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Travel Briefs

Visitor numbers down at D.C.’s Smithsonian due to closure

WASHINGTON (AP) – Smithsonian officials say visitation is down at the museum complex this year due to the government shutdown and closures due to winter weather.

Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said Monday that visitation is down by about 2 million visitors since the fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2013. He says about half of the decline is due to the federal government shutdown last October.

Clough says visitor numbers also are down for the 2014 calendar year. He says that’s because there were fewer visitors during the winter months. The federal government was closed several days due to snow.

Clough says visitor numbers have rebounded to normal levels in the spring and early summer tourism season this year.

Last year, the Smithsonian counted about 30 million visits to its museums.

NYC museum displays

1st edition of national anthem

NEW YORK (AP) – A rare first-edition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is on display at a New York City museum for the 200th anniversary of the national anthem.

The Francis Scott Key poem that was set to music is at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

It was inspired by the Stars and Stripes flying over Fort McHenry in Baltimore after a British attack in September 1814.

It was set to the 1770s tune by John Stafford Smith.

The first edition on display has “patriotic” misspelled in the subtitle. It is one of only a handful of surviving copies.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” became the official national anthem in 1931.

Tour of English country home’s

art starts in Texas

HOUSTON (AP) – Artwork and furniture from the grand English country house Houghton Hall are going on a U.S. tour.

“Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House” opens Sunday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It will be on view through Sept. 21 before traveling to San Francisco and Nashville.

The show, which marks the first time the collection has traveled outside of England, includes more than 100 objects in settings that combine paintings, porcelain and furniture.

The house was built in the early 1700s by England’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole. His old master paintings were infamously sold by his grandson to the Russian empress Catherine the Great in 1779, but descendants added to the collection. The exhibit features loans of some of the paintings sold to the czarina.

Gerald R. Ford museum

moves ahead with expansion

DETROIT (AP) – The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids will move forward with a planned expansion after a foundation raised $15 million for the project, officials said Thursday.

The update came from those involved in the project including the late president’s son Steven Ford, who is ending his term as chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. He’s being succeeded by Red Cavaney, who served on President Ford’s White House staff.

Steven Ford and Cavaney said the project will build an 8,000-square-foot student learning center and create interactive exhibits at the museum in Grand Rapids. The foundation will move ahead with design plans as well as the revamped permanent exhibits. The museum is expected to announce a date for the groundbreaking date in the coming months.

“The foundation has the chance to partner with the museum and library to create something very special for our community and beyond,” Steven Ford said in a statement.

The foundation said the updated exhibits will aim to engage visitors “in a deeper conversation about the impact of President and Mrs. Ford on the nation.” The project also includes digitalization of important papers at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, which is located in Ann Arbor.

President Gerald Ford died in 2006 and former first lady Betty Ford died in 2011. They lived in Rancho Mirage, California, for decades. Their hometown was Grand Rapids.

Travel Briefs

Visitor numbers down at D.C.’s Smithsonian due to closure

WASHINGTON (AP) – Smithsonian officials say visitation is down at the museum complex this year due to the government shutdown and closures due to winter weather.

Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said Monday that visitation is down by about 2 million visitors since the fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2013. He says about half of the decline is due to the federal government shutdown last October.

Clough says visitor numbers also are down for the 2014 calendar year. He says that’s because there were fewer visitors during the winter months. The federal government was closed several days due to snow.

Clough says visitor numbers have rebounded to normal levels in the spring and early summer tourism season this year.

Last year, the Smithsonian counted about 30 million visits to its museums.

NYC museum displays 1st edition of national anthem

NEW YORK (AP) – A rare first-edition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is on display at a New York City museum for the 200th anniversary of the national anthem.

The Francis Scott Key poem that was set to music is at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

It was inspired by the Stars and Stripes flying over Fort McHenry in Baltimore after a British attack in September 1814.

It was set to the 1770s tune by John Stafford Smith.

The first edition on display has “patriotic” misspelled in the subtitle. It is one of only a handful of surviving copies.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” became the official national anthem in 1931.

Tour of English country home’s art starts in Texas

HOUSTON (AP) – Artwork and furniture from the grand English country house Houghton Hall are going on a U.S. tour.

“Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House” opens Sunday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It will be on view through Sept. 21 before traveling to San Francisco and Nashville.

The show, which marks the first time the collection has traveled outside of England, includes more than 100 objects in settings that combine paintings, porcelain and furniture.

