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 1946 items.
Page 194 of 195
Washington Fire Company Parade Hat
- Description
- Fire companies could not choose a better figure to represent their patriotism and self-sacrifice than George Washington. He was the most well-known celebrity of the time and was associated with all the positive qualities of the young country. Since so many companies chose to honor Washington in their imagery, it is difficult to know which company produced this Washington Fire Company parade hat. It is one of the more elaborate hats with Washington's image, including flags and banners flanking the portrait. A drum and a cannon are also included at the base of the American flags. These somewhat hidden images may allude to Washington's military career or the war service of members in the fire company.
- Date made
- 1810-1860
- referenced
- Washington Fire Company
- depicted
- Washington, George
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0095
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0095
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hurricane Evacuation Route Road Sign
- Description
- As Hurricane Katrina approached in August 2005, over 80 percent of the residents of New Orleans fled the city during the mandatory evacuation. Thousands of residents, however, could not or would not leave.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Associated Date
- 2005
- fabricator
- New Orleans Department of Public Works
- ID Number
- 2005.0284.01
- accession number
- 2005.0284
- catalog number
- 2005.0284.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mailbox
- Description
- Thousands of homes were obliterated by the effects of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. One of those homes stood at 2005 Lizardi Street in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. This mailbox is all that remained, except for the front steps and a field of debris.
- The hand-painted green flowers and butterflies on this mailbox, and the carefully lettered name and address of the Alexander family, evoke the domestic serenity that was shattered by Katrina's waters. Inside the mailbox a thick layer of dried mud recalled the wall of water that washed over this neighborhood August 29, 2005, when everything in its path was either submerged or destroyed.
- The Lower Ninth Ward was a victim of the over-burdened Industrial Canal, whose concrete flood walls collapsed beneath the weight and force of the water. Further afield, a manmade navigation canal, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ("Mr. Go"), offered a short cut not only to ships leaving the Gulf headed for New Orleans but for storm water moving inland from the Gulf. It was this water that in large part flooded the Industrial Canal and devastated the Lower Ninth Ward.
- Date made
- n.d.
- Associated Date
- 2005-08-2005-09
- ID Number
- 2006.3059.01
- nonaccession number
- 2006.3059
- catalog number
- 2006.3059.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Fox and Geese Game Board
- Description
- This 9-inch square board with 32 holes was made for playing Fox and Geese, a game of strategy between two players. The 19 pegs representing geese and a single longer peg for the fox are long gone from this particular board made in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Fox and Geese was among the games played by fishermen during idle times on sailing schooners working in the North Atlantic fisheries. This board was part of a display on “Habits of Fishermen,” at the International Fisheries Exhibition in London in 1883. Other games in the display, all from Gloucester, included cards, a checkerboard, backgammon, and a diamond puzzle.
- The rules of play for Fox and Geese are simple: one player controls the fox, while the other controls the geese. The fox can move in a straight line in any direction and, as it jumps over geese, the geese are removed from the board. To win, the fox must break through the entire line of geese. The geese are only allowed to move forward or sideways. To win, they must corner the fox so it cannot move.
- The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1633 reference to the game from a play called Fine Companion by Shackerley Marmion: “Let him sit in the shop . . . and let him play at fox and geese with the foreman.” The game was played in colonial America and, with minor variations, well into the 19th and 20th centuries.
- This game board was one of several items donated to the Smithsonian by Capt. George Merchant Jr., of Gloucester.
- Date made
- 1883
- ID Number
- AG*057950
- catalog number
- 057950
- accession number
- 12158
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Retablo
- Description
- Painted by an anonymous artist in New Mexico, this Catholic devotional image depicts the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
- According to tradition, the Virgin of Guadalupe first appeared to Juan Diego, a Christian Indian, on a hilltop near Mexico City in 1531. His vision of a dark-haired, brown-skinned Virgin Mary was popularized by Spanish missionaries seeking to convert Indians to Christianity. Over time, Our Lady of Guadalupe became a cherished symbol of Mexican and Latin American identity.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- CL*200826
- accession number
- 34005
- catalog number
- 200826
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
"What Hath God Wrought" Telegraph Message
- Description
- Printed in Morse code and transcribed by Samuel Morse himself, this message was transmitted from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., over the nation's first long-distance telegraph line.
