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Your search found 785 records from all Smithsonian Institution collections.
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- Description
- James Klein gave his sister Katharine this iTunes gift card as a Christmas present. A large consumer of music, Katharine, and many other millennials, turned to digital files for her music collection rather than previous generations that had purchased records, tapes, and CDs.
- Distributing music through computer networks transformed the music industry. Apple Computer became the leader through its iPod media players and iTunes store. Traditional “brick and
- mortar” companies had to adapt to online shopping by creating websites and offering gift cards that could be used online as well as in stores.
- The use of gift cards began in the 1990s and took off quickly. Gift givers liked the cards because it helped them avoid gift mistakes and gift receivers enjoyed the cards because they could use the card to get what they want. Retailers liked gift cards because they lower the gift return rate, bring in additional business, and often don’t get redeemed.
- ID Number
- 2013.0230.01
- serial number
- PBH6063300000729891502
- catalog number
- 2013.0230.01
- accession number
- 2013.0230
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- Description
- The United States Fuel Company owned the Mohrland, Utah mine as well as its company store that was run by the Mohrland Mercantile Company. This token is a form of scrip that entitled the bearer to 10 sticks of dynamite from the company score, while also allowing the company to control the distribution of explosives. Scrip is a substitute for legal tender often used in coal towns as a substitute for monetary wages or credit against the miner’s next paycheck. Scrip could only be spent in company stores for goods (often sold at a markup) and the use of scrip in lieu of pay was often a source of contention between workers and management. This token was stamped by the Salt Lake Stamp Company sometime between 1915 and 1938.
- date made
- 1915 - 1938
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-I-1012.04
- catalog number
- MHI-I-1012
- accession number
- 304820
-
- Description
- Vint Cerf owned this Google Nexus One phone manufactured by HTC during 2010. The Nexus One was Google’s first phone in its flagship Nexus line, where the search giant manages the design, development, and support for smartphones and tablets that are manufactured by various companies including Motorola, HTC, and Asus. The introduction of the first iPhone in 2007 made it apparent that “smart phones” with an always available data connection were the future of the mobile internet access. Google immediately began designing a competing smartphone around their Android operating system, releasing the G1 in 2008 before launching its Nexus line in 2010.
- Vint Cerf is most well-known for his work with Bob Kahn in designing the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol in 1974. The TCP/IP architecture serves as the backbone of the internet and has led to Cerf being called “The Father of the Internet.” In 2005 Cerf joined Google as its “Chief Internet Evangelist.”
- Location
- Currently not on view (box; charging cable in sealed bag; instruction card; pair of earbuds in sealed bag; regulations and restrictions booklet; usb male to usb micro b male plug cable in sealed bag; warranty statement booklet)
- maker
- HTC Corporation
- ID Number
- 2014.0093.01
- catalog number
- 2014.0093.01
- accession number
- 2014.0093
- serial number
- HTO3PP900164
-
- Description
- The Supremes. side 1: You Can'y Hurry Love; side 2: Put Yourself in My Place (Motown M-1097)45 rpm
- This 7-inch 45 rpm record contained the Supremes single “You Can’t Hurry Love” with the B-side “Put Yourself in My Place” ” that debuted July 25, 1966. Written by Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, and Eddie Holland and released by the legendary Motown Records, the single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in September of 1966. “You Can’t Hurry Love” was the Supremes seventh number one hit on the Motown label.
- date made
- 1966
- recording artist
- Supremes
- manufacturer
- Motown
- ID Number
- 1996.3034.07649
- catalog number
- 1996.3034.07649
- nonaccession number
- 1996.3034
- label number
- M-1097
-
- Description
- The Bank of Chester Valley produced this bank note in 1860 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The center of the note features an engraving of the inside of the Brandywine Ironworks and Nail Factory, which was owned and managed by Rebecca Lukens (1794-1854). Lukens was known during her time for being the only woman in the United States to own and operate an iron mill. William Penn is also on the note, on the right. Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, is on the left.
- date made
- 1860
- ID Number
- 2019.0332.1
- accession number
- 2019.0332
- catalog number
- 2019.0332.1
- serial number
- 4231
-
- Description
- This is the tail light assembly for the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. The Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz was a top-of-the-line convertible that epitomized the tailfin era of automobile design. Cadillac introduced its fin styling in the 1940s, and its popularity grew over the next few decades. The distinctive twin-bullet tail light assembly braced into the rear of the fins of the Eldorado.
