WASHINGTON — Will Giant Panda Cub Bao Bao be roughed up by the nation’s T. rex? Will Wonder Woman lasso Wile E. Coyote?
Voting is underway in the to choose the institution’s most iconic object.
Round one will narrow the number of contestants vying for votes to represent four categories: science, history, culture and art.
Then winners from science and history will face off while culture takes on art.
A winner will be crowned Tuesday, Aug. 19.
Staffers representing some of the items are duking it out with playful banter on social media:
SITES Wile E. Coyote keeps acting up. Vote for our Wonder Woman to help keep that Coyote in line!
— SmithsonianLibraries (@SILibraries)
Tenacity, folks! That's why Wile E. Coyote beats Wonder Woman in the Smithsonian Showdown! Vote now!
— SITravelingExhibits (@sitesExhibits)
@SmithsonianLibraries Wonder Woman fights for truth, but Wile E. Coyote fights gravity. Which is harder?
— SITravelingExhibits (@sitesExhibits)
Of course, none of this would be possible if the Smithsonian Institution didn’t exist, notes Smithsonian Archives’ Head of Web and Outreach Effie Kapsalis.
She says she believes the Archives’ item in the history category should at least be a sentimental favorite.
“In James Smithson’s will, the English scientist bequeathed his entire fortune, $508,318.46, to a country he never visited, to found an
