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...
Why they're called the "Paralympics" and other facts about the Paralympic Games
Now that the 2016 Summer Olympic Games have come to a close, we can look forward to more gold-winning performances from Team USA at the...
What comes next? Photographing the lives of our sports heroes after the Olympics
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! The Olympics have arrived and it is time for us to send our most brilliant athletes to compete against their...

Blog Posts in "From the Collections"

Glass tube with label for helium inside a wooden box, adjacent to the box's removed lid
Historic helium sample surfaces at Smithsonian
This glass tube, part of the museum’s collection, once contained a sample of helium. Its paper label reads, “HELIUM / SIR W. RAMSAY, K.C.B...
Cher Ami
He? She? Or just plain Cher Ami? Solving a century-old pigeon mystery
This summer marks the centennial of a bird—possibly the most famous pigeon in history—going on display at the Smithsonian. A representative...
Group of people led by Dr. Marie Curie and President Harding walking down steps at the White House
Radium and the Gift from the Women of America
One hundred years ago Marie Curie stood among the rose bushes, the press, and a crowd of White House guests, holding a golden key. The key...
Case showing changes in girls' uniforms in exhibition, Girlhood: It's complicated
Why Girlhood?
"Girlhood (It’s complicated)" opened to the public on October 9, 2020.Three years ago our museum convened a diverse group of scholars and...
Detail of ten dollar note showing illustration of an interiror iron foundry with figures working
Rebecca Lukens: A woman of iron
A sudden tragedy thrust Rebecca Lukens into the family business and into history, making her the nation’s first woman industrialist and the...
Photo of the Capitol Building from the National Mall, with a person in a military uniform walking in the foreground
The cold morning of the day after
On January 6, my wife and I watched the live news broadcasts in disbelief at the scenes unfolding on television, as a violent mob stormed...
Sponges of diverse shapes and colors arranged in a line
Rea Ann Silva: The woman behind Beautyblender
While the iconic egg-shaped Beautyblender sponge is wildly popular and used by makeup professionals and everyday people from all...
Theodore Roosevelt on a beach
Theodore Roosevelt, Hunter-Naturalist
Within a gallery stands a rifle once presented to Theodore Roosevelt. It is perhaps an odd gift, considering that it was given to him with...
Boycott Grapes button
Essential and expendable: The rise of agricultural labor and the United Farm Workers
Until the successes of the United Farm Workers (UFW) in the 1960s, agriculture was one of the last industries to hold out on unionization...
Desert Camo bat
The artistry behind a baseball bat
Custom Baret bat, Woodbridge, Virginia, 2018Gift of Juan Baret Bate Baret personalizado, Woodbridge, Virginia, 2018Donación de Juan...
Debate chairs from the 1960 election
Five things to listen for during a presidential debate
Presidential debates first became part of the campaign landscape when John Kennedy and Richard Nixon sat across from each other in 1960. It...
Frank A. Taylor examines the construction of the National Museum of History
The echoes of war: Curatorial legacies of World War II
A mere 75 years ago aboard the battleship Missouri, representatives of the Japanese Emperor, his government, and the Imperial General...
How young, undocumented organizers fought to bring DACA into existence
On June 18, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could not rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA...
Empty stadiums resonate with history
After months of uncertainty, Major League Baseball will begin a shortened season at Nationals Park. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the...
John Lewis and Good Trouble
For John Lewis, activism for social change was a communal activity. He believed that people coming together to mentor, protest, and learn...
The story behind the photograph: Gay Dads Kissing, 1983
For Michael and Robert, the quick peck before a walk around the lake with Michael’s son was an ordinary moment. For J. Ross Baughman, it...
Newspaper clipping
When Watchmen were Klansmen
Note: While history shouldn’t require a spoiler alert, this blog does contain some minor ones regarding the HBO series Watchmen.“You know...
How picturing the Boston Massacre matters
Maybe this painting looks familiar. A long row of red-coated soldiers. A cloud of gun smoke engulfing the street. Falling bodies.Detail of...
Mary Walker
Mary Walker, the "Original New Woman"
Mary Edwards Walker defied convention in just about everything she did. Walker was uncompromising in her beliefs about herself and the...
Science and political protest: A Q&A with Dr. Florence Haseltine
In March 1995, Ladies Home Journal named Dr. Florence Haseltine one of the ten most important women in medicine. Haseltine, currently...
Pennies and nickels add up to success: Maggie Lena Walker
Maggie Lena Walker was one of the most important Black businesswomen in the nation, and today too few people have heard of her.Maggie Lena...
An illustration of Civil War-era African American troops in the U.S. military posing with the U.S. flag in the background
