Skip to main content
Smithsonian Website
Search Google Appliance
Enter the terms you wish to search for.
Donate Button
Donate
American History Home
American History Home
Menu
O Say Can You See?
Stories from the Museum
Collections & Exhibitions
Search the Collections
Search for...
Show only items with images
Show only items with no use restrictions
Browse by Subject
Online Exhibitions
Object Groups
Archives Center
Rights and Reproductions
Topics
African American History
Asian Pacific American History
Food History
Infectious Disease History
Latino History
Women's History
See all topics...
Connect to History
O Say Can You See? Blog
Digital and Social Media
Podcasts
Monthly Newsletter
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Pinterest
Instagram
Teachers & Students
Resources for Educators
Fun Stuff for Kids
FAQ for Educators
FAQ for Parents
Plan a Field Trip
Plan Your Visit
Visit Info
Info en español
Museum Map
Food & Stores
Accessibility
FAQ for Visitors
Plan a Field Trip
Today's Hours
10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
View in Maps
Exhibitions
On View
Upcoming
Events
Calendar of Events
Jazz
Chamber Music
Food History Weekend
History Film Forum
The Museum
Mission & History
Strategic Plan
FAQs
Press Information
Museum Reports
Facility Rental
Our People
Staff
Departments
African American History Curatorial Collective
Staff Publications
Museum Board
Contact Information
Get Involved
Internship Program
Fellowship Program
Volunteer Program
Job Opportunities
Membership & Giving
Learn More and Donate
Join the Council
Gift Planning
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
View All
Business History
Food History
Latino History & Culture
Medicine & Science
Philanthropy
More Categories
All Categories
African American History
Agricultural History
Behind the Scenes
Business History
Civil War
Clothing & Accessories
Conservation
Director's Notes
Disability History
Donor Spotlight
Film & Television
First Ladies
Food History
From the Collections
Intern Perspectives
Invention & Innovation
Jazz Appreciation
Kids & Museums
Latino History & Culture
LGBTQ+ History
Medicine & Science
Music
Musings
Native American History
Numismatics
Object Project
Philanthropy
Public Programs
Religion in America
September 11
Smithsonian Gardens
Star-Spangled Banner
Stories of Freedom & Justice
Teaching & Learning
Textiles
Transportation History
Women's History
World War I
You Asked, We Answer
M*A*S*H ended, but is not gone or forgotten
The final episode of “M*A*S*H” was co-written with eight collaborators and directed by star Alan Alda.Despite the photo ops and historic...
Total eclipse of the sun, partial eclipse of inequality
"It was now quick work," Maria Mitchell noted. "As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the corona burst out all around the sun, so...
Who are the Dewdrop Fairies?
While most of us have heard of the victory gardens of World War II, many of us may not realize that those gardens are seeded in a history...
Minuteman Mickey Mouse: Disney and America's Bicentennial
The month of July plays host to the birthdays of both the United States of America (July 4, 1776) and Disneyland (July 17, 1955). This is...
The crop of the 21st century
"Information is your new crop!" proclaimed John Deere's brochure, announcing the company's newly launched GreenStar Precision Farming...
The All-Star Game returns to the nation's capital for the fifth time
All-Star Games of years past that were played in Washington were full of history: the historic arrival of a president, the effective end of...
Special Olympics at 50
"Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics, recited this oath at...
New York City’s Sängerfest of 1894
Piano manufacturer William Steinway kept a diary from 1861 to 1896. It resides in the National Museum of American History’s Archives Center...
William Steinway's New York
What was the Big Apple like in the second half of the 19th century? The daily diary of piano manufacturer William Steinway opens a window...
Alan Alda's insider view from the set of M*A*S*H
Hawkeye’s corduroy bathrobe looks purple in real life, but comes across as red on camera.The chronically jet-lagged actor Alan Alda got...
Remembering Robert Kennedy
June 6, 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Robert “Bobby” Francis Kennedy. Being a native Northern Virginian, I knew that the...
When philanthropists convinced people to save lives
Young Charles Taylor drowned in June 1818. He was six years, seven months, and 10 days old, the son of Nathan and Sally Taylor. While a...
Queer coins: LGBTQ rulers through history
With Pride Month celebrations recognizing LGBTQ history and culture throughout the country this June, what better way to highlight the...
How do the arts promote social change?
The arts are "a space where we can give dignity to others while interrogating our own circumstances," Darren Walker, president of the...
What connects Abraham Lincoln and vampires? Bram Stoker, of course.
What is it about Abraham Lincoln and vampires? When Seth Grahame-Smith published his action/horror mash-up novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire...
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...
Does this ring a bell? School bells of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
What’s it like to intern with our Division of Home and Community Life? Elizabeth Wells found herself falling in love with our bell...
Grape gluts and Mother Clones: Prohibition and American wine
Congress passed the National Prohibition Act in January 1919, and a year later, Americans were barred from making, transporting, selling,...
La Choy and Korean cofounder Ilhan New: Negotiating Asian culinary identities in America
A photograph of Korean food products—rice wine, soy sauce, and galbi (marinated meat) sauce—at a grocery store in Washington, D.C., that I...
