Presentation Pieces in the Museum of History and Technology / Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, Paper No. 47 [Smithsonian Institution]

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Presentation Pieces In the Museum of History and Technology
Margaret Brown Klapthor

Figure 1.––Miniature ship presented to Adm. Robert E. Peary by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Loan of Robert E. Peary. In Division of Naval History. (Acc. 52878, cat. 12185; Smithsonian photo 45992.)
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Margaret Brown Klapthor
Presentation Pieces In the Museum of History and Technology
As a social document, the collection of presentation pieces, mostly silver, in the United States National Museum provides evidence of the taste and craftsmanship in America at various periods from the mid-18th century to the 1920’s.
Although the representative items selected for illustration confirm the view that such pieces often lack artistic merit, the collection nevertheless reveals the deeds––in war, politics, technology, diplomacy, sports––that our forebears deemed worthy of special recognition. And it helps to bring alive some figures now submerged in our ever-expanding history.
The author: Margaret Brown Klapthor is associate curator of political history in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of History and Technology.