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...

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A mysterious fork leads to the story of the infamous Greely Expedition
This story starts with a fork. As a contractor with the Military History Collections Inventory Project, my job is to count things. In...
A large orange squash known as the "Cinderella pumpkin."
From the Victory Garden: American history told through squash
As a natively grown vegetable cultivated by the Wampanoag Indians, squash holds a special place in American history. Today, squash are most...
Calling all booklovers: A mysterious binding
One of the treasures held by the Division of Culture and the Arts is a beautiful book in a splendid binding. We know a good deal about the...
History Halloween how-tos
Still looking for a creative costume for your upcoming Halloween celebration? We have some quick ideas pulled straight from our collections...
Music and the American experience
This post is part two of a series. Read part one. In addition to examples of nearly every kind of American and European instrument,...
Finding music in unexpected places
An experimental telegraph, a unique device used to spread seeds, an object named the "Greffuhle,” a list of all the places where one...
General Grant’s sword takes the cake
As a member of the Military History Collections Project team, I research the official collection records of the museum for...
Disbinding the Jefferson bible
Editor's note: This blog is the fourth in a series of posts about the Jefferson bible conservation project.It is difficult to describe how...
Different types of lettuce that are growing in front of the National Museum of American History
Lettuce delight you
Something chartreuse and wonderful caught my eye as I approached the museum’s Constitution Avenue entrance last week. I recognized it, but...
Food culture, supermarkets, and packaging: A researcher’s perspective
Why is there a tiger instead of a manatee on my cereal box? And why is cereal sold in a box at all? In what ways does packaging affect the...
Remembering Frank Kameny, civil rights pioneer
Frank Kameny, who died yesterday, was one of those Americans whom few people have heard of but who spent his time on the planet making the...
Remembering Steve Jobs
Yesterday, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, passed away at age 56 after a seven year battle with pancreatic cancer. This collection of...
An African American soldier greets several figures on horseback. Lines of soldiers in formation are visible in the background.
Research raises questions about Civil War printing blocks
During the 1970s the museum purchased a small collection of printing blocks purported to have been used to produce Civil War issues of...
Civil War portraits: Where personal and public meet (VIDEO)
We are just at the beginning of several years of marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War; and we’ve still got a long way to go...
From ancient Egypt to Tiffany vases: A tour of the Syz porcelain collection
As the curator for the museum’s collection of ceramics and glass, I’m responsible for tens of thousands of fragile artifacts...
A gathering of Peace Corps volunteers, past and present
Current and former Peace Corps volunteers gathered in Washington, D.C.during the weekend of September 24-25, 2011, to commemorate the...
Photo of man wearing a black hat and brown coat. He faces camera with an anxious expression, his right hand raised as if swearing an oath.
How should John Brown be remembered?
An  actor portrays abolitionist John BrownThis summer, the National Museum of American History’s History Alive! Theater program...
Pregnant in uniform
In the year since the beginning of the Military History Collections Inventory project, other  members of the team ...
The boys of Dogtown
“Two hundred years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential, but it was the minds...
This wood laminate skateboard displays Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse logo graphic designed by Vernon Cortlandt Johnson and was used by Tony Hawk in competitions during the mid-1980s.
Tony Hawk skates into history
Innovation and inventiveness have been central to skateboarding since the earliest days of the sport. As Tony Hawk told ESPN...
Princeton v. Dartmouth: College football then and now
September brings the start of another school year, and for most major American universities, that means another season of college football...
Miles Davis, Rudy Van Gelder, and a living room recording studio (Part 2 of 2)
Editor's Note: Today's post is the second in a series about legendary sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder and his impact on jazz. See part...
Miles Davis, Rudy Van Gelder, and a living room recording studio (Part 1 of 2)
The lush tones of Miles Davis are unmistakable to millions. It is common knowledge among jazz fans that Davis was heavily influenced by...
Teaching Constitution Day
Editor’s note: This post was written by the museum’s Summer Teacher Associate. Each year, we bring one teacher to work with our ...
11 visitor comment cards in memory of September 11
Today, the museum's special tenth anniversary display of September 11 artifacts will close. Hundreds of visitors have left comments...
September 11: Collecting for the National Postal Museum (part 2 of 2)
Editor’s note: Today's post continues the recollections of Jeffrey Brodie, who was working for the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in...
September 11: Collecting for the National Postal Museum
Editor’s note: This blog post is the first of two from Jeffrey Brodie about his experiences collecting for the Smithsonian’s National...
Collecting the stories of September 11, a filmmaker's perspective
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is written by the producer/director of the Smithsonian Channel’s documentary, 9/11: Stories in Fragments. The...
Khaki uniform, shoes, and hat
Women in uniform, World War I edition
In the spring of 1998, I joined the National Museum of American History as a curator of Armed Forces History. Shortly after I arrived, my...
Beyond "Where were you?"—let's talk about September 11
“Where were you?” We’ve all been hearing this question a lot in the days leading up to the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. From...
Writing history with Battlestar Galactica fans
Editor’s note: This post is a follow-up to one published earlier this week featuring a video of a mysterious pair of Battlestar Galactica...
September 11 and the Transportation Security Administration
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is written by guest blogger and Transportation Security Administration historian, Michael P. C. Smith. Kenneth...
Donor Spotlight: Doug Morton and Marilyn Brown
I decided to intern at the National Museum of American History because I love history and sharing that interest with others. I always get...
Seeing history through Battlestar Galactica glasses
Editor’s Note: Don’t miss this video of museum technician Drew Robarge examining a mysterious pair of eyeglasses for clues about their...
September 11: Photographers and their stories
On September 10, 2001, I flew non-stop from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, to attend a photography seminar at the Getty Museum. It never...
Martin Luther King, Jr., through the Scurlock lens
The Scurlock Studio was a photographic business operated by an African American family in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1994....
A closer look at a Civil War watch
My colleague Diane Wendt’s excellent work on a Civil War nurse reminded me that the museum has a closely related object—a Civil...
Essential questions for teaching September 11
Editor’s note: This post is by Joan Brodsky Schur, an education consultant and participant in the August 3 opening panel discussion...
Photograph of miners posing around dynamo, around 1884
Mining lamps illuminate Smithsonian history
As a collection manager at the National Museum of American History, I often have access to things no one else gets to see, including the...
Following in the footsteps of James Smithson
Somewhat late in the summer of 1784, James Smithson embarked on his first scientific expedition. This “expedition” might have seemed a bit...
The history of leprosy
Museums play an important role as gatekeepers to public memory, deciding which events and experiences to preserve so that we may never...
Detail of Bible text
Unlocking the mysteries of Jefferson's bible with high-tech analysis and microscopic testing
Editor's note: This blog is the third in a series of posts about the Jefferson Bible conservation project.The Life and Morals of Jesus...
HAH! Phyllis Diller's gag file
Good comedians make being funny seem effortless. But like any craft, comedy must be honed through relentless practice, organization, and...
September 11: A story told in pixels
David Allison’s recent blog post explaining the upcoming commemoration ends with the question, “How did September 11 change...
Take a tour of the National Quilt Collection
The National Quilt Collection had its beginnings in the 1890s when three quilts were included in a donation of 18th and 19th...
September 11: Experience the power of objects first-hand
For most of us, September 11 is only a media event, lived vicariously through commentaries of journalists and designated “experts” who...
Fort Collins, a place of invention
I love talking with inventors about their creative lives and careers. Better yet, I love speaking with them at their workplaces. There is...
Donor Spotlight: Ed and Diane Straker
What is a slide rule? As a product of the computer generation, my knowledge of these tools is virtually nonexistent. Recently, I had the...

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