Cultures & Communities - Overview
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.
"Cultures & Communities - Overview" showing 893 items.
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Special Order No. 314, Union Head Quarters for the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, Army of the James, October 28, 1864
- Description
- This Special Order of October 28, 1864, from the Headquarters of the Union Department of Virginia and North Carolina, Army of the James, was likely printed using a portable press. Its printed address, In the Field, Va. also indicates a length of time in that situation. Israel R. Sealy, signer and assistant adjutant general assigned to this unit, was responsible for the administration and, among other duties, the printing of his unit’s army records, amond other duties.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1864-10-28
- printer
- Army of the James
- author
- Sealy, Israel R.
- ID Number
- 2007.0186.02
- accession number
- 2007.0186
- catalog number
- 2007.0186.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Confederate county treasurer's check, Wythe County, Virginia, April 11, 1864
- Description
- This Confederate county court treasurer's check, likely printed in the field, allowed William Smyth's family to receive service benefits. Smyth served in Virginia's Forty-fifth Infantry Regiment.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1864-04-11
- printer
- Confederate States of America
- Wythe County, Virginia
- ID Number
- 2007.0203.02
- catalog number
- 2007.0203.02
- accession number
- 2007.0203
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Confederate requisition form, June 30, 1864
- Description
- This Confederate form, a requisition for stationery dated June 30, 1864, was prepared for Captain Roggen of Company F of the Army of the Confederate States of America. It requested five quires [sets of sheets, 24 sheets per quire] of letter paper, five quires of foolscap paper, and fifteen quires of envelope paper. This sort of form, with the address in the field, could have been both printed and filled out in the field.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1864-06-30
- printer
- Confederate States of America
- ID Number
- 2007.0203.03
- accession number
- 2007.0203
- catalog number
- 2007.0203.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bone Dice
- Description
- Gambling usually was banned aboard whaling ships, on the grounds that it could cause too much strife among the crew. But “bones” or dice were easily concealed from a ship’s officers, and crews found out-of-the-way places to spend their free time wagering their earnings, tobacco, or other assets.
- date made
- 1800s
- ID Number
- AG*024849.1
- accession number
- 1875.4423
- catalog number
- 24849.1
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bone Fid
- Description
- Made of hard wood, bone, or ivory and tapering to a point, fids were used mostly for ropework, such as splicing. On deck, they were also used for breaking knots that might be frozen from overtightening, wet weather, or other conditions. In a pinch, one could also serve as a temporary belaying pin to tie off a line, or even as a weapon.
- date made
- 1800s
- ID Number
- AG*025650
- catalog number
- 025650
- accession number
- 4798
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whale Bone Seam Rubber
- Description
- Seam rubbers were part of a sail maker’s tool kit. They were used to smooth and flatten the seams of heavy canvas sailcloth, where two pieces were joined or the edges were hemmed before they were sewn. This unusually large example was probably carved from the panbone, part of a whale’s jaw.
- date made
- 1800s
- ID Number
- AG*025793
- accession number
- 4957
- catalog number
- 025793
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whalebone Thimble Eye
- Description
- This rope-strapped thimble carved from whalebone would have had a light rope through the eye for rigging, perhaps on a whaleboat.
- These miniature items also served as children’s toys or curiosities back home. Toys in the form of miniature working ship parts were easy and quick for sailors to carve, and they did not require much skill to make. They also served as potent reminders of where and what the men were doing during their long absences from their friends and families.
- date made
- 1800s
- ID Number
- AG*025801
- catalog number
- 025801
- accession number
- 2009.0182
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whaler's Mincing Knife
- Description
- Whaling crews used mincing knives to cut the blubber strips into thin slices down to, but not through, the thick whale skin. This process increased the surface area of the blubber and helped it melt faster in the try-pots. Cut in this fashion, the sections of whale blubber and skin were known as “bible leaves” because they resembled the pages of a book.
- date made
- 1876
- collected
- 1876
- ID Number
- AG*025912
- accession number
- 005019
- catalog number
- 025912
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whaler's Boarding Knife
- Description
- The work of carving blubber from a whale carcass and hauling the long, narrow strips of flesh, called “blanket pieces,” aboard the ship onto the deck was called “boarding.” The boarding knife was an extremely sharp, double-edged sword blade at the end of a short wooden pole. It served a variety of purposes, from cutting a hole in the whale’s flesh for the blubber hook, to cutting the long strips of flesh into shorter sections for further processing.
- These tools were kept extremely sharp to cut the whale’s flesh easily. With the decks and tools so slippery from the whale processing, using them was reserved for the ship’s officers.
- date made
- 1876
- collected
- 1876
- ID Number
- AG*026608
- catalog number
- 026608
- accession number
- 4927
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Whaler's Carved Bailer Handle
- Description
- Whalemen used long-handled bailers to remove hot whale oil from large try-pots into cooling tanks, and from those tanks into storage barrels. They had long handles to prevent the handler from being splashed or burned with molten oil.
- This example’s wooden handle has figures of whales whittled into its surface to indicate the number and species of mammals that crossed its greasy path. The “B.H.” refers to bowhead, “S” for sperm, “H.B.” for humpback, and “W” for right whale.
- date made
- 1828
- ID Number
- AG*055809
- catalog number
- 55809
- accession number
- 12284
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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