EDM in the history museum: Steve Aoki gear travels the world and finds a home at the museum
Music blasts toward the audience as concertgoers dance to Steve Aoki's pounding bass rhythms and bright LED displays. The DJ throws cakes...
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...
6 Jewish American objects for Jewish American Heritage Month
In April 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed May to be Jewish American Heritage Month. Jewish American objects in our collections...

Blog

Making Memories, Rocking the Mall
On June 9, a quarter million people came together on the National Mall in Washington to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts of...
Beauty and the beets
Once upon a time, around 2,000 B.C., there grew a magical plant in the Mediterranean region. Ancient civilizations heralded the plant as a...
Girl Scout Goodies
The Girl Scouts are coming! If you have been reading this blog, you know that we are officially very ready for you, and have a wonderful...
Samuel Colt and...sewing machines? - part 2
Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a post that answers what a revolver, a sewing machine, a bicycle, and an early-model electric...
Samuel Colt...and sewing machines? - part 1
Take four technologies from the museum’s collections—a revolver, a sewing machine, a bicycle, and an early-model electric automobile. A...
A plate of General Tso's Chicken, with a side of broccoli
General Tso's Chicken: the most popular Hunanese dish in the USA
Curator’s Note: What started out as a simple research assignment for the Sweet & Sour Initiative turned into an interesting culinary...
100 years of Girl Scouts: part 2
Our exhibit exploring one hundred years of Girl Scouts opened on the first of June. Girl Scouts has grown from a handful of girls in...
Launching International Jazz Day
For eleven years, each April, jazz supporters around the world have celebrated Jazz Appreciation Month. JAM was established in 2001 by the...
100 years of Girl Scouts: part I
Girl Scouts of the USA was born one hundred years ago when its founder, Juliette Gordon Low, brought eighteen girls together in Savannah,...
A photograph of Celia Cruz taken in the 1950's
And the winner of the Frame an Iconic American contest is…
We asked you to vote on which of five iconic American figures should be memorialized in a new biographical portrait by Robert Weingarten, a...
Summertime...and the learning is easy
It’s almost summer time! Time for the beach! Time for ice cream! Time for—summer learning loss? Research indicates that students lose some...
A conversation on women's health
Women’s Health Week just concluded. I’ve been thinking about this and how influenced we are by current events. This is particularly true...
Frame an Iconic American: Final days to vote
Over 10,000 votes have been cast in our contest to choose the subject of a new biographical portrait by Robert Weingarten, a noted...
Research serendipity in South Texas
As a historian, I think one of greatest pleasures of working in an archive is not just getting my hands on what I hoped to find, but...
Breaking ground: Gillette Family Garden
In January 2012 the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), in partnership with the Thomas...
People on a stage
Capturing D.C.'s rich Latino history
The Latino D.C. History Project is an initiative to document, preserve, interpret, and display the varied stories of Latino life in the...
Growing Up in the 50s and 60s
We’re asking YOU to help us show young visitors in our galleries what it was like to grow up in the 50s and early 60s....
Frame an Iconic American: Who's in the lead?
Voting for our Frame an Iconic American contest opened May 11, 2012 and will run through May 26, 2012. Voting extended through May 28!...
Discovery in the collections: 1914 Kodachrome of George Eastman
You know how sometimes you are looking for one thing, but find something else that is even better? This color portrait of George Eastman,...
Frame an Iconic American: Vote for your favorite historical figure
Help choose a historical figure whose biographical portrait will be composed by Robert Weingarten, a noted photographic artist. Read about...
Medallion
Frederick Douglass: Orator, Activist, and Bad, Bad Man
The National Museum of American History and photographer Robert Weingarten are working in collaboration to build a historic portrait with...
Samuel Finley Breese Morse: Artist and Inventor
The National Museum of American History and photographer Robert Weingarten are working in collaboration to build a historic portrait with...
Celia Cruz: Queen of Salsa
The National Museum of American History and photographer Robert Weingarten are working in collaboration to build a historic portrait with...
