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¡Pleibol!

In the Barrios and the Big Leagues
En los barrios y las grandes ligas

National Youth Summit on Gender Equity

September 21–October 12

Girlhood
(It's complicated)

See our new exhibition

Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice, and the Murder of Emmett Till

On view September 3–October 5, and online

September 11

20 years later
20 años después

¡Pleibol!

Youth Summit

Girlhood

Emmett Till

September 11
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American History on Instagram

  • Like many professional baseball players, Anthony Rendon started playing at a young age. This YMCA card shows him when he was 5 years old. It includes some of his important stats on the back: Team: Giants Height: 3ft, 10in Weight: 50lbs Position: N/A Born to a Mexican American, mixed-race family of modest means in Houston, Texas, Rendon honed his talents on the baseball diamond, moving up from T-Ball and eventually advancing to the Major Leagues. Rendon and his family recently donated this card and other objects from his life and career to our museum, including his little league hat and glove. Swipe to take a look at them, as well as one of Rendon's Washington Nationals baseball cards from 2011. The Atlanta Braves drafted Rendon in 2008 in the MLB Amateur Draft, but he turned down the Braves’ offer and decided to accept an athletic scholarship to Rice University. In 2009 as a freshman, he was named Baseball America’s Freshman of the Year. During his junior season, he was drafted from Rice University and signed with the Washington Nationals in the 2011 MLB June Amateur Draft. Rendon helped his team, the Nationals, win the 2019 World Series. In early 2020, he signed with the Los Angeles Angels. Today, he is one of many Latino hometown heroes who inspires the next generation of baseball players. Anthony Rendon's YMCA card is currently on display in our new exhibition, ¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas. Follow #NuestroBaseball today to explore how Latina/o players and communities have shaped the history of baseball and softball, both on and off the field. #HispanicHeritageMonth #HHM #History #AmericanHistory #LatinoHistory #LatinaHistory #LatinxHistory #MexicanAmericanHistory #SportsHistory #BaseballHistory #YouthHistory ¡Pleibol! received generous support from the Cordoba Corporation and Linda Alvarado, and federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
  • Founded in the 1920s, the Kansas City Aztecas existed for almost a century in various forms as men’s and women’s baseball and fast-pitch softball teams. This vintage uniform dates back to the team's 1979 season. Before the color line was broken in Major League Baseball in the 1940s, Latina/o players built a place of their own in independent leagues throughout the United States. Like many of the company and church teams that made up these leagues, the Kansas City Aztecas were founded in the 1920s by players who immigrated to the U.S. Midwest in search of new opportunities in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. Did you spot the apostrophe on the jersey above? When an apostrophe was accidentally included in the team's name by a printer in the 1970s, the Aztecas decided to keep the misprint for good luck. Swipe above to see how the team's uniform changed over time, or follow the link in our bio today to learn about how Latina/o players have used their team's uniforms to celebrate their community's history and cultural heritage: s.si.edu/suit-up This Friday, September 17, follow the hashtag #NuestroBaseball to explore how Latina/o players and communities have shaped the history of baseball and softball, both on and off the field. #HispanicHeritageMonth #HHM #History #AmericanHistory #LatinoHistory #LatinaHistory #LatinxHistory #MexicanAmericanHistory #SportsHistory #BaseballHistory #Textiles #Typography #NuestroBaseball ¡Pleibol! received generous support from the Cordoba Corporation and Linda Alvarado, and federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center 📷: Kansas City Lady Aztecas softball team, Kansas City, Kansas, 1939. Courtesy of Rose Arroyo in memory of Mary Montes / Kansas City Aztecas men’s fast-pitch softball team. Shawnee Park, Kansas City, Kansas, 1997. Courtesy of Daniel Salas
  • In this photograph, Balbir Singh Sodhi holds his nephew and smiles at the camera. Sodhi came to the United States at age 36, leaving behind limited economic opportunity and rising violence in his home in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. However, instead of realizing the the American dream, Sodhi experienced a nightmare of hate and violence. On September 15, 2001, a gunman shot and killed Sodhi while he planted flowers in front of the gas station he owned with his brother. His murderer saw killing Sodhi as an act of retaliation for the September 11 attacks days earlier. When arrested, the gunman proclaimed, “I am a patriot” and told authorities that he wanted “to kill a Muslim.” Sodhi was not Muslim; he was Sikh (followers of a religion originating in northern India). The gunman sought to kill someone who, to him, looked like the photographs of Osama Bin Laden that had been widely shown on TV. He targeted Sodhi based on his beard, dark skin, and turban. Sodhi’s death is one of many examples of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence in the United States following September 11.
  • On September 11, 2001, this squeegee handle helped save the lives of six people. When a hijacked airplane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, six men, including Polish immigrant window washer Jan Demczur, found themselves trapped in an express elevator near the 50th floor. Though they were able to stop the elevator from falling, the group was trapped between floors and could smell smoke. Together, they pried open the elevator doors and began to cut through the drywall of the elevator shaft, first with a pocketknife, then with handle of Demczur's squeegee. Eventually, they were able to punch a hole through the wall. The group fled downstairs and out into the street, escaping just minutes before tower fell. After learning about the group's harrowing escape, museum curator David Shayt contacted Demczur. Here's how he described what happened next: 'I called Jan in December. . .met with him and asked him the big question: Did you hang onto the handle, do you still have that squeegee handle? He left the room and came back with something wrapped in a red handkerchief. Turned out to be the handle. He had kept the handle without realizing it. In his blind escape, he had somehow stuffed it in his pocket rather than put it in the bucket that he dropped later. His wife found it, rolled up in his dirty uniform, weeks later.' Demczur agreed to donate the handle to the museum, along with the uniform and shoes he wore to work that morning. Reflecting on the donation in 2002, Shayt told the Washington Post: 'It's collected not as a squeegee handle itself. . .but as evidence of life's affirmation.'

