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Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?
Sesame Street was an innovative and radical children's television program when it premiered in 1969. In the 1960s, many parents were...
How black Philadelphians fought for soldiers during World War I
Suffering from "shell shock and a general breakdown," Charles Mackall and James Randall arrived in Philadelphia in September 1918 from...
Culture in the colonial classroom: A failed attempt at assimilation
As our Philanthropy Initiative continues to explore the history of giving, we're eager to share stories of success and failure. This story...
Blog Posts in "Philanthropy"
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50th Anniversary
Fur the war effort
“The world infrequently notes the passing of a squirrel," announced an Arizona radio station on August 10, 1949. But when it comes to the...
The most radical thing about Stonewall wasn’t the uprising
The Stonewall uprising began June 28, 1969, in response to a police raid at The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, and has since...
How Evelyn Lauder took on breast cancer at the cosmetics counter
They had just arrived in a foreign country and the small girl’s mother was sent away. Ernest and Mimi Hausner fled their home in...
A Scout By Any Other Name
In May 2018, the Boy Scouts of America changed the name of its program for older children to Scouts BSA and opened membership to girls for...
American history must-reads of 2018
These are our most fascinating blog posts of 2018, according to our readers.When FBI agents showed up with a pair of sparkly, red shoesA...
A behind-the-scenes look at museum fundraising
Most people don't realize that while the federal funding the Smithsonian receives supports its buildings and about 2/3 of its staff;...
Why do we have a National Lace Collection?
Safely cared for in the collections of the National Museum of American History are about 6,000 examples of hand- and machine-made lace from...
An anti-slavery anthem reimagined for today
Turn right at the Batmobile. Take the elevator behind the John Bull locomotive. If you hit Julia Child's kitchen, you've gone too far. My...
Total eclipse of the sun, partial eclipse of inequality
"It was now quick work," Maria Mitchell noted. "As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the corona burst out all around the sun, so...
When philanthropists convinced people to save lives
Young Charles Taylor drowned in June 1818. He was six years, seven months, and 10 days old, the son of Nathan and Sally Taylor. While a...
How do the arts promote social change?
The arts are "a space where we can give dignity to others while interrogating our own circumstances," Darren Walker, president of the...
You're invited to a Bowl of Rice Party
Wartime often catalyzes developments in philanthropy. In 2017, the museum added the Bowl of Rice party banner, from fundraising efforts to...
Oregon's Big Pine: Standing tall when the U.S. Constitution was signed
National anniversaries can be celebrated in many ways—parades, fireworks displays, and, of course, museum exhibitions. In 1983 Congress...
Madam C. J. Walker’s philanthropy
A former laundress who became a millionaire from her hair-care company, Madam C. J. Walker (1867–1919) was a leading philanthropist of the...
5 objects that James Smithson might be surprised to find in the institution he founded – until he learned their philanthropy stories
James Smithson might be surprised to learn about some of the objects in the collections at the institution he established. The Englishman...
Past to present: History of philanthropy inspires contemporary giving
I caught up with collections manager Katharine Klein as she worked on rotating objects in the museum's Giving in America exhibit, to learn...
A story in clay: Sara Galner and the Saturday Evening Girls
I didn't drool on the objects, but exploring the ceramics storage room as an intern at the National Museum of American History was pretty...
Abolitionist and Reformer Lucretia Mott
January 3, 2018, would have been Lucretia Coffin Mott’s 225th birthday. When it came to birthdays, Mott had a particular way of celebrating...
From seams to strikes: Exploring women at work through clothing in our collection
What was life like for women in the workforce over the past 150 years? To help answer that question, I turned to the museum’s...
Making money and doing good: The story of an African American power couple from the 1800s
Artists have long been major players in American philanthropy. If that surprises you to learn, you might be further surprised to learn that...
The 10 most-read posts of 2017
2017 was another incredible year on the museum’s blog. More than a few of our most-read posts focused on how the museum continues to grow...
Everyday philanthropists
A bucket from the Ice Bucket Challenge. A collection box from the 19th century. A toolbelt from a volunteer...
