Kenneth Cohen

So the answer is it can be either. Most of our items come from a donation where we do not pay. People think the Smithsonian is sort of loaded, but we're not. And so on the open market, especially today when you're talking about pop culture materials and the collecting market and the auction market is...

like a runaway train, very few museums and cultural institutions can afford to pay open market prices for these items. So we try to get in touch with people before things hit the market and talk to them about our ability to preserve items and hold them for the American public in perpetuity for the future.

like a runaway train, very few museums and cultural institutions can afford to pay open market prices for these items. So we try to get in touch with people before things hit the market and talk to them about our ability to preserve items and hold them for the American public in perpetuity for the future.

like a runaway train, very few museums and cultural institutions can afford to pay open market prices for these items. So we try to get in touch with people before things hit the market and talk to them about our ability to preserve items and hold them for the American public in perpetuity for the future.

And so most of our items are donated and then on occasion we are able to purchase things on the market.

And so most of our items are donated and then on occasion we are able to purchase things on the market.

And so most of our items are donated and then on occasion we are able to purchase things on the market.

Oh, man. So that was, you know, before my time at the museum. It was donated in 1993. The guitar first appears in Purple Rain in the movie. And only after Prince's death, when the curatorial staff at Paisley Park, his home, came to the Smithsonian and wanted to determine the history of the example in our collection, because there are other cloud guitars.

Oh, man. So that was, you know, before my time at the museum. It was donated in 1993. The guitar first appears in Purple Rain in the movie. And only after Prince's death, when the curatorial staff at Paisley Park, his home, came to the Smithsonian and wanted to determine the history of the example in our collection, because there are other cloud guitars.

Oh, man. So that was, you know, before my time at the museum. It was donated in 1993. The guitar first appears in Purple Rain in the movie. And only after Prince's death, when the curatorial staff at Paisley Park, his home, came to the Smithsonian and wanted to determine the history of the example in our collection, because there are other cloud guitars.

We took that guitar, we actually CAT scanned that guitar to look beneath the top layer of it and discovered that there are six layers of paint and that the guitar's body and neck were built by repurposing other smaller parts, some of which reflect the curves and lines of much older violins, like sort of 18th, 19th century violins.

We took that guitar, we actually CAT scanned that guitar to look beneath the top layer of it and discovered that there are six layers of paint and that the guitar's body and neck were built by repurposing other smaller parts, some of which reflect the curves and lines of much older violins, like sort of 18th, 19th century violins.

We took that guitar, we actually CAT scanned that guitar to look beneath the top layer of it and discovered that there are six layers of paint and that the guitar's body and neck were built by repurposing other smaller parts, some of which reflect the curves and lines of much older violins, like sort of 18th, 19th century violins.

And so the guitar, I think, symbolizes Prince's ability to combine and repurpose styles to express his own unique individual identity. You think about his costumes that sometimes pull elements from the Edwardian era around 1900, right, with high collars and ruffled shirts that were popular actually even in earlier periods.

And so the guitar, I think, symbolizes Prince's ability to combine and repurpose styles to express his own unique individual identity. You think about his costumes that sometimes pull elements from the Edwardian era around 1900, right, with high collars and ruffled shirts that were popular actually even in earlier periods.

And so the guitar, I think, symbolizes Prince's ability to combine and repurpose styles to express his own unique individual identity. You think about his costumes that sometimes pull elements from the Edwardian era around 1900, right, with high collars and ruffled shirts that were popular actually even in earlier periods.

and then he couples that with this electric guitar that keeps changing color and evokes late 20th century pop music but also violin scrolls from 200 years earlier the guitar i think is a statement about how we all pull from the past when we present ourselves today it's almost like the yellow cloud guitars prince's way way more innovative response to retro fashion you know it's you you want to bring back bell bottoms or high-waisted jeans come on here's how you make yourself timeless really

and then he couples that with this electric guitar that keeps changing color and evokes late 20th century pop music but also violin scrolls from 200 years earlier the guitar i think is a statement about how we all pull from the past when we present ourselves today it's almost like the yellow cloud guitars prince's way way more innovative response to retro fashion you know it's you you want to bring back bell bottoms or high-waisted jeans come on here's how you make yourself timeless really

and then he couples that with this electric guitar that keeps changing color and evokes late 20th century pop music but also violin scrolls from 200 years earlier the guitar i think is a statement about how we all pull from the past when we present ourselves today it's almost like the yellow cloud guitars prince's way way more innovative response to retro fashion you know it's you you want to bring back bell bottoms or high-waisted jeans come on here's how you make yourself timeless really

Our Kermit the Frog is certainly one of the first ones, if not the first. Kermit the Frog sort of premieres in 1955 on a very short program called Sam and Friends that Jim Henson led. It was a five minute show on Washington DC's NBC affiliate station that ran in the evenings. There were all kinds of crazy characters in there. There was a snake named Icy Gunk.