Photograph of Alice Paul, seated
Alice Paul: Champion of Woman Suffrage
The National Museum of American History and photographer Robert Weingarten are working in collaboration to build a historic portrait with...
Audie Murphy: World War II Hero
The National Museum of American History and photographer Robert Weingarten are working in collaboration to build a historic portrait with...
Off to the races in 1845
Peytona and Fashion’s Great Match by artist Charles Severyn and lithographer Henry R. Robinson, 1845 from the Harry T. Peters...
Impromptu breakdancing…to video game music?
On the opening weekend of The Art of Video Games at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, my boyfriend and I lounged in the museum’s...
The once-and-future spirit of Discovery
I felt like a kid again. On the morning of April 17, I stood amid a crowd of fellow staffers on the rooftop terrace of the National Museum...
World War II cookie jar . . .
Sometimes an ordinary object becomes important primarily for the story it has to tell. A ceramic cookie jar, for instance, may have been...
In remembrance of Mr. Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller
Many of us at the National Museum of American History were saddened to hear of the passing of Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller on April 16. Mr....
Signs from the past - Part 2
Editor’s note: This post is the second in a two-part series on the history of neon signs. Trying to identify the two neon signs...
Pong, Atari, and the origins of the home video game
My mom’s family likes to save things. A product of the Great Depression and World War II, my grandmother taught my mom and her three...
Home, sweet home: Highlights of the 1933 Double Eagle Tour
Editor’s note: This is the last of a nine-part series that follows the European tour of one of the Smithsonian’s most treasured coins, the...
Signs from the past - Part 1
Editor’s note: This post is the first in a two-part series on the history of neon signs. Part of the fun of doing history here at the...
A tragedy's 100th anniversary
April 14 marks the 100th anniversary of the ocean liner Titanic’s tragic sinking in the North Atlantic. As part of our History Explorer “...
History Explorer 2.0
If you’ve checked out Smithsonian’s History Explorer —the museum’s online portal for all of our interactives, lesson plans,...
The true meaning of voice
Editor’s note: Today’s post is written by a student at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. This spring, Professor Amy Stevens’ civil...
Winchester in Washington, DC, after the war
The "War Horse" of the Civil War
Recently, Steven Spielberg released War Horse, a film that is based on a young adult novel by Michael Morpurgo. It tells the story of Joey...
Carrying the torch. . . to Helsinki, Finland!
Editor’s note: This is the eighth of a nine-part series that follows the European tour of one of the Smithsonian’s most treasured coins,...
Teachers watch video in classroom
It comes full circle
Editor's note: This 2012 blog post profiles an educational program no longer offered by the museum. Visit our Education and Impact page to...
“What’s in your wallet?!” 11th-century coinage, why do you ask?
Editor’s note: This is the seventh of a nine-part series that follows the European tour of one of the Smithsonian’s most treasured coins,...
The docent perspective
If you like history and museums, you might have taken a tour or two of a museum and thought about becoming a docent. What’s a docent, you...
Gold, Glory and . . . Gdzie teraz jesteśmy?
Editor’s note: This is the sixth of a nine-part series that follows the European tour of one of the Smithsonian’s most...
Gray camera with strap
This Kodak moment
Kodachrome film. Courtesy of George Eastman HouseThough not unexpected, the news still came as a shock: on January 19, 2012, the 132-year-...
Good King Wenceslas looks out on the Prague Museum
Editor’s note: This is the fifth of a nine-part series that follows the European tour of one of the Smithsonian’s most treasured coins,...
Take your vitamins—Earth is about to be invaded!
Space Invaders vitamin package (front). The nutrition label is on the top of the box, and the coupon for the t-shirt is on the back.What is...
From the mouth of a 13-year-old visitor, wisdom flows
So there I was, in my self-assigned corner of Flag Hall, half-anxious and half-excited to share my knowledge of carnaval in...
Eagles vs. Lions: showdown in Belgium's Royal Library
Editor’s note: This is the fourth of a nine-part series that follows the European tour of one of the Smithsonian’s most treasured coins,...

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