- date made
- 1959
- ID Number
- 2015.3088.01
- catalog number
- 2015.3088.01
- nonaccession number
- 2015.3088
-
- Description (Brief)
- The high cost of building and maintaining prisons motivated a search for alternatives. One approach adopted by state and local governments for certain offenders entailed home confinement monitored by an electronic device. This ankle bracelet communicates with the control box. Should the wearer move out of range of the box without authorization a message is dispatched to local law enforcement authorities.
- date made
- ca 1990
- maker
- BI Incorporated
- ID Number
- 2014.0058.04
- accession number
- 2014.0058
- catalog number
- 2014.0058.04.01
-
- Description
- In the mid-1800s, after being cleaned and stretched, beaver skins were transformed into beaver pelts such as this one. Dark brown in color, this beaver pelt is rather large, being almost two feet in diameter. Prized for their water-repellent fur, pelts traded at a premium. In the early 1800s, “Made Beaver” was a unit of trade; 12 pelts purchased a four-foot gun; one, a one-pound kettle.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- mid 1800s
- ID Number
- 1979.1263.00759
- accession number
- 1979.1263
- catalog number
- 79.112.OC81
- collector/donor number
- OC81
-
- Description
- Hatters used hat block stands such as this one to hold and anchor hat blocks. Wooden pegs hold the stand together and also provide a way to secure a variety of blocks for different shaped hats. From the late-nineteenth century to to the mid-twentieth century, work attire required hats for men and women and most Americans had at one hat in their wardrobe. Daily wear meant hats got scuffed, dirty, and misshapen. Thrifty consumers did not throw away hats, but had them cleaned and reformed by hatters to extend the life of their purchases. As the fashion of wearing hats declined in the 1960s, hat blocking became a fast-receding craft.
- Hatter and small businessman, Harold Cotton, Sr. used this block and others in this collection, in his shop in Greensboro, NC beginning in the mid-1950s. A black entrepreneur, Cotton used the income from his shop to move up the economic ladder and promote the welfare of the black community. Profits from the shop supported institutions within the black community, including St. Stephen’s United Church of Christ, the local black Boy Scout troop, and the NAACP.
- For other blocks used by Cotton, see 2012. 0201. 01, 2012. 0201. 04, 2012. 0201. 03 and 2012. 0201. 05.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2012.0201.05
- accession number
- 2012.0201
- catalog number
- 2012.0201.05
-
- Description
- This is a 45 rpm single from the pop band Energy (20) that contained two A-side songs, “If We Aim to Stop Inflation” and “Energy Crisis” with two B-sides “Just A Little Recession” and “I’m Sorry for Leaving You.” The record was released by the label Jody Records, a small outfit from Brooklyn, New York that released mainly spoken word albums. The songs highlight the economic concerns rampant in the era of “stagflation.”
- recording artist
- Energy
- manufacturer
- Jody
- ID Number
- 2000.3053.2580
- label number
- A-9071
- nonaccession number
- 2000.3053
- catalog number
- 2000.3053.2580
-
- Description
- These are cutting and sewing instructions for the overseas manufacturing of a dress sold under the “Hot Kiss” label. The instructions date from June 27, 2002 and describe a dress with style number 126-5462 made in Hong Kong. The paper gives explicit instructions about how to stitch the seams, where the ruffles should go, and how much cloth should be used for each size of dress. During the 1980s, more and more brands and labels operated factories abroad to manufacture their wares with cheaper labor. This made it necessary to create guidelines and instructions for the overseas workers such as this ticket.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1999 - 2002
- 1999-2002
- maker
- Hot Kiss, Inc.
- ID Number
- 2014.3041.04.03
- catalog number
- 2014.3041.04.03
- accession number
- 2014.3041
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- Description
- Beginning in 1971, with a dramatic, nonviolent protest of an underground nuclear weapons test on Alaska’s small Aleutian island of Amchitka, Greenpeace grew into one of the world’s largest environmental membership organizations. As symbolized by this button from the late 20th century, Greenpeace embraced direct-action tactics in its campaigns to address challenges like overfishing, commercial whaling, deforestation, genetic engineering, and climate change.
- The button is among the more than 1,500 pin-backed environmental buttons that Gerald H. Meral donated to the National Museum of American History. Meral spent his career addressing natural resource concerns for the California state government and California-based non-governmental organizations. He began assembling his button collection in 1970.
