What do a hat, saxophone and candle stand have in common? They tell America's story

0:00Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. It's a talisman, almost, of faith in the United States and its survival. A seemingly ordinary object helps tell the story of America's first president as we mark the country's 250th birthday.

0:43It's Thursday, July 2nd, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR Boston. I'm Ashley Locke. Today on the show, we remember Ethel Payne, who's known as the first lady of the Black Press, and what the late John Coltrane leaves behind beyond his unforgettable jazz. He's a larger figure in kind of the spirit of American innovation and creativity and an American original in that way. But first, if you spend any time studying American history, you know that George Washington could have stayed in office longer than two terms. Many expected he would. Instead, he chose to step aside, and he wrote the words explaining that decision by candlelight beside a simple brass stand that's now part of the Smithsonian's collection.

1:33Today, we're looking at how that object illuminates an extraordinary moment in American history, George Washington's farewell address. Scott Tong learns more about the candle stand with Lisa Kathleen Grady, a curator at the National Museum of American History. It raises and lowers. It has two holders for candles, and they can move in and out, depending upon where you want to position them. And then the whole piece moves up and down with a brass reflector. Of course, this is the only light, so the brass reflector will help magnify the light of the candles as you sit and work. Now, you know, a lot of us have been in museums everywhere carrying what seem to be kind of basic candle holders.

2:18And yet this, this is important. Why preserve this as a defining object in American history, American presidential history? You know, I like to say that museums are filled with the things you write with and write on, and in this case, write by. And it's a marvelous piece when you think it helps us. It's the physical object that helps us remember the farewell address. and George Washington's thoughts and commitment to his new country as he was leaving the presidency. And just, I mean, I'm sure your team has done the fact check. We know, indeed, this is the one George Washington used. According to his family, and that's another thing I think that is wonderful about it.

3:02After the centennial in 1876, America becomes much more interested in history again. It happens around the time of these anniversaries. And so shortly after the centennial celebration, George Washington's descendants, well, Nellie, the family of his favorite granddaughter, Nellie Lewis, who was married to his favorite nephew, contact the Smithsonian. Well, they contact the federal government and they say that they're worried that as the family, as years go on and pieces that they have belonging to George and Martha Washington are beginning to scatter in bequests amongst the family. And they're afraid that they'll scatter to the winds.

3:45Oh, wow. And they wonder. Yeah, isn't it amazing? And so they wonder if the government would be interested in it. and Congress sends Ellis Spears, who's the chief commissioner of the patent office, to look at the collection and make an assessment. Spears goes and he looks at it and he comes back and says, yeah, we want it. We want it. It goes to the patent office, where it is for several years, of course, now at the Smithsonian. This farewell address, George Washington, I gather, wrestled with it for years, got drafting help from James Madison and later Alexander Hamilton. I mean, I kind of try to speed through it.

4:22He writes about keeping the union together, avoiding an overgrown military and the importance of checks in the exercise of political power. There's a lot of big ideas in this. What does that labored writing process, you think, reveals about George Washington? I think it shows how concerned he was that the country stay together. It's such a new country in 1796 still. And he hadn't stepped down after his first term when he wanted to because everyone was afraid that without him, without the indispensable man, the country wouldn't stay together. And so he stays another term. And he basically the farewell address in true father of his country fashion, George Washington is able to say, you're grown up.

5:12I think you're on the right path. You can keep you can do this. But here are my words of advice to you to keep on the course that you've set. Well, one thing I love about this series of stories we're doing on Smithsonian Objects is, as you describe, it looks at what seem to be ordinary objects that reveal big historical questions and answers. And when you look at this, Candleston, what does it tell you about history, about leadership, about the country? I look at a lot of these things and I think about the, you think about him sitting with this, editing drafts, writing down his ideas, and you think about how seriously people took this.

5:57How committed George Washington and others are to the idea of this democracy that they fought for and they want to survive. And I think that's part of the reason the family saves it. It's not just a relic of Washington. It's a talisman almost of faith in the United States and its survival. And it's more than its survival, its ability to grow and thrive. We've been talking to Lisa Kathleen Grady, curator at the National Museum of American History. Thank you and enjoy the fourth upcoming. Thank you. You too.

