EASTON, Pa.(www.lafayette.edu), January 24, 2008 — Lafayette Trustee Brent Glass ’69, director of the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" yesterday, Jan. 23.

The show’s theme was “What Makes America America.” Glass discussed some iconic artifacts in the National Museum of American History, focusing most on the "priceless" ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

"There's the value to the American public and really to the whole world because people treasure the memory of seeing The Wizard of Oz," he said. "The value, I think, is really important because they are a treasure of our youth. They're a treasure of the story of The Wizard of Oz and Dorothy's quest to find her way home."

He also displayed Fonzie’s jacket from the TV show “Happy Days,” Sylvester Stallone’s boxing gloves from Rocky II, a pair of boxing gloves used by heavyweight champion Joe Louis in a 1936 fight, and an iron tool used by Abraham Lincoln while working as a rail splitter in the 1830s.

"We collect things like this to give people a real experience, an experience with authentic American treasures," said Glass. "People come to the Smithsonian Institute and the American History Museum to connect with the larger world of art, history, and science."

The appearance was previewed in a Jan. 22 article in The Washington Post, “There’s No Place like ‘Oprah.’”

The boxing gloves, Glass said, are signature items in the museum. "Museum collections are important because of the stories they tell and how we project our own imagination and our own experiences onto those stories," he said. The Rocky character had an American dream and went the distance, Glass said, and Louis's story had its own arc of defeats and triumphs. "The gloves are from the first fight he lost to Max Schmeling. It allows us to tell the story of how Louis came back."

This will be Glass's second step in the last few days out of the nation's attic and into the living room. Last week, he served as a foil to Stephen Colbert, of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," who was trying to get his portrait into the Smithsonian. Glass showed him around and used his typical understated manner to answer all outrageous questions. "It was a little riskier than I expected, because he is unpredictable. I was determined to be his straight man," Glass said.

For more information, visit the program’s webpage.