Menarche, or the onset of menstruation, generated much advice and many attempts to manage girls' bodies in a public w
Museum Artifacts
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
4/4/2016
This Coca-Cola bottle from 2002 contains brown liquid inside that it sealed with a metal cap. The greenish glass is marked with a painted Coca-Cola logo around the middle, repeated twice. On one side, a barcode is placed next to the image of a Coca-Cola bottle with condensation over it, and under
Grade Range:
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
4/25/2018
From the moment when, in 1963, Julia Child whisked up an omelet on the pilot for her new cooking show, The French Chef, Americans wanted that whisk for their kitchens, just as they came to want any tool or utensil that Julia used. Certainly, egg beaters of all sorts were common in American kitche
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
9/3/2020
These four friendship bracelets were created inside a holding center while the young girl awaited their case in seeking asylum from El Salvador. Arts and crafts are sometimes part of daily routine for the young children since they are not allowed to leave the center.
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
1/2/2022
For decades, teachers drilled American school children using flash cards that gave simple arithmetic problems. The advent of inexpensive electronic calculators in the 1970s made it possible to do much routine arithmetic automatically. To teach school children the meaning of basic operations, new dev
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
3/19/2010
During his thirteen seasons with the Boston Celtics, Bob Cousy (b. 1928) played in thirteen consecutive All-Star Games and earned two All–Star MVP awards, among many other accolades. This “Houdini of the Hardwood” introduced speed and flamboyant ball-handling skills previously unseen in pro
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
9/17/2009
The civilizations of pre-Hispanic Mexico recorded their histories, religious beliefs, and scientific knowledge in books called codices. Codices are folded pieces of hide or bark that depict both mundane and spiritual scenes with images, symbols, and numbers. Scribes and painters busily recorded d
Grade Range:
6-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
3/5/2009
This Thai passport was seized in the well-publicized 1995 El Monte, Calif., sweatshop raid. The passport is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation (72 workers were discovered working as slaves). With a legit
Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
12/23/2010
US Army private's uniform from approximately 1840.
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
7/21/2008
In the spring of 1803, Meriwether Lewis began to purchase scientific and mathematical instruments for a pending expedition into the northwestern region of North America. Among the items he purchased from Philadelphia instrument maker Thomas Whitney were three pocket compasses and this silver
Grade Range:
4-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
6/11/2014
This teapot was made in England about 1766-1770, possibly by the Cockpit Hill Factory, Derby, England. Inscribed on one side of the teapot is “No Stamp Act” and on the other is “America, Liberty Restored,” both within flowerheads and stylized scrolling leaftips in black. The cover is pain
