Grade Range: 5-12
Resource Type(s): Primary Source, Artifacts
Date Posted: 2/3/2011
To control the form of war messages, the government created the U.S. Office of War Information in June 1942. OWI sought to review and approve the design and distribution of government posters. Posters such as this one and their messages were seen ...
Grade Range: 9-12
Resource Type(s): Artifacts, Primary Source
Date Posted: 5/28/2013
>The Hamons family business exemplifies the culture of roadside communities that sprang up as long-distance automobile travel increased. Carl and Lucille Hamons lived on Carl's mother's farm until the late 1930s, when they moved to the town of ...
Grade Range: 9-12
Resource Type(s): Artifacts, Primary Source
Date Posted: 3/22/2012
During the Great Depression, government photographer Dorothea Lange took this picture at a migrant farmworkers' camp near Nipomo, California. Lange's brief caption recorded her impressions of the family's plight: "Destitute pea pickers ... a 32-ye...
Grade Range: K-12
Resource Type(s): Primary Source, Artifacts
Date Posted: 12/29/2009
American flintlock musket, .69 caliber, with "TOWNE OF BOSTON" branded into the stock.
This gun was put together in the Massachusetts Colony before the French and Indian War to arm the militia of the city of Boston.
Grade Range: K-12
Resource Type(s): Primary Source, Artifacts
Date Posted: 12/31/2010
Printed in Morse code and transcribed by Samuel Morse himself, this message was transmitted from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., over the nation's first long-distance telegraph line.
Grade Range: K-0
Resource Type(s): Artifacts
Date Posted: 4/16/2013
The U.S.D.A. Forest Service introduced Woodsy Owl in 1971 as an anti-litter and anti-pollution symbol to promote wise use of the environment. The campaign, which continues today, is primarily aimed at school-age children and uses slogans suc...
Grade Range: K-12
Resource Type(s): Primary Source, Artifacts
Date Posted: 12/29/2009
The shape of the bar shot, a center bar with rounded half-circles at either end, made it very effective against a rigged ship. The design allowed the weapon to carry away the yards, masts, and riggings of a ship.
Grade Range: K-12
Resource Type(s): Primary Source, Artifacts
Date Posted: 1/22/2009
This small piece of yellow metal is believed to be the first piece of gold discovered in 1848 at Sutter's Mill in California, launching the gold rush. John Marshall was superintending the construction of a sawmill for Col. John Sutter o...
Grade Range: K-12
Resource Type(s): Primary Source, Artifacts
Date Posted: 3/5/2009
Remington put its writing machines on the market in 1874 at a price of $125. The new Type Writer owed some of its identity to the sewing machines that Remington had recently added to its product line. The writing machine came mounted on a sewing m...
Grade Range: K-12
Resource Type(s): Artifacts, Primary Source
Date Posted: 3/28/2012
This "Solar System" quilt was made by Ellen Harding Baker of Cedar County, Iowa, in 1876. The wool top of this applique quilt is embellished with wool-fabric applique, wool braid, and wool and silk embroidery. Included in the design is the appliqu...