Music lovers will enjoy a guitar played by Prince, an outfit worn by Selena Quintanilla Pérez, and instruments played by the icons of Jazz. If you are a fan of sports, you can see Michael Jordan’s jersey, Muhammad Ali’s boxing robe, and Billie Jean King’s tennis dress. “Entertainment Nation” has something for everyone. That is a lot for one prop from M*A*S*H to represent, but to me, the signpost represents the show perfectly. The human cost of war was something that the show runners never forgot. The series wasn’t solely about heroics or comedy, it was about humanity. M*A*S*H portrayed that reality better than most other television series or movies about war. That is life, and more importantly, that is life in war. There were funny moments, there were serious moments, and there were tragic moments. The back of the sign continues this theme with the simple quote, “ M*A*S*H got us talking about war.” And it did. That is truly what makes the signpost so iconic is that it represented the hope of those characters to eventually go home. The M*A*S*H signpost displays the hometowns of our favorite characters, but it also represented the loved ones and the life that they left behind to be in that awful place. And for many that hope was the memory of home.

Doctors and nurses at MASH units were far from home and performing surgery on bodies mutilated by war. Even after the United States had withdrawn its troops, the show continued to inform debates about the toll of war: What cause was worth it?” M*A*S*H captured the American sentiment about current events of the 1970s even though the show took place in a war that took place 20 – 30 years earlier.Īfter reading that, the context of the signpost changes. The hit show’s dark humor spoke to audiences grappling with the futility of the Vietnam War. The sign begins, “A television sitcom set in a mobile army surgical hospital in 1950s Korea confronted the complexities of war.” But it is the next part that I think captures M*A*S*H so well, “Close to the trauma of the front lines but miles from home, the doctors and nurses on M*A*S*H mixed mayhem with medicine. The text of the sign explores how M*A*S*H followed the American public’s views about war, especially in the era of the Vietnam War. So everything they have in their collection, and they have a lot of M*A*S*H objects in the full collection, was fresh from the set.īack to the signpost, there is an exhibit sign with the signpost that includes a photo of the cast. As with all of the items from the “ Binding Up the Wounds” exhibit in the mid-1980s, the M*A*S*H items were collected by the Smithsonian right after the series ended. The hand painted city names, the dirt on the sign, the uneven post the signed are nailed to, and the dirt on the metal base. The Smithsonian’s site lists the signpost as 97 inches tall, which puts it at just over eight feet. My first impression was that it is very tall! It is displayed on a platform, but it is tall even without the platform. It is in a glass case so you can take in the full 360° view. I really like how they signpost is displayed. Then, in a center display case, the M*A*S*H signpost stands. As you walk the yellow brick road, you pass several items currently on display including one of Prince’s guitars and Kermit the Frog. One of the first objects you see are Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz. The exhibit is tucked in the corner of the third floor of the museum, and its bright lights and brightly colored floor grab your attention as you approach it.

Once the exhibit opened, I knew I had to take them up on the offer. I was invited to visit the exhibit and meet with an exhibit curator after I was featured in Smithsonian Magazine‘s article discussing the signpost and the 50th anniversary of M*A*S*H in September 2022. In this week’s post, I am going to share my experience with the exhibit and seeing the M*A*S*H signpost for the first time. The signpost has not been displayed at the Smithsonian since the late 2000s, so to see it with other objects from entertainment history places it in greater context. This exhibit will have items that rotate in and out over the next 20 years, and part of the exhibit right now is the iconic signpost from M*A*S*H. Entitled “ Entertainment Nation,” the exhibit explores entertainment in the United States from the mid-1800s to the modern era. In December, a new exhibit featuring objects from television, movies, sports, music, and more opened at the museum. In late January, I had the opportunity to visit the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

Mash signpost specs