Between 1960 and 1962, over fourteen thousand children traveled from Cuba to the United States for an exodus that is now known as Operation Pedro Pan. After the Cuban revolution, some Cuban parents feared for their children's futures under the new Communist regime. They entrusted the Catholic Church, aid societies, and the U.S. State Department to connect their children with awaiting relatives and friends in the United States. Some were cared for by the Catholic Welfare Bureau and placed in temporary shelters in Miami before being relocated to foster families in 30 different States. These groups cared for children until the families could be reunited. Margarita Lora, who owned this dress, was one of the children brought to the United States as part of Operation Pedro Pan from Cuba to Miami, Florida on August 14, 1961. She was eight years old, and ended up in foster care with her sister and two brothers, in Syracuse, New York.
After the Cuban Revolution, many parents feared for their children's futures under communism. This Pan American passenger ticket was used by eight year old Margarita Lora when she left Cuba for Miami, Florida on August 14, 1961 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, a program that airlifted over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children from Havana to the United States between 1960 and 1962.
This Norwegian drinking bowl is carved in the form of a goose and features rosemaling, or decorative floral folk painting originating from the low-lands of Norway. Bowls were typically carved from a single piece of birch wood and featured incised decoration produced through chip carving. Due to the revival of Norwegian folk art in the 19th century, kasas were widely reproduced for use as decoration.
This five-sided small plywood stomp box, called a tarima, was used by Martha Gonzalez of the Grammy-winning band, Quetzal. Music along the California borderlands mixes dynamic sounds of R&B and salsa with traditional rhythms from across the globe. The tarima, with roots in both African and Mexican musical traditions, is used like a drum when the performer creates rhythms by tap dancing upon it.
This architectural bracket, or corbel, made in the 1790s, would have adorned the mission church at Pecos, New Mexico. Established by Spanish Franciscans to convert Pueblo peoples in 1621, the church was rebuilt after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The corbel was excavated by Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden in 1870 for the U.S. National Museum Bureau of Ethnology, before being transferred to the National Museum of History and Technology – now the National Museum of American History. The site of the Pecos, New Mexico mission church is a National Historic Landmark and State Park. This corbel is made of carved wood, and has painted elements. It would have been part of a horizontal short bracket, built into the mission church’s adobe wall.
A white, plastic toothbrush with green grip and synthetic fiber bristles comb collected in a remote part of the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican border. The past 20 years has seen a rise in unauthorized border crossing, border enforcement procedures, and debates about who and how migrants should be let into the country.
As the US federal immigration enforcement strategy known as Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD) increased the security presence around urban ports of entry in the mid-1990s, there was a shift in undocumented migration towards more remote regions of the American Southwest. Those making the perilous journey through this inhospitable desert landscape faced extreme temperatures (summer temperatures as high as 100° F/38° C and winter temperatures approaching freezing), rugged terrain, abuse from coyotes (human smugglers), and the risk of getting caught by the Border Patrol.
The site where this was found likely served as a way station used by human smugglers or a site of Border Patrol apprehension. Typical items found at these sites include personal hygiene products such as this comb, backpacks, excess clothes, and empty water bottles.
A black, plastic twin blade disposable razor with ridged rectangular handle. Inscribed on top of handle on side opposite blade is the maker mark, “DORUSA” collected in a remote part of the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican border. The past 20 years has seen a rise in unauthorized border crossing, border enforcement procedures, and debates about who and how migrants should be let into the country.
As the US federal immigration enforcement strategy known as Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD) increased the security presence around urban ports of entry in the mid-1990s, there was a shift in undocumented migration towards more remote regions of the American Southwest. Those making the perilous journey through this inhospitable desert landscape faced extreme temperatures (summer temperatures as high as 100° F/38° C and winter temperatures approaching freezing), rugged terrain, abuse from coyotes (human smugglers), and the risk of getting caught by the Border Patrol.
The site where this was found likely served as a way station used by human smugglers or a site of Border Patrol apprehension. Typical items found at these sites include personal hygiene products such as this razor, combs, backpacks, excess clothes, and empty water bottles.
Small, travel-sized tube of Colgate Total Whitening Toothpaste. It is a white tube and cap with ridges and has blue sides and bears gray Spanish and English font on front fascia. The 22 mL tube is approximately half full and was collected in a remote part of the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican border. The past 20 years has seen a rise in unauthorized border crossing, border enforcement procedures, and debates about who and how migrants should be let into the country.
