What does babysitting mean to girls? It's complicated.
Two different guests linger at the Talk Back table at the end of the exhibition Girlhood (It’s complicated). Each one picks up a pen to...
New dresses, new traditions: Jill Biden’s inaugural ensembles go on view
Today first lady Jill Biden came to our museum to present her inaugural ensembles to the national collection and see them placed on...
Betty White's shoulder bag is a time capsule of World War II
On December 31, 2021, the beloved actress Betty Marion White Ludden (1922–2021) passed away at 99 years old, weeks shy of her hundredth...

Blog Posts in "Transportation History"

Black and white photo of Riker electric automobile parked outside. 
Will electric cars help save the environment? 
General Motors EV1 electric car, 1997 (2005.0061.01)A Smithsonian magazine reader asked a seemingly simple question: Does building electric...
The little Jeep that could
What weighs a quarter ton, has four wheels, was the first of its kind, and was built in Pennsylvania? The Bantam Jeep Prototype of course!...
Mail cache decorated with illustration showing a sled dog team from the perspective of a musher
Special delivery by sled dogs
In this social media world of Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, everyone has heard of email (and even those of us who aren’t tech savvy...
Plaster Figures from America on the Move
Creating an 1890s orchard in a museum
America on the Move has been open to the public since 2003 and remains one of the museum's most popular exhibitions, particularly for...
Photograph of the opening of the New York City subway system. Courtesy of the New York Public Library.
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...
An object that is a circle with alternating white and green bands. In the middle is a red circle with M&D and the universal medical sign in it. There is a bronze-colored part sticking out of the bottom with a hole in it.
Move aside, the doctor is driving through!
While walking alongside a street or through a parking lot, do you ever notice the different signs adorning cars? Bumper stickers are the...
A chunk of a solid, stone-lik substance that is riddled with small holes.
The Smithsonian and the 19th century guano trade: This poop is crap
Though it authorized our nation's earliest imperialistic land grab outside our continent, the 1856 Guano Islands Act is little known today...
Photograph of the Tucker sedan on display on the museum floor
Preston Tucker's sedan: Showcasing a beautiful business failure
Given an opportunity to suggest a landmark artifact outside the entrance to American Enterprise, the museum's new business history...
Photograph of a Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz taillight assembly, 1959
When tail fins made waves
Although visitors would be hard-pressed to find shark fins in our museum's displays, there is one kind of fin (or, at least, part of a fin...
Black and white photograph of a woman posing, unsmiling, with a bicycle
Becoming "Louise the Wheelwoman"
"Meet the Wheelwoman" is an interactive theater program created in conjunction with a new learning space at the museum, the Patrick F...
Detail of marine chart showing an island
What a load of guano: 5 facts you didn't know about bird poop
To most people, bird poop is just something they scrape off the windshield of their cars, but it's more important than we may think. In...
High wheel bicycle race in Frederick, Maryland
Bicycles have changed, but fellowship remains
One of the most popular photo opportunities in the museum's new innovation wing can be found in the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation Object...
A photo of the bicycle in front of a palm tree
The Hope Diamond of bicycles? A curator's quest to uncover the history of a bejeweled bike
An 1896 Columbia woman's bicycle, made by Pope Manufacturing Company and embellished with gems and gold by Tiffany & Co., is currently...
Photo of bicycle
Uncovering the silver—and gold—lining of a Tiffany-embellished bicycle
An 1896 women's safety bicycle, currently on view in the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation Object Project, has proven to be one of the...
Photograph, circa 1958, of four young African American women standing beside a convertible automobile
An atlas of self-reliance: The Negro Motorist's Green Book (1937-1964)
Owning a car expanded people’s physical freedom to move, allowing them to participate in a radical democratization of space in America. In...
Yellow bike with front and back baskets leans against a worn white wall, in the grass.
To Junius Wilson, bikes meant freedom
Junius Wilson's history has been told in newspapers, books, and even in this museum's exhibitions. It is the history of a man who had more...
Illustration of an ambulance-style van with a red cross and text: "U.S.A. X-Ray Car No. 4"
The abstract artist and his World War I "X-Ray Car"
In 1897, at the age of 22, Henry Lyman Saÿen's career in scientific instruments seemed to be set. Little did he know that his talents would...
On the right, the motorcycle parked in a driveway with a license plate that reads "Guatemala 1979-1983."
Making sense of our Harley-Davidson with Guatemalan connections
In museums, it's common for a single artifact to tell many diverse stories, far beyond the scope of any one exhibition. Christine Miranda,...
On the left, a 1966 Ford Mustang (yellow). On the right, a young man holding keys. Photo is from 1970s.
Mustang memories and a fair to remember
In the early 1960s, activists, professionals, and idealists changed America, making headlines and history. In 1964, the year of the New...
Photo of man demonstrating the jaws of life on wrecked car
In their own words: Auto safety pioneers
In today's post, Roger White, Associate Curator for Road Transportation with the Division of Work and Industry, shares the stories behind...
Part II: Happy birthday, Grand Central! Let’s see what you’re made of…
This month, New York's Grand Central Station celebrates its 100thanniversary. Goldman Sachs Fellow Allison Marsh uses the occasion to delve...
The ghost of the Panama Canal
Lauren Jaeger discovered an emotional story from the Canal Zone in the museum's collections. Edward Ray aboard the steamship "Panama"...
Covered wagons and the American frontier
This ca. 1840-1850 Conestoga wagon, a freight hauler in Pennsylvania, represents the role of covered wagons in pushing the American...
"Race to the Museum": moving day
Last month we asked you to vote on which historic car you’d most like to see on temporary display, and after 24,000 votes, the 1929 Miller...
And the winners of the Race to the Museum contest are...
We asked you to vote for your favorite of 8 automotive jewels in the Smithsonian car collection, covering 120 years of history . . . and...
Race to the Museum: Which cars are in the lead?
Public voting for our Race to the Museum contest opened December 21, 2010 and will run through January 11, 2011.   Can't wait...
Race to the Museum: Vote for your favorite car
In the National Museum of American History, there is a cabinet full of keys—keys that fit the 73 cars in the museum’s automobile...
Race to the Museum: EV1 electric car, 1997
This post is the last in a series of eight profiling automobiles in the museum’s collection. At the conclusion of the series on Tuesday,...
Race to the Museum: GM Sunraycer solar car, 1987
This post is the seventh in a series of eight profiling automobiles in the museum’s collection. At the conclusion of the series on Tuesday...
Race to the Museum: Glasspar sports car, 1953
This post is the sixth in a series of eight profiling automobiles in the museum’s collection. At the conclusion of the series on Tuesday,...
Race to the Museum: Tucker sedan, 1948
This post is the fifth in a series of eight profiling automobiles in the museum’s collection. At the conclusion of the series on Tuesday,...
Race to the Museum: Miller race car, 1929
This post is the fourth in a series of eight profiling automobiles in the museum’s collection. At the conclusion of the series on Tuesday,...
Race to the Museum: Oldsmobile curved-dash runabout, 1903
This post is the third in a series of eight profiling automobiles in the museum’s collection. At the conclusion of the series on Tuesday,...
Race to the Museum: Balzer automobile, 1894
This post is the second in a series of eight profiling automobiles in the museum’s collection. At the conclusion of the series on Tuesday,...
Race to the Museum: Long steam tricycle, about 1880
This post is the first in a series of eight profiling automobiles in the museum’s collection. At the conclusion of the series on Tuesday,...
Race to the Museum: Voting opens Dec. 21
In the museum, there is a cabinet full of keys—keys that fit the 73 cars in the museum’s automobile collection. Fourteen of these cars are...