Mickey Mouse turns 90
It is hard to believe, but Mickey Mouse is celebrating his 90th birthday this year. For an old mouse, he still looks pretty spry! One of...
What does Alexander Hamilton have to do with the lace industry in Ipswich, Massachusetts?
If you were rich and powerful, from the late 1500s on into the late 1700s, you would show off your wealth by adorning your fashionable...
Entrepreneurial embroiderers
Embroidery by the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework is beautiful . . . but that's just the beginning of the story. These...
Oregon's Big Pine: Standing tall when the U.S. Constitution was signed
National anniversaries can be celebrated in many ways—parades, fireworks displays, and, of course, museum exhibitions. In 1983 Congress...
Who has the best hair in our Entertainment Collection?
April 29, 2018, marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Broadway opening of the rock musical Hair. Hair grew out of the counterculture...
Mickey Mouse morale: Disney on the World War II home front
On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II. The very next day U.S. Army troops...
Souvenirs of science
I collect souvenirs, as do many friends and family members. Most of these souvenirs have scant monetary value, but we treasure them as...
Adventures in collecting: Kenneth Salisbury's robot hand
A visitor to Kenneth Salisbury's Stanford University office can't miss the evidence of his life-long fascination with hands.Kenneth...
The Fair Housing Act: Fifty years later
Fifty years ago, on April 11, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill that was to end discrimination in most of the nation’s housing...
In other words: Norman Granz, by the musicians who knew him
During this year’s Jazz Appreciation Month, we are exploring the relationship between jazz and justice by looking at the dynamic ways jazz...
Prohibition was fantastic for American beer, or, cheers to homebrewers
Did that title grab your attention? Great.Happy National Beer Day! When you open your fridge shortly after five o'clock this evening (or...
Norman Granz: Revolutionizing jazz for social justice
A civil rights protest often invokes the vivid images of sit-ins, boycotts, and marches, but the fight for racial equality took many...
The case of Luisa Moreno
In my first week as a curator at the National Museum of American History, I made a list of women I wished were present in the museum's...
Madam C. J. Walker’s philanthropy
A former laundress who became a millionaire from her hair-care company, Madam C. J. Walker (1867–1919) was a leading philanthropist of the...
5 objects that James Smithson might be surprised to find in the institution he founded – until he learned their philanthropy stories
James Smithson might be surprised to learn about some of the objects in the collections at the institution he established. The Englishman...
Past to present: History of philanthropy inspires contemporary giving
I caught up with collections manager Katharine Klein as she worked on rotating objects in the museum's Giving in America exhibit, to learn...
Helen West Heller: artist, poet, activist
She found symmetry in baseball. She made a triptych celebrating American agriculture. Her portraits featured the work of human hands, her...
A story in clay: Sara Galner and the Saturday Evening Girls
I didn't drool on the objects, but exploring the ceramics storage room as an intern at the National Museum of American History was pretty...
A new podcast: Order 9066
Each year we mark the Day of Remembrance with events recognizing Executive Order 9066, signed on February 19, 1942, after Japan’s bombing...
Sewing for joy: Ann Lowe
"I was 17 years old at the time and the dress made me feel so grown up and beautiful," Pauline "Polly" Carver Duxbury wrote about the dress...
300 years and counting: A new look at New Orleans and “Creole cuisine”
Celebrating the 300th anniversary of its founding this year, New Orleans is a city whose culture and cuisine have captivated the American...
Madam Speaker: A famous first joins the national collection
Museums are full of “firsts”—objects that represent the first person to complete a task, to win an award, to hold a position, to achieve a...
Abolitionist and Reformer Lucretia Mott
January 3, 2018, would have been Lucretia Coffin Mott’s 225th birthday. When it came to birthdays, Mott had a particular way of celebrating...
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...
One coin, two coin, old coin, new coin: Searching for Dr. Seuss in the National Numismatic Collection
Beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss celebrated the importance of small things in the book Horton Hears a Who! with his famous declaration...
From seams to strikes: Exploring women at work through clothing in our collection
What was life like for women in the workforce over the past 150 years? To help answer that question, I turned to the museum’s...
These tractors show 150 years of farming history
2018 is the Year of the Tractor at the museum. Curator Peter Liebhold explored gems of the museum's tractor collection and what they can...
Grab your books and tall striped hats: It's time to celebrate “Read Across America Day”
This week, teachers, librarians, and students across America will be looking around their homes for tall, striped top hats and red ties....
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders donate iconic uniforms to the museum’s sports collection
In 1976, I was an 11-year-old girl who had always wanted to be a cheerleader, and the only part of Super Bowl X that caught my attention...
Pages
« first
‹ previous
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
…
next ›
last »
Tweets by @amhistorymuseum
Search Google Appliance
Enter the terms you wish to search for.
Home
Visit
General Info
Info en español
Getting Here
Museum Map
Food & Stores
Kids
Exhibitions
Events
Collections
Educator Resources
Blog
About the Museum
About Our People
Get Involved
Giving
Press
Smithsonian Website