As the US federal immigration enforcement strategy known as Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD) increased the security presence around urban ports of entry in the mid-1990s, there was a shift in undocumented migration towards more remote regions of the American Southwest. Those making the perilous journey through this inhospitable desert landscape faced extreme temperatures (summer temperatures as high as 100° F/38° C and winter temperatures approaching freezing), rugged terrain, abuse from coyotes (human smugglers), and the risk of getting caught by the Border Patrol.
The site where this was found likely served as a way station used by human smugglers or a site of Border Patrol apprehension. Typical items found at these sites include personal hygiene products such as this toothbrush, backpacks, excess clothes, and empty water bottles.
A black fine-tooth plastic comb collected in a remote part of the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican border. The past 20 years has seen a rise in unauthorized border crossing, border enforcement procedures, and debates about who and how migrants should be let into the country.
As the US federal immigration enforcement strategy known as Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD) increased the security presence around urban ports of entry in the mid-1990s, there was a shift in undocumented migration towards more remote regions of the American Southwest. Those making the perilous journey through this inhospitable desert landscape faced extreme temperatures (summer temperatures as high as 100° F/38° C and winter temperatures approaching freezing), rugged terrain, abuse from coyotes (human smugglers), and the risk of getting caught by the Border Patrol.
A white 2.6 oz. stick of Sure brand Regular Scent Anti-Perspirant and Deodorant collected in a remote part of the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican border. The past 20 years has seen a rise in unauthorized border crossing, border enforcement procedures, and debates about who and how migrants should be let into the country.
As the US federal immigration enforcement strategy known as Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD) increased the security presence around urban ports of entry in the mid-1990s, there was a shift in undocumented migration towards more remote regions of the American Southwest. Those making the perilous journey through this inhospitable desert landscape faced extreme temperatures (summer temperatures as high as 100° F/38° C and winter temperatures approaching freezing), rugged terrain, abuse from coyotes (human smugglers), and the risk of getting caught by the Border Patrol.
The site where this was found likely served as a way station used by human smugglers or a site of Border Patrol apprehension. Typical items found at these sites include personal hygiene products such as this deodorant, backpacks, excess clothes, and empty water bottles.
This pair of dancing shoes was donated by Martha Gonzalez, the lead singer of Quetzal, a Mexican-American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Known as zapateados, the shoes are worn for Mexican dances that involve stamping and tapping feet against the ground to create rhythm. Purchased in Veracruz, Mexico, the shoes have a unique square toe, which Gonzalez claims is better for dancing. The shoes have a long history of use with significant wear from her performances.
This serving spoon is believed to be from Napoleon’s commissary, a detail of his army responsible for supplying necessary food rations and supplies. After his accession to power in 1799, Napoleon appointed Pierre Daru as Chief Commissary to the Army of the Reserve and later La Grande Armee, which defeated the Austrian Empire and Russia in 1805.
Tao-Zeun “T.Z.” Chu was born in 1934 in Shanghai, China; however, in a time of political uncertainty, his family decided to move to Mumbai (Bombay), India by 1948. Chu and his two sisters were sent to the Woodstock School, an American Missionary high school in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains where he learned English, developed his love of chemistry, and gained a sense of belonging in an international community. T.Z. continued his education in chemistry by traveling to the United States in order to attend college. As a foreign student of modest means, the University of California, Berkeley welcomed Chu as he found a home within the Berkeley Students Cooperative and the College of Chemistry. After graduation, T.Z. worked with a start-up company manufacturing gas chromatographs. As the business expanded, Chu went to Basel, Switzerland to spearhead the European branch of the company but also met his wife of 52 years, Irmgard Suetterlin, there. Through long 12 hour days and the experiences that he gained through his education and work, Tao-Zeun Chu became the first Asian CEO of a public technology company in America.
Brought from Bohemia (now Hungary) by Josef Benes and his wife, Katherine Syrwy Benes, when they immigrated to the United States in 1882. Their daughter, Carol Benes Miller, the donor, recalled, "We used it in Chicago, when we 4 girls had to go into back yard outhouse in 1892 till we moved into a cold water flat that had a bathroom." Their first home in Chicago was at Ashland Ave. & 20th St., according to the donor, and she was about 3 or 4 years old at the time the family moved to the United States.
