"This black t-shirt, which says “Silence = Death” with a pink triangle, symbolizes the struggle against AIDS.
Museum Artifacts

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
9/25/2009
The evolving civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s revolutionized the consciousness of young people across the United States. As in African American communities, a new sense of mobilization spread among Mexican Americans. Many adopted a more political identity—chicano an

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
3/5/2009
This embroidered mourning picture was embroidered in Lititz, Pennsylvania, about 1816, using silk thread, silk chenille, gold spangles, watercolor, and ink on silk fabric. In a gilded wood frame, it measured 25" x 25", and its black mat is reverse-painted on the glass. Mourning designs appear in

Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
12/15/2010
Grenades of this type played an important part in the biggest naval battle of the Revolutionary War. The Bon Homme Richard under the command of Captain John Paul Jones entered into a battle with the British ship the Serapis. The Serapis was a much faster and heavier shi

Grade Range:
9-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
3/3/2011
Khaki-colored tropical worsted material with a rolled collar with lapels, epaulets on the shoulders, two false horizontal breast pockets with small gold-colored metallic buttons, and two side pockets over the hips. The jacket is closed by four gold-colored metallic buttons. Staff sergeant chevron

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
11/20/2008
WANN represents a significant moment in American cultural history-the rise of black-oriented broadcasting. Although blacks constituted 10 percent of the population, black interest in broadcasting on any scale, didn't begin until 1948. That year WDIA in Memphis became the first station to go to a

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
4/7/2016
Invention rarely stops when the inventor introduces a new device. Thomas A. Edison and his team worked to improve his electric lighting system for some years after the initial introduction in 1880. This lamp shows the changes made after six years of labor aimed at lowering costs and increasing pr


Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
9/3/2020
The Quakers published this booklet titled "El Obrero y sus Derechos" in 1981. The 23-page Spanish language booklet uses cartoons to inform and instruct workers on their rights and where to go for help. It covers a wide variety of occupations (apparel, agriculture, construction, car washing, etc.) Th

Grade Range:
6-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
3/8/2023
The 442nd Combat Team was a segregated division of the US Army made up of second-generation Japanese Americans. Many of these men left the relocation camps to fight in combat. Family members stayed connected to their loved ones overseas, sending them small gifts and mementos. This Christmas card

Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
12/15/2010
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed the two states to decide the issue of slavery by a popular ballot. The fight in Kansas was so intense that the state earned the nickname “Bleeding Kansas.” John Brown bought 2,000 of these revolvers and sent them to Kansas for the “Free-Soilers.”