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 102 items.
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MITS Altair 680 Kit Computer
- Description
- The Altair 680 appeared about a year after Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) had introduced the Altair 8800, which many historians credit as the beginning of the home computer industry. In the Altair 680, MITS offered an update of the Altair 8800 that was based on the Motorola 6800 processor.
- Like the Altair 8800, the Altair 680 was a kit. For $293, users received circuit boards, capacitors, resistors, transistors, diodes, a power supply, an instruction manual, and a case in which to assemble it. Also like the 8800, the 680 had switches on the front that could be used to enter computer instructions, bit by bit. If customers were willing to pay $420, they could buy the computer already assembled. Neither the kit nor the assembled computer came with display, keyboard, or external storage device.
- The Motorola 6800 microprocessor ran at 500 KHZ, and the computer had a 1 KB of RAM and 1 KB of ROM, as well as support for a serial terminal and punch reader.
- The Altair 680 did not meet with the success that the 8800 had. Most users were now interested in buying computers that came with displays and keyboards, and were willing to pay more for them. The Altair 680 kit in the Smithsonian was never assembled.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1976
- maker
- Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems
- ID Number
- 1990.0653.01
- catalog number
- 1990.0653.01
- accession number
- 1990.0653
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stars and Stripes Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This steel domed lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1970. The lunch box features a metal snap for a hinged lid and a collapsible blue, plastic handle. The lunch box is decorated with large white stars on a blue lid and red and white vertical stripes on the sides and bottom of the lunch box, evoking the American flag.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1970
- maker
- Aladdin Industries Incorporated
- ID Number
- 2001.3087.17.01
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3087
- catalog number
- 2001.3087.17.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stars and Stripes Thermos
- Description (Brief)
- This plastic and glass thermos bottle was made by Aladdin Industries in 19970. The botte has a red plastic, screw-on cup lid and red plastic, screw-on stopper. Large white stars on a blue background and red and white vertical stripes around the sides evoke the American flag. The bottle is a companion to the Stars and Stripes lunch box, object number 2001.3087.17.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1970
- maker
- Aladdin Industries Incorporated
- ID Number
- 2001.3087.17.02
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3087
- catalog number
- 2001.3087.17.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Denim Domed Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This tin, domed lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1975. The lunch box has a metal snap for a hinged lid and a flexible red plastic handle. The lunch box has the appearance of being made of denim, and a colorful dog and red and white flower patterns are shown on the front of the lunch box.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1975
- maker
- Aladdin Industries
- ID Number
- 2001.3087.22
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3087
- catalog number
- 2001.3087.22
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hi - My Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This metal lunch box was made by the Ohio Art Company in 1977. The box has lithographed blue denim on all surfaces. The front has an image of an apple with worm and belt buckle and "Hi", and "MY LUNCH" and an apple is seen on the rear.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1977
- maker
- Ohio Art Company
- ID Number
- 2001.3099.05
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3099
- catalog number
- 2001.3099.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Wags and Whiskers Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This tin lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1978. It has a yellow plastic snap for a hinged lid and a collapsible yellow, plastic handle. The lunch box features blue, white, yellow and green designs of colorful drawings of a dog and a cat playing together in cute ways.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1978
- maker
- King Seeley Thermos
- ID Number
- 2001.3100.15.01
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3100
- catalog number
- 2001.3100.15.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Wags and Whiskers Thermos
- Description (Brief)
- This square plastic thermos bottle was made by Thermos in 1978, and is the companion bottle to the lunch box with object number 2001.3100.15.01. The bottle has a screw-on, white plastic cup lid and a white and red plastic stopper. The bottle is blue and has a picture of a dog and a cat nuzzling on the front of the thermos.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1978
- maker
- King Seeley Thermos
- ID Number
- 2001.3100.15.02
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3100
- catalog number
- 2001.3100.15.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Corsage Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This tin lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1973. It has a white plastic snap for a hinged lid and a white collapsible, plastic handle. The box has a light blue background and white rim, and features of colorful drawings of flowers on the lid, back and sides.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1973
- maker
- King Seeley Thermos
- ID Number
- 2001.3101.01.01
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3101
- catalog number
- 2001.3101.01.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Corsage Thermos
- Description (Brief)
- This plastic, tin and glass thermos bottle was made by Thermos in 1973. It has a blue, screw-on plastic cup lid and a beige and red screw-on plastic stopper. The bottle is light blue and has colorful drawings of flowers on the sides. It is the companion bottle to lunch box #2001.3101.01.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1973
- maker
- King Seeley Thermos
- ID Number
- 2001.3101.01.02
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3101
- catalog number
- 2001.3101.01.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Texas Instruments SR-10 Calculator
- Description
- The Texas Instrument Slide Rule-10, more commonly known as the TI SR-10, was a handheld calculator introduced in November 1972, just a few months after TI's first calculator, the Datamath. The SR-10 initially retailed at $149, but was produced in large numbers and soon sold at significant discount. The calculator made use of the TMS0120 single-chip calculator circuit derived from the TMS1802, better known as the first "calculator-on-a-chip."
- The calculator had a LED (Light Emitting Diode) display capable of showing 10 decimal digits, and used a NICAD battery pack to power the red numeric display. The user had to constantly charge and recharge the battery after a few hours of use. The NICAD batteries would usually go bad after a few hundred charges. This was a major drawback for early electronic calculators. Later LCD (liquid Crystal Display) devices used so little power that they could run on tiny solar cells.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1972
- maker
- Texas Instruments
- ID Number
- 1986.0988.354
- catalog number
- 1986.0988.354
- accession number
- 1986.0988
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center