Cultures & Communities

Furniture, cooking wares, clothing, works of art, and many other kinds of artifacts are part of what knit people into communities and cultures. The Museum’s collections feature artifacts from European Americans, Latinos, Arab Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, African Americans, Gypsies, Jews, and Christians, both Catholics and Protestants. The objects range from ceramic face jugs made by enslaved African Americans in South Carolina to graduation robes and wedding gowns. The holdings also include artifacts associated with education, such as teaching equipment, textbooks, and two complete schoolrooms. Uniforms, insignia, and other objects represent a wide variety of civic and voluntary organizations, including youth and fraternal groups, scouting, police forces, and firefighters.

In the mid-1960s, novelist and counterculture guru Ken Kesey used this 38" x 68" plywood sign as an announcement board and invitation card to promote the activities of his "Merry Pranksters" (an itinerant band of free thinkers) during their memorable cross-country rides on an old
Description
In the mid-1960s, novelist and counterculture guru Ken Kesey used this 38" x 68" plywood sign as an announcement board and invitation card to promote the activities of his "Merry Pranksters" (an itinerant band of free thinkers) during their memorable cross-country rides on an old bus named "Further." Kesey and his band drove Further from northern California to Washington, D.C., and New York, ostensibly to attend Kesey book parties. In the process they used the bus rides to encourage people to discuss anything with them, to try anything, to perform civic pranks of various sorts, and to otherwise call attention to alternative ways of thinking about the issues of the day.
Like the bus, the sign is a colorful smorgasbord of offerings from the Pranksters and visitors to the bus. Splashes of day–glo paint are overlaid with newspaper clippings, political cartoons, doodles, yarn, and the names of influential West Coast figures from the counterculture movements of the 1950s and 1960s. During a 1992 visit to the Kesey farm in rural Oregon to examine the remains of Further, the Smithsonian found this signboard in the loft of a chicken coop, covered with dust and feathers. A family of foxes occupied the rear seat of Further, moldering in a field, so Kesey decided to donate this sign instead of the bus.
Date made
1960s
user
Kesey, Ken
ID Number
1992.0413.01
accession number
1992.0413
catalog number
1992.0413.01
Made of carved wood with traces of paint. Standing figure, right hand holds a bundle of cigars. Figure is wearing a simplified, short-sleeved tunic, fringed trousers. Behind figure are stacked tobacco boxes. Simplified banded headdress.
Description (Brief)
Made of carved wood with traces of paint. Standing figure, right hand holds a bundle of cigars. Figure is wearing a simplified, short-sleeved tunic, fringed trousers. Behind figure are stacked tobacco boxes. Simplified banded headdress. Sheaf of tobacco leaves in left hand.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 19th century
ID Number
CL.65.1001
catalog number
65.1001
accession number
261195
collector/donor number
T-43
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1770
ID Number
CL.65.0979
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.0979
During the cyclical downturn of 2008, home foreclosures skyrocketed as people lost jobs, low teaser rate adjustable rate mortgages re-set, and the housing bubble burst.
Description
During the cyclical downturn of 2008, home foreclosures skyrocketed as people lost jobs, low teaser rate adjustable rate mortgages re-set, and the housing bubble burst. Realtor Kevin Berman of Bankers Realty Services used this foreclosure sign in the Fort Lauderdale area during between 2008 and 2012.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2012.0245.01
catalog number
2012.0245.01
accession number
2012.0245
date made
1804
ID Number
CL.65.0978
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.0978
As Hurricane Katrina approached in August 2005, over 80 percent of the residents of New Orleans fled the city during the mandatory evacuation. Thousands of residents, however, could not or would not leave.Currently not on view
Description
As Hurricane Katrina approached in August 2005, over 80 percent of the residents of New Orleans fled the city during the mandatory evacuation. Thousands of residents, however, could not or would not leave.
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
2005
fabricator
New Orleans Department of Public Works
ID Number
2005.0284.01
accession number
2005.0284
catalog number
2005.0284.01
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1816
ID Number
CL.65.0975
catalog number
65.0975
accession number
256396
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1826
ID Number
CL.65.0980
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.0980
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1815
