Museum Artifacts

Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the annexation of Texas, the land claims of many Mexican families were not respected, either by the new English-speaking settlers or by the U.S. government. Dispossession from family- and community-owned lands dealt a severe economic blow to the livel

Yorick is a plastic male skeleton imbedded with electronic and mechanical devices used to replace worn body parts. Yorick was created by Ed Mueller, an engineer in the Division of Mechanical and Material Sciences at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in Washington, D.C.

Shave Head uses a two-level drawing shows a buffalo hunt with four wounded animals, and a separate hunt and the wounding of an elk. The Cheyenne warriors wear full headdress and four of the five also wear their mountain lion bow and quiver, symbolically powerful pieces of hunting gear.

Many immigrants sought to preserve their cultural heritage while at the same time embracing their new identity as Americans. Manfred Anson did so in designing this Hanukkah lamp to mark the centennial of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. Anson, who escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager, later reunited wit

A skateboarding pioneer, Cindy Whitehead turned pro at seventeen, skating both pool and half-pipe and becoming one of the top-ranked vert skaters while competing against the boys. But Whitehead had no choice but to wear boys’ shorts when competing; there were no skate products for girls in the 197

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 appliqued inscription, "Solar System," and the embroidere

The bread tin was designed to keep the doughboy's ration of hard bread dry; earlier bread rations were packaged in cardboard containers which became soggy and ruined the contents.    

Developed in Scotland and played in the northern United States, curling debuted as a medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics. This curling stone belonged to 75-year-old curler Rudy Senich, of Duluth, Minn., who has been curling three nights a week for the past 35 years. According to Senich's curl

These two minie balls from opposing sides met head-on during fierce fighting at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in December 1862.

The Confederate battle flag, known as the “Stars and Bars,” was born of necessity at the Battle of Bull Run. Amid the smoke and general chaos of battle, it was hard to distinguish the Confederate "Stars and Bars" from the U.S. national flag, the "Stars and Stripes.” General Pierre T. Beaure