- In 1843, Congress allocated $30,000 for Morse to build an electric telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. Morse and his partner, Alfred Vail, completed the forty-mile line in May 1844. For the first transmissions, they used a quotation from the Bible, Numbers 23:23: "What hath God Printed in Morse code and transcribed by Samuel Morse himself, this confirmation message was transmitted from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., over the nation's first long-distance telegraph line. In 1843, Congress allocated $30,000 for Morse to build an electric telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. Morse and his partner, Alfred Vail, completed the forty-mile line in May 1844. For the first transmissions, they used a quotation from the Bible, Numbers 23:23: "What hath God wrought." Morse, in the Capitol, sent the message to Vail at Mt. Claire Station in Baltimore. This paper tape is Vail’s return message confirming what was received.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1844-05-25
- 1844-05-24
- associated date
- 1844-05-24
- donated
- 1900-04-18
- associated person
- Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
- maker
- Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
- ID Number
- EM*001028
- catalog number
- 001028
- accession number
- 65555
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1876 Bradbury Family's 1876 Centennial Quilt
- Description
- Harriet Bradbury Rich wrote in 1948 that she was "pleased and proud" to donate this "memento of the First Centennial Exhibition of the United States of America." Her father, John Henry Bradbury, had been a merchant in the dry goods wholesale trade in New York and his firm received samples from the manufacturers commemorating the first one hundred years of nationhood that was celebrated at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia. At the age of twelve Harriet Bradbury along with her mother, Emily Bradbury, and her grandmother, Maria Silsby, assembled the commemorative fabric samples to make this patriotic quilt. The quilt was made at the Bradbury home in Charleston, New Hampshire, the fourth settlement on the Connecticut River, dating back to the French and Indian Wars.
- Printed fabrics with patriotic motifs were popular in America before the 1876 Centennial but the major exposition in Philadelphia provided the textile companies with an incentive to produce many new fabrics. The utilization in this quilt of the small sample pieces that Mr. Bradbury brought back to his family provides an index of fabrics for that period. There are twenty-six roller-printed cottons and five plate or roller-printed bandannas or banners in the quilt. Many of these are printed with the dates 1876 or 1776-1876 or the word centennial. Patriotic motifs of eagles, flags, liberty caps, muskets, stars, cannonballs, liberty bells as well as portraits of George and Martha Washington and Lafayette are found in the various fabric designs. One particular striped design honors Martha Washington as it was copied from the fabric of a favorite gown of hers, the bodice of which is still at Mount Vernon, Virginia. The center of the back of the quilt contains a cotton kerchief that contains the text of the Declaration of Independence surrounded by the Liberty Bell and the seals of thirteen colonies linked by the names of the patriots of the Revolutionary cause.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1876
- depicted
- Washington, George
- Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Marquis de Lafayette
- quilters
- Bradbury family
- quilter
- Bradbury, Emily
- Silsby, Maria
- Rich, Harriet Bradbury
- ID Number
- TE*T10090
- accession number
- 180031
- catalog number
- T10090
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Scrimshaw Tooth
- Description
- Women and ships were the most popular subjects for scrimshaw carved by crewmen on long, slow whaling voyages. In this deeply engraved example, a beautifully coiffed and fashionable young lady, possibly in mourning dress, has pulled a locket from her bodice and is gazing at the image of a smiling young man. The curls of her girlish hairstyle would indicate that she is unmarried, although the traditional ring finger of her left hand is not shown. The mid-19th-century date of this tooth is suggested by the style of the dress.
- Date made
- ca 1840
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- TR*374506
- catalog number
- 374506
- accession number
- 136263
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Foot-Powered Milking Machine
- Description
- The Mehring Company began developing mechanized milkers in 1892 as a way to improve the speed and sanitation of cow milking. The machines continued to be manufactured through the early 1920s, and more than 3000 were sold. Although William Mehring was from Maryland, most of the milkers he manufactured were sold in New Zealand and South America. The foot-powered milker was designed as an improvement to the earlier hand-powered model, and could milk two cows at once with less exertion from the operator.
- The machine consists of a foot treadle connected to several hoses that could be attached to a cow’s udders. When the foot treadle was rocked forward and backward, it produced a suction in the hoses, which would squeeze milk out of the udders and deposit it into a bucket that hung on the milker. The hoses were valve-controlled, so that the operator could stop suction on an individual teat without disconnecting the machine. An 1896 pamphlet advertises that the milker allows one man to milk up to twenty cows per hour, and since physical exertion was minimal, women and children could also help with the milking, making the chore even less time-consuming.
- In addition to improved efficiency, Mehring advertised the sanitation of his machines. The milk can no longer sat on a dirty stable floor, and air exposure was minimal since the milk went from cow to bucket through a sanitary hose. Thus, the milk was not contaminated with the dirt, hair, and germs that plagued milk from traditionally-milked cows.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG*58A03
- catalog number
- 58A03
- accession number
- 220004
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
GI Joe Figure
- Description
- Hasbro introduced the GI Joe action figure in 1964. By 1968, declining sales, probably tied to the controversy surrounding the American war effort in Vietnam, led Hasbro to reinvent its product line by downplaying the "military" aspects of the GI Joe character. This "land adventurer" is a 12-inch action figure from the GI Joe Adventure Team toy series released in 1970. The new figures came with civilian-style beards and round dog tags with logos that conspicuously resembled peace signs. The Adventure Team Club magazine marketed alongside the toy envisioned these GI Joes taking part in archaeological or scientific missions rather than military ones. These fully articulated 12-inch figures were among the last of their kind. Owing to laggard sales and rising plastic prices, GI Joe figures thereafter would be produced in smaller sizes.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1974
- maker
- Hasbro
- ID Number
- 1977.0575.05
- accession number
- 1977.0575
- catalog number
- 1977.0575.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center