Publications
The list of selected staff publications may be searched by keyword or author and can be sorted by year.
A brief history of the pharmacy collections at the Smithsonian Institution.
This brochure, based on an 1875 panoramic photo, provides a brief history of the design of the National Mall.
A day-by-day account of adversity and triumph during construction of the first telegraph line in 1844. Midway between Washington and Baltimore, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail set up a telegraph station and sent the first practical messages and news bulletins by wire.
A brief history of recreation vehicles, including house cars, tent trailers, and house trailers.
The article examines the democratization of the closed car in the 1920s and Fisher Body Corporation's role in supplying closed bodies in huge quantities and varied styles. It looks at design changes, manufacturing changes, and aspects of consumer demand that explain the soaring popularity of the closed car.
An account of an 1881 collision involving Rutherford B. Hayes and his family.
A study of curb space, efforts to control it, and effects on central business districts. Cities installed parking meters in the 1930s to relieve congestion and increase revenue; motorists and storekeepers mounted a brief, intense legal battle.
A look at motor vehicle innovations by airplane pioneer Glenn Curtiss, including lightweight car-trailer combinations
that led to the establishment of a recreational house trailer industry.
A history of the Fisher Brothers and Fisher Body Corporation, an automobile body manufacturing firm that supplied General Motors and helped to popularize the luxurious closed car in the 1920s.
A study of George Selden's 1895 patent on the automobile and the control that he exercised over the early automobile manufacturing industry.
A description of the Special Service Division, the Army's equivalent of the USO. Talented soldiers organized stage
shows, sports activities, canteens, movies, and other morale programs for soldiers near battle fronts.
A history of recreation vehicles since 1900 with emphasis on self-propelled units and adaptations of motor vehicles. Explores motorists' innovations, furnishings, family vacation travel and domestic life, and early RV manufacturing.
This article examines small-town railroad stations reinterpreted in a moderne, streamlined style by Lester Tichy,
chief architect for Raymond Loewy.
Hidden within the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History is an astonishing group of historical relics, many of which never before have been displayed. These seemingly ordinary objects, gathered by generations of collectors, embody sometimes humorous but often poignant stories about extraordinary moments in our shared past.
Souvenir Nation presents more than fifty artifacts--from a shard of Plymouth Rock chisleled off by an overzealous nineteenth-century tourist to the magnifying glass used to examine the infamous hanging chads of the 2000 presidential election. Readers will discover the stories behind the dish towel-turned-flag of truce that ended the Civil War, Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fireside Chat microphones, and the chairs that seated Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy during America's first televised presidential debate--not to mention a curious pair of framed specimens known as the Hair of the Presidents and the Hair of Persons of Distinction.
Curator William L. Bird describes how each of these eccentric objects found a home at the Smithsonian and offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the museum. Strikingly photogra[phed, the souvenirs in thie ecletic trove are signposts to a uniquely American narrative, revealing who we are through the things we have saved.
Hidden within the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History is an astonishing group of historical relics, many of which never before have been displayed. These seemingly ordinary objects, gathered by generations of collectors, embody sometimes humorous but often poignant stories about extraordinary moments in our shared past.
Souvenir Nation presents more than fifty artifacts--from a shard of Plymouth Rock chiseled off by an over-zealous nineteenth-century tourist to the magnifying glass used to examine the infamous hanging chads of the 2000 presidential election. Readers will discover the stories behind the dish towel-turned-flag of truce that ended the Civil War, Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fireside Chat microphones, and the chairs that seated Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy during America's first televised presidential debate--not to mention a curious pair of framed specimens known as the Hair of the Presidents and the Hair of Persons of Distinction.
Curator William L. Bird, Jr., author of America's Doll House and Holidays on Display, describes how each of these eccentric objects found a home at the Smithsonian and offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the museum. Strikingly photographed, the souvenirs in thie eclectric trove are signposts to a uniquely American narrative, revealing who we are through the things we have saved.
Feature article in 100th anniversary issue of the standard periodical of the North American transportation industry, published each week since 1907, the longest continuous-running weekly in the world.
Long-term impacts of railroads on U.S. demographics: immigration patterns, employment patterns, Native American displacement, cultural mobility.
A comprehensive social history of railroads’ impact on American history, popular culture, and daily life.
Historic black & white photographs, 1910-1950, with interpretive essays.
The interpretive philosophy and approach of the major exhibition, America on the Move.
An overview for Soviet academicians of the historiography of science and technology studies in the U.S. and Europe.
A new interpretation of one of the Smithsonian's most important industrial artifacts, the remains of the Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run in the Western Hemisphere.
Social attitudes of German immigrants in 18th-C colonial Georgia.
Facebook