David Haberstich's story reminds me of the day I was sitting outside
of "his" museum, the National Museum of American History (for those
outside the U.S., this is one of the many museums of the Smithsonian
that line the national Mall ... it is a rather large and imposing building
and is well labelled).  A family group approached me and asked me if
I could tell them where the Smithsonian "Institute" (sic) was.  I
started to ask them what museum they were looking for and tried to
explain that there were many Smithsonian museums, including the one
they were standing directly in front of.  No, no, they said.  "It's
a large building with big letters on the front."  It was at that point
that I kind of gave up and they wandered off up Constitution Avenue
(going past the National Museum of American History and the National
Museum of Natural History, among others), presumably still in quest
of their vision of what the Smithsonian should look like.