The house was built in the early 1700s by England’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole. His old master paintings were infamously sold by his grandson to the Russian empress Catherine the Great in 1779, but descendants added to the collection. The exhibit features loans of some of the paintings sold to the czarina.

Gerald R. Ford museum moves ahead with expansion

DETROIT (AP) – The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids will move forward with a planned expansion after a foundation raised $15 million for the project, officials said Thursday.

The update came from those involved in the project including the late president’s son Steven Ford, who is ending his term as chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. He’s being succeeded by Red Cavaney, who served on President Ford’s White House staff.

Steven Ford and Cavaney said the project will build an 8,000-square-foot student learning center and create interactive exhibits at the museum in Grand Rapids. The foundation will move ahead with design plans as well as the revamped permanent exhibits. The museum is expected to announce a date for the groundbreaking date in the coming months.

“The foundation has the chance to partner with the museum and library to create something very special for our community and beyond,” Steven Ford said in a statement.

The foundation said the updated exhibits will aim to engage visitors “in a deeper conversation about the impact of President and Mrs. Ford on the nation.” The project also includes digitalization of important papers at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, which is located in Ann Arbor.

President Gerald Ford died in 2006 and former first lady Betty Ford died in 2011. They lived in Rancho Mirage, California, for decades. Their hometown was Grand Rapids.

Travel Briefs

Baltimore wins grant to continue water taxi

BALTIMORE (AP) – The Charm City Circulator Harbor Connector has been awarded a federal grant to continue operating as an all-electric water taxi service in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Sen. Ben Cardin and Sen. Barbara Mikulski announced Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded Baltimore an $854,130 grant to continue operating the water taxi.

The Harbor Connector is a free service for residents, commuters and visitors in Baltimore. It connects Harbor View with Harbor East and is one of five free circulating commuter routes.

The department also awarded $3.3 million to the Virginia Department of Transportation for two ferries that would be used to connect Jones Point Park in Alexandria, Virginia, to Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Southeast Washington.

Southwest announces summer, fall fare sale

DALLAS (AP) – Southwest Airlines Co. has kicked off a three-day air fare sale.

Southwest on Tuesday announced the sale with fares starting at $49 one way to select destinations from Aug. 25 through Dec. 17.

Blackout dates include Sept. 1, plus Nov. 21 through Dec. 2. Other restrictions may apply and seats are limited.

Some sale flights are on AirTran Airways, which Dallas-based Southwest bought in 2011. The fleets will be combined under the Southwest brand by year’s end.

Federal limits on long-haul flights from Dallas Love Field will be lifted in mid-October, clearing the way for new nonstop flights.

Ansel Adams images on display in S.C.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) – A collection of iconic images by nature photographer Ansel Adams is on display in Myrtle Beach.

The exhibit opened at the Burroughs and Chapin Art Museum on Tuesday and continues through Sept. 21.

A touring exhibit is from the Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences of Peoria, Illinois in affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution.

The collection includes 72 black and white images Adams printed for his daughter. It is part of a portfolio he conceived in the 1970s as the best images from his career.

Most of the images are landscapes, but there are also close-up nature works, portraits and architectural subjects.

An opening reception is being held on Tuesday with a talk by Andrea Stillman, Adams’ former assistant and author of a book on Adams.

Museums bring exhibit on Greece to Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) – Two Chicago museums are partnering to bring an exhibit about ancient Greece to the city.

The Field Museum and National Hellenic Museum announced “The Greeks: From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great” will premiere at the Field Museum in November 2015. The exhibit will feature more than 500 pieces and artifacts from nearly two dozen Greek museums.

Those artifacts include pieces from the tomb of Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great.

The National Hellenic Museum plans to host related programming at its facility in Chicago’s Greektown neighborhood. Field Museum curator William Parkinson says visitors will see the evolution of “Greek culture, politics and economics.”

The exhibit will be in Chicago from Nov. 26, 2015, to April 17, 2016.

SLS Las Vegas to open within Hilton group

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Authorities say the SLS Las Vegas hotel-casino will open in late August as part of a new chain of independently operated Hilton Worldwide hotels.

A Monday announcement puts the $415 million hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Hilton’s Curio brand.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that other hotels in the collection are The Sam Houston Hotel in Houston; Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City, S.D.; The Franklin Hotel in Chapel Hill, N.C.; and an unnamed development in downtown Portland, Ore.

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