1828
ID Number
CL.65.0977
catalog number
65.0977
accession number
256396
This inn owner took visible pride in his country’s new national identity. The image displayes a bald eagle with a puffed chest displaying the Great Shield of 13 red, white and blue stripes representing the unified states of the young nation.
Description
This inn owner took visible pride in his country’s new national identity. The image displayes a bald eagle with a puffed chest displaying the Great Shield of 13 red, white and blue stripes representing the unified states of the young nation. One talon holds an olive branch; the other talon holds 13 arrows. His beak holds a scroll inscribed “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one). The original artistic rendering proposed by William Barton to Congress met disapproval by Benjamin Franklin and other political leaders. But following congressional approval in 1782 of the image as the Great Seal of the United States, images of bald eagles and colorfully striped shields could be found everywhere in the nation’s visual landscape, from coinage to ships’ figure heads, furnishings to textiles, and on signs such as this one.
Taverns were not new to this country at the time this sign was painted. Puritans had first sought to regulate consumption of liquor in the 17th century through building of “Ordinaries” or “Public Houses.” By the 18th century, such inns were known as “Taverns,” a familiar and welcome sight for travelers traversing coach, or post, roads. Such “Houses of Entertainment” not only provided comfort and convenience to long-distance travelers but sociability for locals. Not only were food and liquor sales offered, but also a variety of music, games, stories, humor, as well as more serious news and opinion-sharing, providing a sense of home beyond the home as well as mental escape.
Date made
1800 - 1830s
ID Number
CL.65.0974
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.0974
No sooner had Katrina departed New Orleans in August 2005 than waves of hurricane clean-up signs went up in neighborhoods hard-hit by the storm, offering house-gutting services, mold removal, drywall replacement, and even building removal.
Description
No sooner had Katrina departed New Orleans in August 2005 than waves of hurricane clean-up signs went up in neighborhoods hard-hit by the storm, offering house-gutting services, mold removal, drywall replacement, and even building removal. The work was hazardous, involving the mucking out of homes and the handling of mountains of demolition debris and sodden household belongings. Many homeowners undertook their own clean-up, but much was performed by immigrant laborers attracted to the region by the promise of hard work and good wages.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
2006
Associated Date
2006
maker
June, Eric
ID Number
2006.3067.01
catalog number
2006.3067.01
nonaccession number
2006.3067
The Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church sprang up in rural areas across the South following the Civil War, providing a place of rest and community for freed slaves.
Description
The Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church sprang up in rural areas across the South following the Civil War, providing a place of rest and community for freed slaves. Even if church services only occurred once or twice a month when a traveling minister visited, the house of worship provided not only a place to rekindle faith but as a school and meeting house for fraternal clubs. Homecomings came around harvest time, bringing visitors from across the country. Relatives and neighbors who had moved away came back to spend time with family, sharing stories of their lives in northern cities. The often-embellished picture of northern urban life painted at such reunions encouraged others to contemplate boarding trains north.
World War I brought a new era of industrial opportunity for African Americans, But as production demands grew, wartime recruitment took away traditionally white and immigrant factory workers. Northern labor recruiters, newspapers, and word-of-mouth spread news of higher wages and regular work being offered to African Americans willing to move. Desire for better treatment and better paying jobs brought hundreds of thousands of African Americans north.
Those left behind in the South found continued solace and fortitude in the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, leading the way in continuing the fight for basic civil rights for all. Freedom songs sung in marches and jails spread to whites traveling from northern colleges to join in the struggle, spreading lyrics and ideas back north that have now become familiar to those visiting the National Mall and public squares across the country participating in democratic demonstrations of a range of popular issues.
maker
Mt. Zion Mission Baptist Church
ID Number
1986.0812.01
accession number
1986.0812
catalog number
1986.0812.01

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