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.1161
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.1161
-
- Description
- These are cutting and sewing instructions for the overseas manufacturing of a dress sold under the “Hot Kiss” label. The instructions date from June 27, 2002 and describe a dress with style number 126-5462 made in Hong Kong. The paper gives explicit instructions about how to stitch the seams, where the ruffles should go, and how much cloth should be used for each size of dress. During the 1980s, more and more brands and labels operated factories abroad to manufacture their wares with cheaper labor. This made it necessary to create guidelines and instructions for the overseas workers such as this ticket.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1999 - 2002
- 1999-2002
- maker
- Hot Kiss, Inc.
- ID Number
- 2014.3041.04.05
- accession number
- 2014.3041
- catalog number
- 2014.3041.04.05
-
- Description (Brief)
- Two early transistors in a sample box distributed by Bell Telephone Labs. Each transistor is a steel, cylindrical can with hole in one side, recessed top, two leads at right angles emerge from the bottom. Printed on top of box: “Bell Telephone Labs. / Transistors / Complimentary Sample / For Experimental Use Only”. One transistor marked: “AP1198”, the other is marked “AP1274”.
- John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at Bell Telephone Laboratories developed a revolutionary device in 1947: the transistor. Using a semiconductor like germanium, transistors could transmit or amplify electrical currents more reliably and using far less power than vacuum tubes. The Bell Telephone Company provided most of the telephone service in the U.S. at that time but worried about anti-trust regulations should they try to monopolize the transistor invention. So for a licensing fee or $25,000 any company could gain access to transistor technology. This 1948 sample case contains two germanium point-contact transistors “for experimental use only.”
- date made
- ca 1948
- maker
- Bell Telephone Laboratories
- ID Number
- 2003.0231.17
- accession number
- 2003.0231
- catalog number
- 2003.0231.17
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- Description
- Lawn darts (also known as jarts) were a popular backyard lawn game during the 1980s. This lawn dart set sold by DP Superdarts is composed of three yellow darts and three red darts, with two plastic circles as targets.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2014.3006.02.3
- nonaccession number
- 2014.3006
- catalog number
- 2014.3006.02.3
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- Description
- This cigar store Indian was used as an advertisement for D. F. Saylor’s Pennsylvania tobacco shop during the late 19th and early 20th century. The Indian holds a bundle of cigars in one hand and a tobacco leaf in the other. He stands on a four-sided pedestal that has writing on each side: “145/D. F. Saylor/Cigars, Tobacco, Candy”—“Smoke/50-50/Cigar”—“El Wadora/5¢/Cigar” and “Thank You! Call Again.” The pedestal also advertises a shoe shine. Indians were associated with tobacco since they introduced it to Europeans, and advertisers played upon these stereotypes to hawk their wares to illiterate consumers.
- ID Number
- CL.65.0993
- catalog number
- 65.0993
- accession number
- 256396
-
- Description
- Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane number 106 was published by DC Comics in November of 1970. The cover features art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson that depicts the white Lois Lane stepping into Superman’s Plastimold machine and stepping out as a black woman. The 36 page issue sold for 15 cents and features the Lois Lane story “I am Curious (Black)!” and the Rose and Thorn story “Where Do You Plant a Thorn?” The issue explored race relations in Metropolis as Lois transform into a black woman to write a story about “Little Africa.” Her new skin color changes society’s perception of her, and she realizes the struggle of everyday life as a minority.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1970-11
- author
- Kanigher, Robert
- artist
- Roth, Werner
- Colletta, Vince
- publisher
- National Periodical Publications, Inc.
- maker
- National Periodical Publications, Inc.
- Action Comics
- ID Number
- 1988.3095.23
- catalog number
- 1988.3095.23
- nonaccession number
- 1988.3095
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- date made
- ca 1960
- ID Number
- 2019.0303.1
- accession number
- 2019.0303
- catalog number
- 2019.0303.1
-
- Description
- This two-piece gray suit was manufactured by Deansgate, Inc. The company was based in New Orleans and manufactured traditional business clothing since 1892. The jacket is not vented and features three buttons on the front and two on the sleeves. The trousers are cuffed and have a zippered fly.
- Purchased in Denver, the suit cost around $75 and would have been worn for business, social activities, and church.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1956-1959
- ID Number
- CS.309087.003
- catalog number
- 309087.003
- accession number
- 309087
-
- date made
- c1960-70s
- referenced
- Allied Printing Trades Council
- ID Number
- 1986.0666.107
- accession number
- 1986.0666
- catalog number
- 1986.0666.107
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