Vino In My Dino

Food Transforming America: Wine Did Too

December 3, 2019 16:08

An invitation was sent out inviting donors to the Food Transforming America exhibit at the National Museum of American History which was refreshed this year after being on display for 6 years. I had received word that several of the artifacts my family loaned to the museum were now on display in the wine portion of the exhibit. Ed and I accepted and were wowed by the magnitude of having family heirlooms included.

A little background: early in 2013 we were approached by the National Museum of American History because they were working on an exhibit Food Transforming America. The museum found me because they had received a photo of my family at an alfresco gathering in the 1950s and they wanted to include it in the exhibit which also featured a wine focus. The museum sent two curators to wine country to touch base with the wineries who would be part of the exhibit. As I showed them around Paula Johnson, Curator in the Division of Work and Labor, along with Project Manager Nanci Edwards, saw other items of interest and they asked if the family would loan the museum several of our artifacts to be used for future exhibits. We agreed and crated up and sent our precious bits of history to Washington DC.

Fast forward to August 2019 and I received the invitation to attend the refresh of Food Transforming America from Paula. It was such a popular exhibit that they expanded and included more items. And this time some of our artifacts were included! I didn’t know what was chosen until we arrived at the museum shortly before the reception for the donors. What a surprise to see our winery sign, the stencil and my grandmother’s polenta pot along with an enlarged photo of my family’s alfresco dinner. The fact that wine is included in this exhibit to a large extent cements its place as an important part of how food (and wine) transforms our daily meals and special occasions.

When Paula Johnson visited our winery in 2013, she noticed the winery sign which had hung on our cellar door from the 1930’s through the 1970’s. This is the item that really lit up her face. She turned to me and asked, “Would you rather have hundreds of people see this or thousands?” So instead of hanging in our barrel room it now hangs in the Smithsonian's American History Museum and what Paula said has come true.

This photo shows the artifacts we donated: enter image description here