6:35Coming up next, Robin Young pays tribute to a trailblazing Black journalist.

6:46Two objects at the Smithsonian tell the story of a woman who refused to blend into the background, a wide-brimmed hat that she wore while covering the civil rights movement, and a pen connected to one of the biggest moments of the 1960s. Ethel Payne was a correspondent who reported around the world, challenging presidents along the way and putting the struggles Black Americans were facing into the national spotlight. Smithsonian curator Jennifer Seek starts out describing Payne's pistachio-colored hat that's adorned with pink flowers. I think it is very much like a church hat or a crown. And certainly women at the time were wearing hats and gloves when they went out.

7:28And of course, church hats and crowns are part of a special tradition for African-American women. And so she really attended to her attire. and it also identified her when she was a reporter in a room with mostly male reporters. They had their hats off indoors, as was the custom, and she had hers on. So it made her stand out in terms of gender in a place where she was really path-breaking. You know, it's interesting because we're mentioning church hats, and church hats were a sign of respect for church but also self-respect, and it sounds as if she's demanding that with that hat. By the way, we want to point out that the Anacostia Community Museum is in Anacostia, which is one of D.C.'s oldest historic neighborhoods.

8:17It's filled with African-American history and culture. You should go if you're going to D.C. visit the home of Frederick Douglass and this community museum. I'm assuming there's so much there having to do with Ethel Payne. What is there? You know, text we can read and what can we learn about her background? Yes, in our current exhibit, we make history. We have this hat on view, as well as a press pin that she wore to admit her to the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955. And as the First Lady of the Black Press, she reported from over 30 countries in her long reporting career.

8:59We also have the pen that you mentioned that was used to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on view and a certificate that she received in honor of her journalism career, but also in honor of her work toward human rights. Let's talk about that pen. It was President Lyndon Johnson who signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after President Kennedy was assassinated and didn't get to carry out his plans for the Civil Rights Act. And so Johnson gave this pen to Ethel Payne. Presidents use many pens to sign things, but they give them to a select few. Just talk about that moment. What was he saying there?

9:41Yes, Ethel Payne's biography by James McGrath Morris opens with this pivotal moment, and Ethel Payne is being recognized for her decades-long civil rights activism dating back to the 1940s when she worked with A. Philip Randolph, the famous labor organizer and head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. So she is recognized for that long-term advocacy and civic engagement, and only 75 people approximately received those pens. So it was a very special honor. Very special. We understand in 2002, the U.S. Post Office honored her with a 37-cent stamp. Aspiring journalists who want to do international reporting in Africa can be awarded the Ethel Payne Fellowship.

10:34She died in 1991, but wow, what a legacy she left. Indeed. She met every president from Eisenhower to Reagan, and in that last year of her life, she met and interviewed Nelson Mandela, who had just been released from prison. She really connected the struggle for civil rights across countries and cultures, and she leaves us a tremendous legacy that all Americans can be grateful for. Well, and you can get a sense of her at the Anacostia Community Museum. Jennifer Seek is acting curator. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for taking us to these people through these items. Once again, thank you. Thank you very much, Robin.

11:17It's a delight to share that with you.

11:23Coming up, Indira Lakshmanan explores what John Coltrane's saxophones tell us about his style and legacy.

11:43Few musicians have changed American music quite like John Coltrane did.

11:55Over a career cut short by liver cancer when he was just 40, Coltrane pushed jazz in entirely new directions. The song we're listening to now, Russian Lullaby from 1958, is a classic of his sheets of sound technique, where he tore through chord changes at a superhuman pace.

12:21Now, one of the tenor saxophones that Coltrane played during the final years of his life is part of the collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. As part of our series looking at 25 objects that tell the story of America in honor of our country's 250th birthday, we're joined now by Smithsonian curator Crystal Klingenberg. Crystal, welcome. Hi, thanks for having me. So first, tell us a bit about John Coltrane and how in the world did he learn how to play the sax like that? Coltrane is, I would call him certainly an American original, a saxophonist, composer, band leader.

