is just the tip of the iceberg; I just got an email from the Society of American Archivists telling me that MOHAI has 3 million photos and 100,000 artifacts in their archives.

The Arts and Crafts exhibit was small but classy, with a few nice pieces of furniture and photos of northwest bungalows before people ruined them with wall-to-wall carpet and painted woodwork. Beautiful stuff. William Morris once said:

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful...