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 113 items.
Page 1 of 12
Family Photo Album
- Description
- Family photograph albums hold the history of generations, preserving the memories of birthdays, holidays, travels, and all general aspects of life. African American Mary Taylor used her 35mm Bell and Howell camera to document her family's life in the black community of Los Angeles, California, during the mid-20th century. She turned a discarded wallpaper sample book into a treasured family heirloom.
- Taylor's family photographs including 19th-century tintypes, turn-of-the-century hand-colored portraits, and albums from the 1950s to the 1970s provide insight into the African American experience in the United States over the past century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Taylor, Mary A.
- ID Number
- 2002.0103.02
- accession number
- 2002.0103
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apple Macintosh Mouse
- Description
- Invented in 1963, the mouse improved interactions with computers. However, not until 1984, when Apple Computers introduced the Macintosh and its graphical user interface, did the mouse become a standard computer component.
- Date made
- 1984
- maker
- Apple Computer
- ID Number
- 1985.3011.01.1
- catalog number
- 1985.3011.01.1
- accession number
- 1985.3011
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ed Robert's Wheelchair
- Description
- Equipped with a sports-car seat, go-cart wheels, and a top speed of eight miles an hour, this wheelchair belonged to disability-rights pioneer Ed Roberts. Roberts was paralyzed by polio in 1953, at age fourteen. In 1962 he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, where he led efforts to establish a program for disabled students. He later founded the Independent Living Movement, a worldwide campaign to secure civil rights, equal access, and self-sufficiency for people with disabilities.
- Date made
- 1996
- associated dates
- 1966-1999-03
- referenced
- Independent Living Movement
- University of California, Berkeley
- user
- Roberts, Edward V.
- maker
- Stanford Rehab Engineering
- ID Number
- 1995.0179.01
- catalog number
- 1995.0179.01
- accession number
- 1995.0179
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ludwig Von Drake Thermos
- Description (Brief)
- This steel and glass thermos bottle was made by Aladdin in 1961. It has a screw-on blue plastic cup lid with handle and screw-on red plastic stopper. The bottle features cartoon images of Ludwig Von Drake in Disneyland. It is the companion bottle to lunch box number 2003.3070.10.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1961
- referenced
- Walt Disney Company
- maker
- Aladdin
- ID Number
- 2003.3070.10.02
- nonaccession number
- 2003.3070
- catalog number
- 2003.3070.10.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
sound recording: San Antonio Shout; Tin Roof Blues
- Description (Brief)
- Ben Pollack and His Pick-A-Rib Boys. side 1: SAN ANTONIO SHOUT; side 2: TIN ROOF BLUES (Discovery 132)
- 78 rpm
- Location
- Currently not on view
- recording artist
- Ben Pollack and His Pick-a-Rib Boys
- maker
- Discovery
- ID Number
- 1978.0670.238
- maker number
- 132
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
sound recording: Maryland, My Maryland; Sensation Rag
- Description (Brief)
- Ben Pollack and his Pick-a-Rib Boys. side 1: MARYLAND, MY MARYLAND; side 2: SENSATION RAG (Discovery 133)
- 78 rpm
- Location
- Currently not on view
- recording artist
- Ben Pollack and His Pick-a-Rib Boys
- maker
- Discovery
- ID Number
- 1978.0670.239
- maker number
- 133
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
sound recording: I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby; San Sue Strut
- Description (Brief)
- Ben Pollack and his Pick-a-Rib Boys. side 1: I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE, BABY; side 2: SAN SUE STRUT (Discovery 131)
- 78 rpm
- 78 rpm
- Location
- Currently not on view
- recording artist
- Ben Pollack and His Pick-a-Rib Boys
- maker
- Discovery
- ID Number
- 1978.0670.240
- maker number
- 131
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
sound recording: Papa Dip; Turk's Blues
- Description (Brief)
- Turk Murphy's Jazz Band. side 1: PAPA DIP; side 2: TURK'S BLUES (Good Time Jazz 4)
- 78 rpm
- Location
- Currently not on view
- recording artist
- Turk Murphy's Jazz Band
- maker
- Good Time Jazz
- ID Number
- 1978.0670.254
- accession number
- 1978.0670
- catalog number
- 1978.0670.254
- maker number
- 4
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apple "Classic" Macintosh Personal Computer
- Description
- The Apple Macintosh introduced a graphic user interface (GUI) to the Apple line of computers. The idea had originated at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s, but Xerox was slow to commercialize it. Apple proved far more successful when it introduced the Macintosh in January 1984, with a splashy television advertisement during the Superbowl. The original price was around $2,500.
- Instead of typing out names of programs on command lines, users with a GUI could click "icons," or pictures that represented the programs they wanted to run. They could also execute functions like saving, moving, or deleting files by clicking and dragging the icons around the screen with a pointing device called a mouse. Apple's version of the mouse had a single button, which became an Apple standard. The first Macintosh had only 128K RAM, and users quickly found this insufficient. The Macintosh 512 KB, nicknamed "Fat Mac," was introduced in September 1984. It gave users four times as much memory, and allowed them to keep several major programs open simultaneously. The vertical processor case and 9" monochrome screen were distinguishing features of all the early Macintosh line.
- The Macintosh 512 KB contained a Motorola 68000 microprocessor which ran at 8 MHz. It contained 512 KB of RAM and 64 KB of ROM and initially had a 400 KB Floppy disk drive. Applications included MacWrite, a word processor, and MacPaint, a drawing program that turned the mouse into a paintbrush. Shortly after the 512 KB appeared, Apple also introduced a LaserWriter printer, which enabled desktop publishing for individuals and small businesses. Over time, Apple computers would appeal most strongly to artists and designers, while the IBM/DOS line of computers sold better in business markets.
- After selling hundreds of thousands of units, Apple discontinued the "Mac Classic" line of computers in April 1986.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1984
- maker
- Apple Computer
- ID Number
- 1985.0118.01
- catalog number
- 1985.0118.01
- accession number
- 1985.0118
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apple II Personal Computer
- Description
- In 1976, computer pioneers Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs began selling their Apple I computer in kit form to computer stores. A month later, Wozniak was working on a design for an improved version, the Apple II. They demonstrated a prototype in December, and then introduced it to the public in April 1977. The Apple II started the boom in personal computer sales in the late 1970s, and pushed Apple into the lead among personal computer makers.
- The Apple II used a MOS 6502 chip for its central processing unit. It came with 4 KB RAM, but could be extended up to 48 KB RAM. It included a BASIC interpreter and could support graphics and a color monitor. External storage was originally on cassette tape, but later Apple introduced an external floppy disk drive. Among the Apple II's most important features were its 8 expansion slots on the motherboard. These allowed hobbyists to add additional cards made by Apple and many other vendors who quickly sprung up. The boards included floppy disk controllers, SCSI cards, video cards, and CP/M or PASCAL emulator cards.
- In 1979 Software Arts introduced the first computer spreadsheet, Visicalc for the Apple II. This "killer application" was extremely popular and fostered extensive sales of the Apple II.
- The Apple II went through several improvements and upgrades. By 1984, when the Macintosh appeared, over 2 million Apple II computers had been sold.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1977
- 1977-1987
- maker
- Apple Computer
- ID Number
- 1990.0167.01.1
- catalog number
- 1990.0167.01.1
- accession number
- 1990.0167
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center