Smithsonian Lecture

Between Hope and History: Curating America at 250

with Dr. Abeer Saha

As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the Smithsonian Institution’s flagship exhibition, “American Aspirations”, invites us to consider a defining paradox: the United States has never fully realized the ideals proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence — and yet, generation after generation, Americans have continued to reach toward them. This talk explores that enduring tension between history and hope. The American story is neither a simple triumph nor a singular failure; it is an ongoing negotiation between founding promise and lived reality. The distance between the two has been the very engine of change.

But how does one curate aspiration? From millions of objects stewarded by the Smithsonian Institution, this exhibition brings together artifacts that do not flatten complexity or sanitize struggle. Thomas Jefferson’s writing desk stands beside Harriet Tubman’s hymnal and Martin Luther King Jr.’s handwritten speech — not as isolated icons, but as voices in an unfinished conversation. Sweeping visions of the West sit in tension with displacement; innovation and entrepreneurship coexist with inequality. These selections were guided not by nostalgia nor by polemics of the present, but by a commitment to honesty — the belief that confronting contradiction strengthens, rather than weakens dialogue and democracy.

Finally, in fractured times, the exhibition asks a civic question: How do we create a space where every American can see a part of themselves? Perhaps, the answer lies not in consensus, but in shared dreams. By presenting objects that embody the pursuits of liberty, hope, freedom, fairness, progress, democracy, and new horizons, American Aspirations becomes less a story about agreement and more an invitation to participate in the next chapter of the nation’s becoming. It suggests that what has made America, America, is the persistent act of reaching.

Thursday, April 30
6pm  |  Putnam GIANT Screen Theater
FREE Event

About the Speaker

Dr. Abeer Saha is the Merrill Family Secretarial Scholar & Curator in the Division of Work and Industry at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Dr. Saha received his PhD in History and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia. His primary fields of research include science and technology studies, global environmental history, and agriculture in the twentieth century. His engineering background continues to inform his scholarship and curatorial work in public history.

In July 2023, he curated the exhibition, “Reconstructing Weatherbreak: Geodesic Domes in an Age of Extreme Weather” which was featured on CBS, the Weather Channel, and “The New York Times”, amongst other media outlets.

In his time at the Smithsonian, Dr. Saha has striven to make the historic engineering collections of drawings and artifacts at the NMAH more accessible to the general public. He has done so by adding over a thousand engineering photographs to the Smithsonian collections database (collections.si.edu), responding to hundreds of public queries, and shedding light on the vast technology collections in the museum’s care at academic symposiums and conferences around the world.

He is currently working on a book provisionally titled, “Animal Factory: Industrial Feedlots in the Twentieth Century US.” His academic research has also been featured on a recent PBS docuseries called “Human Footprint,” on the Smithsonian Institution’s podcast “Sidedoor,” and also on Fox Weather.

Dr. Saha’s collecting centers on documenting the relationship between humans, technology, and the natural world.

Making History, Making Change

The “Making History, Making Change” Lecture Series is a national collaboration between the Smithsonian and 25 Smithsonian Affiliate organizations, featuring expert-led talks that explore the people, moments, and ideals that have shaped—and continue to shape—the American experience.

The “Making History, Making Change” Lecture Series is organized by Smithsonian Affiliations as part of the Smithsonian’s “Our Shared Future: 250.” It is supported in part by the Dreier Family, Johanna and Ken Kim Family, Vaishali Shah Chadha and Family, and Michael Vu & Meridel Bulle-Vu.

For more information about Making History, Making Change, visit:
https://affiliations.si.edu/making-history-making-change