Family & Social Life - Overview
Donations to the Museum have preserved irreplaceable evidence about generations of ordinary Americans. Objects from the Copp household of Stonington, Connecticut, include many items used by a single family from 1740 to 1850. Other donations have brought treasured family artifacts from jewelry to prom gowns. These gifts and many others are all part of the Museum's family and social life collections.
Children's books and Sunday school lessons, tea sets and family portraits also mark the connections between members of a family and between families and the larger society. Prints, advertisements, and artifacts offer nostalgic or idealized images of family life and society in times past. And the collections include a few modern conveniences that have had profound effects on American families and social life, such as televisions, video games, and personal computers.
"Family & Social Life - Overview" showing 1941 items.
Page 192 of 195
Ship Model, SS Frisia
- Description
- This model is a cutaway of the German steamship Frisia. Originally launched as the Alsatia, the Frisia was a transatlantic passenger ship, with room for 820 passengers. Built in 1872 by Caird & Co. in Scotland, Frisia was owned by the Hamburg-American Line. Rigged for both sail and steam power, the Frisia could make the Atlantic crossing in about 12 days.
- Many of the passengers who traveled aboard the Frisia were immigrants bound for America. In 1876, a group of some 70 Russian immigrants boarded the Frisia in Hamburg, Germany. Originally from Kratzke, a city in Russia near the Volga River, these men, women, and children left their homes with hopes of owning farmland in the United States. Upon arriving in New York, the Kratzke immigrants traveled west and settled in Russell County, Kansas, in October 1876. Although life was hard on the prairie, most immigrants did not return to their homeland. More Russian immigrants arrived in December 1876, and together they founded the Bender Hill community in Kansas.
- The Frisia was one of the last iron steamships of its era. Shortly afterwards, steel-hulled ships became standard. Following its run as an immigrant ship, the Frisia was renamed and sold to Italian owners who converted it into a coal carrier. In 1902, the SS Frisia, then known as the Arno, was scrapped in Italy.
- Date made
- ca 1975
- SS Frisia built
- 1872
- SS Frisia scrapped
- 1902
- made for
- Division of the History of Technology. Transportation
- built SS Frisia
- Caird & Co.
- owned SS Frisia
- Hamburg-American Line
- ID Number
- TR*336909
- catalog number
- 336909
- accession number
- 1979.0408
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Digi-Comp 1 Toy Computer
- Description
- In the mid-1960s, most children had never seen an electronic computer. However, they had heard stories of the power of these giant instruments and knew that they were associated with space flight. This toy brought the mathematical principles of the digital computer into the home. The manual describes several problems that could be set up, including a basic check out of whether the device was functioning properly, counting down from 7 to 1 in binary, logical riddles, and the game of NIM. There is a special piece that can be used to represent the logical operation "or." The toy was made by E.S.R., Inc. of Orange and Montclair, New Jersey. It sold for about $5.00.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1965
- maker
- E.S.R., Incorporated
- ID Number
- 1978.0067.59
- catalog number
- 1978.0067.59
- accession number
- 1978.0067
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bernice Palmer's Kodak Brownie camera
- Description
- Sometime around her 17th birthday, Canadian Bernice Palmer received a Kodak Brownie box camera, either for Christmas 1911 or for her birthday on 10 January 1912. In early April, she and her mother boarded the Cunard liner Carpathia in New York, for a Mediterranean cruise. Carpathia had scarcely cleared New York, when it received a distress call from the White Star liner Titanic on 14 April. It raced to the scene of the sinking and managed to rescue over 700 survivors from the icy North Atlantic. With her new camera, Bernice took pictures of the iceberg that sliced open the Titanic’s hull below the waterline and also took snapshots of some of the Titanic survivors. Lacking enough food to feed both the paying passengers and Titanic survivors, the Carpathia turned around and headed back to New York to land the survivors. Unaware of the high value of her pictures, Bernice sold publication rights to Underwood & Underwood for just $10 and a promise to develop, print, and return her pictures after use. In 1986, she donated her camera, the pictures and her remarkable story to the Smithsonian.
- date made
- ca 1912
- user
- Ellis, Bernice P.
- maker
- Eastman Kodak Company
- ID Number
- 1986.0173.38
- accession number
- 1986.0173
- catalog number
- 1986.0173.38
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Sunstone Capital
- Description
- Inspired by a vision described by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), this celestial limestone carving was one of thirty that adorned a grand temple built at Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1840s.
- In 1844 an anti-Mormon mob murdered Smith, destroyed the temple, and drove the congregation out of Nauvoo. The Mormon community relocated to Utah, where it flourished in the isolation of the West.
- Date made
- 1846
- associated dates
- 1844
- architect
- Weeks, William
- associated institution
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- associated person
- Smith, Joseph
- maker
- Weeks, William
- ID Number
- 1989.0453.01
- catalog number
- 1989.0453.01
- accession number
- 1989.0453
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1895 - 1896 Chinese American Man's Gown
- Description (Brief)
- Lee B. Lok (1869-1942) immigrated to San Francisco from Guangdong Province, China in 1881 and soon after moved to New York City's Chinatown where he worked in the Quong Yuen Shing & Co. store.
- Lee B. Lok ordered this gown from China to wear at the 1896 arrival ceremony in New York of Li Hongzhang, emissary of the Empress Dowager of China. Soon after Lee came to America he abandoned Chinese clothes for daily use and cut his queue. However on special occasions Lee wore clothing that identified him as Chinese. This Manchu style gown splits at the back, front, and both sides to allow for easy movement on horseback – a reflection of the Manchu people’s equestrian background.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1896
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.24
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.24
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Blue Sky Boys
- Description
- Beginning in 1936, brothers Earl (1919-1998) and Bill Bolick (b. 1917), known for their intricate melodies on guitar and mandolin, influenced many other duet performers. The Blue Sky Boys retired in 1951, but returned to performing in 1962, drawn by the rising interest in folk and traditional country music.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1974
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.002
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.002
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hughes Family Show
- Description
- Many acts in country music were built around brother duos and family members.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1972
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.007
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.007
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Del McCoury
- Description
- Del McCoury's voice is known as one of the finest examples of traditional bluegrass's "high lonesome" sound. Delano Floyd McCoury (b.1939) got his first big break in 1963 when Bill Monroe hired McCoury's band to play a few shows. McCoury briefly joined Monroe's band, but returned to a successful career with his own group. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2004.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1975
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.013
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.013
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Osborne Brothers
- Description
- After performing individually with Jimmy Martin, Bill Monroe, and other headliners in the 1940s, Sonny (b.1937) and Bobby (b. 1931) Osborne became one of the most popular and innovative bluegrass groups of the postwar era. Experimenting in the mid-1960s, they added piano, steel guitar, and electric instruments. While these ventures angered traditionalists, their innovative sound attracted a new younger audience to country music.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1974
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.040
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.040
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Fans with Carl and Pearl Butler
- Description
- Carl and Pearl Butler pose for photographs with fans.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.090
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.090
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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