Museum Artifacts

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872), an artist and inventor of the telegraph, was in Paris in 1839 sharing the scientific and celebrity stage with Daguerre. The two inventors shared notes on their inventions and Morse returned to the US with a camera, perhaps the first camera in the United States...

Resolution to raise troops, Massachusetts, April 23, 1778.

At the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union saw the value of securing a rocky outcropping called Little Round Top.  Strong Vincent seized the opportunity, taking the boulder and yelling to his men, “Don’t give an inch.” As he uttered the words a bullet tore through his thigh and lodged

USS Carondolet was a 512-ton ironclad gunboat in the style of the Cairo. It was built in Saint Louis and commissioned in January 1862. Within a month it had contributed to the capture of both Fort Henry and Fort Donelson.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History recently acquired at auction a rare 18th-century silver milk pot or creamer with engraved with symbols and an inscription that support the American colonists’ ongoing boycott of imported goods, especially tea, during the months following a

The Haymarket Riot, or Haymarket Incident, occured on May 4, 1886 near Chicago's Haymarket Square. What began as a protest against the killing and wounding of several workers during a strike at the McCormick Reaper Works, turned into a violent riot as an unidentified person threw a bomb at the polic

Speaking before hundreds of thousands of people can be nerve-racking. But you'd never guess that watching Naomi Wadler. At age 11, she rose to national prominence as a leader in the 2018 March for Our Lives to end gun violence. She remembers becoming politically aware at age 5 when George Zimmerman

The Battle of Gettysburg was a critical turning point in the American Civil War. During the first three days of July 1863, over 172,000 men and 634 cannons were positioned in an area encompassing 25 square miles.

The Colt Model 1860 army revolver was manufactured from 1860 through 1873. The total production consisted of more than 200,000. The six-shot, .44-caliber revolver was the primary handgun used by Union troops during the Civil War because of its reliability.

Family photograph albums hold the history of generations, preserving the memories of birthdays, holidays, travels, and all general aspects of life. African American Mary Taylor used her 35mm Bell and Howell camera to document her family's life in the black community of Los Angeles, California, du