Drop-stem smoking pipe with bowl carved into a bird's claw. According to Carol Benes Miller, the donor, "The pipe was from Montgomery Ward's as Dad worked there 27 yrs. as their gunsmith." She recalled her father, Josef Benes, smoking it from 1900 until 1915 when he passed away. Her parents had immigrated from Chocen, Bohemia in 1882 to Chicago, Illinois, where they brought up four daughters. The pipe bowl is made from meerschaum, a clay material whose name translates into “sea foam” in German for it is often found floating in the Black Sea. Meerschaum was a popular pipe-making material in Germany and is frequently carved with German motifs.
Horses and riding equipment such as spurs, saddles, and stirrups played a fundamental role in Spanish conquest, exploration, and settlement. In the 1500s, the Spanish brought cattle, sheep, and horses into northern Mexico. Spanish settlers and Native peoples developed ranching and grazing economies through much of the Southwest. This spur was collected by Father Noël Dumarest sometime between 1894 and 1900 when he was placed in charge of the Indian Pueblos of Cochiti, Santo Domingo, and San Felipe as well as several Mexican towns.
The Lowcountry (coastal) region of the Carolinas and Georgia and the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands were and continue to be home to a distinctive regional African American culture that is now recognized as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. By the mid-1700s, rice became the dominant cash crop and plantation owners wanted enslaved people from West Africa who already knew how to cultivate rice. The work of these enslaved Africans made the Carolina rice planters the richest planters in the American colonies. The West African peoples knew how to make coiled grass baskets for a variety of use. They innovated the method by using materials similar to those at home in their new environment. This bulrush work basket was made on Sapelo Island, Georgia, sometime between 1850 and 1900. At one time, baskets like these were common on working farms on the coast and in fancy homes around Savannah, but today baskets from the 1800s are very rare.
This is a modern fanner basket made in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, around 1972 by a member of the Manigault family of basket sewers. Fanner baskets were originally associated with the growth of rice as a cash crop in the Lowcountry coastal regions in the 1700s and 1800s. West Africans who knew how to cultivate the complicated rice plants were especially valued by slaveholders. These shallow baskets were made of coils of grass and used to remove the rice grains from the husks. Pounded grains of raw rice were placed in fanner baskets so that the rice could be tossed in the air or dropped from one basket into another. Through this process, the wind blew away the chaff and the rice would be ready for processing. The original fanner baskets were much larger. Some were more than three feet or more in diameter. These modern fanner baskets are much smaller, made to be decorative and are often used in homes as platters. The distinctive Lowcountry region of the Carolinas and Georgia and the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands culture are now part of the National Park Service as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
These small metal badges, most often made of copper, were produced in Charleston, South Carolina between 1800 and the Civil War. They were worn by slaves working in the city; slaves living and working on the rural plantations were not required to wear them. The badges only identified the type of work they were permitted to do. Neither the slave owner nor the slave’s name were engraved into the badges. These three are marked for servant, porter, and mechanic. Other categories were fisher and fruiterer. Slave owners would purchase a badge from the City of Charleston. The wages earned by a hired-out slave belonged to their owners. However, evidence exists that wages earned in excess of what was owed to their owner could be retained by the slave, if the owner allowed it. The badges were typically sewn to clothing and gave the wearer more freedom of movement within the city than would be given to a slave working on a plantation. Badges were dated and were issued annually and became a source of tax revenue for the city. Cost for tags in 1865 ranged from $10 to $35 with the number peaking at about 5,000 in 1860. Ironically, slave badges which may be looked at as tagging a human as if property, may actually be evidence of relative freedom of movement within Charleston and a means of income for a slave and his or her family.
This coiled grass basket was collected in Morgantown, West Virginia. However, by the style, shape, and use of bulrush and other plants, curators know that this basket was probably made in the late 1800s or early 1900s somewhere in the Lowcountry (coastal) region of the Carolinas and Georgia or on the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands. The basket was probably carried to West Virginia. The Gullah or Geechee people who made baskets of this type both carried on traditions from African ancestors and incorporated innovations created by American-born ancestors. This small basket could have been used to carry many small items. The distinctive Lowcountry region of the Carolinas and Georgia and the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands culture are now part of the National Park Service as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.