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 1935 items.
Page 194 of 194
- No Image Available
Gas Range
- Description
- The Detroit-Michigan Stove Company produced this Detroit Jewel Gas Range in the 1930s. The enameled-iron range includes an oven, a broiler, a drip catcher, and four burners. Gas fuel provided an instant and constant heat source and burned cleaner than coal and wood burning stoves. The enamel surface made the stove easier to clean. By the early 1900s, many households switched to electric lighting, leaving the gas companies searching for a new use for their product. Gas stoves successfully competed with electric stoves and are still used in kitchens today.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1930s
- maker
- Detroit-Michigan Stove Company
- ID Number
- 1981.0954.01
- accession number
- 1981.0954
- catalog number
- 1981.0954.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
"Barbie" Doll
- Description
- In 1959, the Mattel toy company introduced Barbie. Unlike most dolls at the time, Barbie was a grown–up—a "teenage fashion model" that could date, drive, and wear fabulous clothes. While often criticized for her unrealistic physical proportions and for promoting gender stereotypes, Barbie has also evolved with the times to reflect social and cultural changes in American culture. Since the 1980s she has taken on many new careers, from police officer to paleontologist to presidential candidate.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1958
- maker
- Mattel, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1988.0608.17
- catalog number
- 1988.0608.17
- accession number
- 1988.0608
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Wicker Laundry Hamper
- Description
- Elizabeth ("Libbie") Bacon, a Michigan judge's daughter, was bright and well educated. She married George Armstrong Custer (West Point Class of June 1861) in 1864. Although he had graduated at the bottom of his class, Custer immediately distinguished himself in the Civil War as a flamboyant, heedlessly brave cavalry officer. At age 23 he held the temporary rank of major general, the youngest in the Union Army. After the war, Libbie accompanied her husband to his assignment as commander of the 7th Cavalry. For the next decade, the Custers established homes at several frontier army posts where they made use of this wicker laundry hamper.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- user
- Custer, George Armstrong
- Custer, Elizabeth Bacon
- ID Number
- 1997.0358.01
- accession number
- 1997.0358
- catalog number
- 1997.0358.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Arab-American Coffee Pot
- Description
- The brewing of very strong coffee steamed from freshly pulverized beans is a universal form of hospitality among Arab-speaking peoples in the Middle East and neighboring Mediterranean as well as among those from that region who settled in the United States. Indeed, the first coffee available in Europe in the 18th century originated from Turkey. Two of the most treasured objects carried by migrants—whether Bedouins traversing desserts of the Middle East or Lebanese immigrants arriving in the United States on word of money made by Syrian traders at worlds fairs held in Philadelphia in 1876 and Chicago in 1893—were the coffee grinder and the coffee maker.
- Neighborhood coffee houses and national chains have been offering an increasing variety of flavorful strong-brewed espresso drinks since the 1990s, so it may be forgotten that there was a time when coffee offered by grocers, restaurants, and at home was weak, watery, and overcooked. Those planning to immigrate to the United States one hundred years ago were likely forewarned to bring their own coffee-making implements and beans as they planned their trips. This long-stemmed pot was carried by Nellie Bourazak’s mother from Zahle, a large Christian market town in Mount Lebanon, Syria, to Peoria, Illinois some time in the 1890s. It was handcrafted by a local silversmith, possibly as a parting gift from friends. Held over an open fire, it brewed one cup at a time to meet individual tastes as requested by guests. Served at the beginning and the end of meals, the ground coffee was combined with ground cardamom, brought to high boil, then simmered at low heat for a few minutes. The aroma shared over lively leisuretime conversation was a welcome part of the preparation ritual.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1910-1930
- 1890-1899
- ID Number
- 1984.0218.13
- accession number
- 1984.0218
- catalog number
- 1984.0218.13
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Bartender
- Description
- Bartender Wanda Lohman, known as "Miss Wanda," worked at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge from 1960 to 1984. The walls of Tootsie's became a kind of community scrapbook. Tootsie, like her patrons, was a fan of country music. She collected autographs, posters, record albums, and photographs. Patrons, family, and friends contributed their comments and added photos.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1974
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.107
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.107
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center