Sound
the Alarm

Feeling creative this summer?
Then go to the Library of Congress
in Washington, D.C., and check
out the exhibition A Century of
Creativity: The MacDowell Colony
1907–2007, through Aug. 18.
The composer Edward Mac-
Dowell and his wife, Marian,
founded the colony on their 450-
acre farm in Peterborough, N.H.,
^{Top: A MacDowell Colony} in 1907 as the country’s first artists-
group portrait circa 1954.
_{Above: Composer and con-} in-residence program. In its storied
^{ductor Leonard Bernstein.} 100-year history, luminaries such
as Leonard Bernstein, Thornton

Wilder and Willa Cather—along with a mass of architects, visual artists, filmmakers and more—lived and worke d there. Now, A Century of Creativity is part of a yearlong centennial celebration, featuring letters, photographs, first editions, musical scores and more from myriad fellows. It offers a peek inside the creative process, as the MacDowells established the first place in the U.S. to grant artists the time and space they needed to create. Many enduring works were conceived or completed there, and several of the colony’s 6,000 residents have been awarded Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards or were Guggenheim, MacArthur or Fulbright fellows.

Ten years ago, the MacDowell Colony, a National Historic Landmark, was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts for “nurturing and inspiring many of this century’s finest artists.” Now, with this wonderful exhibition, we all can enjoy the fruits of their labor. For more information on the MacDowell Colony and its centennial celebrations, go to macdowellcolony.org.

Fine Fellows

IT AIN’T
HEAVY
Overpackers of the
world, take heart:
Your suitcase may
be full, but it prob-
ably weighs less
than the suit of
armor that one
airline traveler
brought on vaca-
tion. This “full met-
al jacket” is just
one of the unusual
items that have
found their way
to the Unclaimed
Baggage Center
in Scottsboro, Ala.
The store, which
processes more
than a million
items retrieved
from lost airline
luggage each year,
has also unpacked
a live rattlesnake,
ancient Egyptian
artifacts and the
guidance system
for an F- 16 fighter
jet (which the
store returned to
the U.S. Navy).

You already spend hours riding
the rails and hopping flights each
month—don’t waste more time
frantically tracking your bags only
to find you’ve accidentally swiped
someone else’s stash of frilly linge-
rie or sweat-stained undershirts.
Happily, the rainproof and shock-
resistant Luggage Retriever ($18,
luggageretriever.com), available
in a variety of colors and quickly
attachable to any wheeled up-
right, backpack or garment holder,
makes identifying suitcases and
tag-alongs easy. Just affix the cell
phone-sized device to a planned
stowaway and click the remote
when ready to retrieve. Flashing
lights and ringtones instantly
point the way to salvation … and
a quick change of socks.

“First Class” contributors include Scott Steinberg and John Tomkiw.