Jan. 28 – Mar. 16, 2014
What makes a house a home? Throughout American history, people have lived in all sorts of places, from military barracks and two-story colonials to college dormitories and row houses. House & Home embarks on a tour of houses both familiar and surprising, through past and present, to explore the varied history and many cultural meanings of the American home.
Drawn from the flagship installation at the National Building Museum, House & Home explores how our ideal of the perfect house and how our experience of what it means to “be at home” have changed over time. Visitors will learn about issues of housing inequality, land distribution, and the role of the government, from the Colonial period though the Homestead Act and the creation of the Federal Housing Administration in the 1930s.
House & Home was organized by the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. and curated by Sarah Leavitt, Curator, the National Building Museum. House & Home has been made possible through NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It has been adapted and is being toured by Mid-America Arts Alliance.