12:57And for somebody who had a relatively short life, gave us so much in terms of music and just the musician's place in the world to both innovate and orient us toward the spiritual. Was he self-taught in terms of the way he developed this sheets of sound technique where he just played so fast? Part of this is his own virtuosity, and part of this is the people that he was playing with. I think one thing that's incredible about Coltrane is that he is connected to so many other incredible jazz figures that contributed to his development and that he contributed to their development. So key among those is Miles Davis, but also Thelonious Monk, and these artists giving him space to continue to explore and push the boundaries in his own work, right?

13:50He starts off as more of a bebop player, and by the time he passes away, again, as you said, so young, he's more in the free jazz avant-garde space. All right, let's talk about this tenor sax that you have donated by one of Coltrane's sons. It was made in 1965 in France. It's known as an all-around tenor horn. We don't know exactly when Coltrane used it, but his 1966 album Ascension shows the kind of music he was playing at the time. Here's the title track. It is a bit crazy sounding, to say the least.

14:45Okay, Crystal, what kind of techniques was he experimenting with on this sax? I just wanted to point out about that track that like, you know, if you're looking for a specific melody to follow, you're not going to find it. But if you let it wash over you and just feel all of the emotions and the colors that Coltrane is giving you, it's a very different experience. With Coltrane, we all know his unique tone on the sax, and you hear it across these even more avant-garde recordings. Now, the sax that we have here at the Smithsonian is one of three main saxes that he played. It's a beautiful object, in addition to being a hallowed piece of jazz history, and it's currently on display in our Entertainment Nation exhibit.

15:32Well, it's been almost 60 years now since Coltrane died. How is his influence still shaping American music and the American story in general? He's a figure that I think we can look at, too, for a number of things. He shows us how Black music has pushed art forward. We're so fortunate to have these greats that we can look to who really pushed the boundaries. And people have continued to follow the trails that he blazed toward free jazz, toward avant-garde. There's also a way in which his virtuosity is held up as a particular kind of standard. It's what does it mean to try to record or play his solos?

16:08It's technically very difficult. So there's a way in which his legacy continues to live as one is, you know, what does it mean to push an art for? What does it mean to be a virtuoso? But also he's a larger figure in kind of the spirit of American innovation and creativity and an American original in that way. And we certainly still look to him for that. And then on a larger level, just the power of music to speak to circumstance and the nature of existence and the way that music can guide us toward the sublime. Crystal Klingenberg is a music curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

16:43Thanks so much, Crystal. Thanks for having me. That wraps up our coverage of 25 objects that tell the story of America in honor of the country's 250th birthday. Curious about what else made the cut? Check out our collection at hereandnow.org. And I asked producer Will Wackey what object he would choose from his own personal life to represent his family's history in America. He said his grandmother is a first-generation immigrant from southern Scotland, and she brought over, as she came to the United States, a kilt. That kilt was then passed down to my father, who wore it at his wedding, and then he passed it down to me.

17:22and I wore it at my wedding as well which was last year it was the first time I had ever worn a kilt in fact I was changing out of my tuxedo into a kilt as my wife now wife was changing into her sort of easier dress to wear than her wedding dress I was changing into a kilt and we were laughing because my outfit change was a lot more complicated than her I was literally looking up YouTube videos, how to change into a kilt. And our wedding planner went up to me and said, it's not very often that the male in the relationship has the more complicated outfit change. So I thought that was pretty funny.

18:02But anyway, it's a really beautiful piece of clothing. It's very comfortable. It comes with a bag and actually a flask. And, you know, I just think a lot of Americans have stories like this. They have little heirlooms from the places that their families came from however long ago. And I love asking my friends about different parts of their family histories.

18:29Here and Now Anytime comes from NPR and WBUR Boston. Today's stories were produced by Will Wacke. Thanks again, Will, for months of hard work. Today's editors were Todd Munt, Miquela Rodriguez, Michael Scotto, and Kat Welch. Technical direction from Caleb Green and Matt Reed. Our theme music is by Mike Moschetto, Max Liebman, and Chris Bentley. Our digital producers are Alison Hagen and Grace Griffin. Here and now's executive producer is Alan Price. Thanks for listening. Chris has a special episode ahead of the holiday for you tomorrow.