Showing support for the Great War with knitting needles
Today, I spend spare time between classes working at my college's library or hanging out with friends. Had I been an American college...
Who tells Eliza's story? Philanthropy and "Hamilton: An American Musical"
Lin-Manuel Miranda's award-winning Broadway hit Hamilton: An American Musical turned international attention to the story of founding...
Preserving family treasures after a hurricane—and leaving the spiders alone in the basement
Beside piles of rubble, The Donut Palace was open for business. The image of the little donut shop, defiantly open in the face of the...
A seven-year struggle to build New York's subway
William Steinway's diary resides in the National Museum of American History's Archives Center as part of the Steinway and Sons...
Contributing to a conversation: Reflections on David Rockefeller's Giving Pledge letter
In March, David Rockefeller died at the extraordinary age of 101. He was one of the first signers of the Giving Pledge, a commitment by...
Piano maker William Steinway saw the future in suburbia in the 1880s, so he built a factory and then an entire village
Piano manufacturer William Steinway described his vision of suburban America to Congress in 1883, but in his own life the future had...
Containers reveal Americans thinking outside the box about philanthropy
I don't like to dodge questions, but that's what I did when someone asked me which object is my favorite in the museum's new exhibition on...
Making a place for Eastern Bluebirds—and philanthropy
If you had asked me to guess the first object I would add to the museum's new philanthropy collection, I never would have said a Virginia...
Meet Amanda Moniz, our new curator of philanthropy
"Congratulations! Say, what does a curator do anyway?" "Philanthropy? So, you're in development?" Over the past few months I've heard those...
Woman-led philanthropy: From organizing bake sales to advocating for woman suffrage
Have you ever been to a bake sale? Or perhaps a craft fair or auction for charity? What about a raffle for charity with a beautiful quilt...
Mothers in World War I
When people think of World War I, they often think of soldiers fighting in trenches. But soldiers weren't the only ones doing the work of...
Participating in America means constantly striving for a more perfect union
America Participates is the museum's 2016 theme: But what does "participation" actually look like? We interviewed David Allison, director...
Americans who joined the World War before their country did
April 6, 2016, marks the 99th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. Although the country would not be drawn into combat until...
Elizabeth Keckley: Businesswoman and philanthropist
This month, we've been exploring how American women made their place in the marketplace by participating in business and consumption....
The bonds of benevolence and focused charitable organizations
How do you come to truly know someone? How do you know if they are who they claim to be?These questions were at the heart of a major shift...
Meet Jenny Lind, one of America's first female celebrities
Long before Hollywood actresses such as Marilyn Monroe and Katharine Hepburn became iconic stars, popular female opera singers of the early...
A society for everything: Remaking America's charitable landscape during the Second Great Awakening
For many, "the Second Great Awakening" is one of those historical terms from a dusty textbook that sounds vaguely familiar, but the details...
Donor traces his family's roots, supports museum research
After opening the new innovation floor of the west wing this summer, the museum is looking forward to the second floor, which will open in...
Picturing women's participation during the Great War
I came back from my eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C., with a Rosie the Riveter poster from the museum store here (not...
Finding America's participatory spirit in our quilt collection
Americans have often banded together for the common good. That could mean marching on the National Mall to protest injustice or...
American Philanthropy: A new Smithsonian initiative
"In the United States associations are established to promote public order, commerce, industry, morality, and religion; for there is no end...
Was Benjamin Franklin the father of American philanthropy?
Benjamin Franklin's reputation for invention and inventiveness looms large in our national imagination: Franklin stoves, Poor Richard's...
The Hagan internship honors a history lover's legacy with a focus on women's history
With each new season, a new crop of interns comes to the National Museum of American History. Two museum supporters, Bette and Lindsey...
The delicate "war laces" of World War I
"War" and "lace" are not often part of the same sentence. However, laces made in Belgium during World War I are an exception. About 50 of...
Donors support their daughters' favorite museum, help build new learning spaces
The museum is excited to be opening its transformed first floor of the west wing this summer, including the Patrick F. Taylor...
Remembering A. James Clark and a legacy of active learning
We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of A. James Clark, the driving force behind Clark Construction Group, LLC. The story...
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