Follow @amhistorymuseum on Instagram.

Our Mission

Empowering people to create a just and compassionate future by exploring, preserving, and sharing the complexity of our past.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions on a range of topics offer firsthand experiences with treasures of American history.

Collections

We collect artifacts of all kinds—from gowns to locomotives—to preserve an enduring record of our past for the American people.

News and Events

Visit the Museum

The museum is open Friday–Tuesday, 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m. All visitors ages two and older are required to wear a face covering. Follow the link to plan your visit.

Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 to October 15. Find resources relating to Hispanic and Latino history on our heritage month page.

National Youth Summit on Gender Equity

This event brings brings students together with scholars, teachers, policy experts, and activists in a national conversation about gender equity and gender bias through the lenses of sports, politics, fashion, music, and identity. September 21–October 12. Free; registration required.

September 11: Stories of a Changed World

How did the attacks affect you or your community? How have you felt living in a post-September 11 world? Share your story here.

Smithsonian Commemorates Sept. 11 20th Anniversary as an Evolving Legacy

The anniversary web portal includes a story-gathering web tool, links to three virtual panel discussions, and a website featuring artifacts and photos from the museum’s collection.

Smithsonian To Display Emmett Till Historical Marker

African American History Curatorial Collective Is Founded at National Museum of American History

See full events calendar
See more news items

From Our Blog

Los Boricuas jersey, with initials SS, the team name, and the the team's cartoon mascot, a stylized coqui frog in a baseball uniform and helmet, standing at bat

Suit up! Honoring Latino heritage on the field

For some teams, uniforms offer a chance to proudly proclaim their cultural heritage and represent their community.
Anna Dickinson, seated

Meet Anna Dickinson: Trailblazing orator and political firebrand

Abolitionist Anna Dickinson's January 1864 speech to a packed House of Representatives was dubbed the “sensation of the season.”
Cartoon illustration of the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall buried underneath stacks of crates and barrels marked with the initials, "TR."

Clifford Berryman and the Teddy Roosevelt African Expedition

A pen and ink drawing featuring the Smithsonian Castle building by Clifford Kennedy Berryman illuminates both the cartoonist's position in the newspaper world and the U.S. capital, while also pointing to the history of Teddy Roosevelt's expedition to Africa.
Glass tube with label for helium inside a wooden box, adjacent to the box's removed lid

Historic helium sample surfaces at Smithsonian

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, but also evanescent and thus hard to hold. It was discovered in 1868 as a yellow line in the spectrum of the solar corona, and named for Helios, the Greek god of the sun.
Read more stories from our blog

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