In 1868, Black suffrage was on the ballot
Every election season in the United States revolves around a set of issues—health care, foreign affairs, the economy. In 1868, at the...
How butterfly wings helped a new collecting initiative take flight
The museum has created a new collecting initiative focused on how undocumented activists are leading fights for political representation....
A line of people wait outside the Baltimore branch of the NAACP in 1843
Does an amendment give you the right to vote?
In 2020, the Fifteenth Amendment—the first voting rights amendment added to the U.S. Constitution—celebrates its 150th anniversary. You’ve...
Thinking about impeachment like a historian
This week, the third impeachment trial of a sitting U.S. president begins. As we prepare to bear witness to this historic moment, we...
Happy days are here again banner.
100 years later, do we think Prohibition was good for the nation?
January 17, 1920, was an important day in American history. Why? Because on that day the grand social experiment called Prohibition was...
A winning design: Prang’s Christmas card contests of the 1880s
Have you ever wondered how companies pick their holiday card designs? How do they know what will sell? During the 1880s, Boston...
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!...
An etching of a man with a musket.
Kerr Eby and the First World War
“About the prints … I make no comment, save that they were made from the indelible impressions of war. They are not imaginary. I saw them...
A group of people by what appears to be a hot-air balloon.
What did 1889 sound like?
Q: What’s cylindrical, made of wax, and part of one of history’s great showdowns?A: These records in the museum collection with audio...
The missing man: One family’s story of the Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II. After almost constant...
Codex costume and staff, as worn by Felicia Day in The Guild
How The Guild beat Hollywood, one webisode at a time
Codex costume and staff, as worn by Felicia Day in "The Guild." Costume designed by Sarah Trost; staff designed by Greg Aronowitz....
Tinted portrait of a man.
The quiet hero from Camden: Francis X. McGraw
In November 2019, Private First Class Francis X. McGraw’s Medal of Honor will go on display in our Price of Freedom exhibition. This is his...
Meet the Muppets
You know Kermit, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster, and the rest of the Sesame Street gang. But you might be surprised to learn their...
Dollars for Donuts in Monrovia, Liberia
If you were to buy a donut and cup of coffee at the Donut Bar in the Royal Grand Hotel in Monrovia, Liberia, you would more than likely pay...
Illustrating Ichabod
Imagine a dark and stormy night. A headless horseman chases a frantic school teacher through the woods. What do you picture? Is it...
From hanging on by a thread, to buying a thread: the rise of the U.S. silk industry
What do the popularity of luxury quilts have to do with the difficulty of feeding bugs? More than you think.Our new exhibition Everyday...
A skull.
Old Mud, New Science
There we were, two curators sifting centuries-old barrels of mud through a screen, when something surprising rolled out of the muck: a...
Jimmy Carter: American homebrew hero?
The next time you raise a glass of craft beer, make sure you toast former President Jimmy Carter. No, really. You should be offering your...
Pink marble fragment
The Washington Monument: A view from the museum
The view from the western side of the museum is spectacular. It includes the western end of the National Mall, the World War II Memorial,...
Bouquets in front of a gas station.
American dream turned nightmare
World Trade Center, September 2001, by Christophe AgouThe attacks of September 11, 2001, shocked the nation. Nearly 3,000 people were...
Fur the war effort
“The world infrequently notes the passing of a squirrel," announced an Arizona radio station on August 10, 1949. But when it comes to the...
Skateboard
A place at the park: LGBTQ+ inclusion and skateboarding
When you think about the culture around skateboarding, you might think about the laid-back vibe of acceptance and inclusion that the sport...
A graphic with a red background and a white illustration of the neck of a guitar with a bird resting on it.
Remembering Woodstock
The weekend of August 15 through 18, 1969, approximately 400,000 revelers traveled from near and far to inhabit the rolling fields of Max...
The Shepherd of Utah Beach
D-Day. June 6, 1944.  The words bring to mind images of hundreds of landing craft, machines, and American fighting forces landing on...
The most radical thing about Stonewall wasn’t the uprising
The Stonewall uprising began June 28, 1969, in response to a police raid at The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, and has since...
A tin foil version of the Stanley Cup
Let’s Go Caps: A curator’s collecting trip into Caps mania
I’m a lifelong resident of the Washington, D.C. area and a hockey fan. So imagine my excitement (and surprise) last year when my team, the...
Multiple rainbows flag items
Reading the rainbow: The origins of the pride symbol
In 2017, in response to a slew of racist incidents in the Gayborhood, Philadelphia added black and brown stripes to the traditional six-...

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