Museum Artifacts

This spur, worn over a riding boot, was made in Mexico in the mid-1800s. Rubbed against the animal's side, spurs are one of the instruments that riders use to direct horses. The spikes on this spur are set on a small wheel called a rowel, making this a rowel spur. Horses and good riding equipment

This employee identification badge belonged to a female worker with employee number 9897 at the MacArthur Brothers Bag Loading Plant in Woodbury, New Jersey, in 1918. The plant was built and operated by the MacArthur Brothers Company. The contracting company, established in 1826, also built Camp

The monarch butterfly wings have morphed into a well-recognized symbol of the immigrant rights movement in less than a decade. Just as a monarch butterfly migrates across North America to find refuge (to from harsh weather), so do humans to find a better living situation. Popularized by Culture Stri

In the early 1960s, the Chicago firm of Playskool introduced this educational toy for children three to six years old, seeking to give them an early familiarity with numbers. It has two rows of relatively large rotating wooden rectangular blocks, each with a row of square rotating wooden blocks belo

Steve Richard Nicosia (b. 1955) played for eight seasons on four different teams, ending his career in 1985. As a rookie, Nicosia used this catcher's mask when he caught during Game Seven of the 1979 World Series. Later in his career, he set a San Francisco Giants record with eight consecutive hi

The Environmental Movement This button depicts the ecology symbol, a small letter “e” inside the larger letter “O,” the letters standing for “environment” and “organism.” Cartoonist Ron Cobb invented the symbol in 1969. The ecology symbol appeared in a g

Though anchored in local Roman Catholic traditions, many of the religious beliefs and symbols of Mexican Americans have roots in indigenous notions about the soul and our universe. Between October 31st and November 2nd, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is celebrated with family, decoratin

The Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in late 1957 sparked interest in the United States in science education even among elementary school children. In 1958, King Seeley Thermos produced this imaginative box evoking space travel and landings on distant moons and planets. Children provided a

As the “Millennium Bug” gained media attention, some businesses used the hype to market special millennium foods. From cars to breakfast cereal, companies like the Figueroa Brothers, Inc., cashed in on the Y2K name. This bottle once contained Y2K Millennium Meltdown ¿R-U-Ready? hot sauce, a

This cotton miner’s cap has a leather brim with a leather lamp bracket holding a carbide lamp. A small union pin that reads “United Mine Works of America 2 1934, Working Button” is attached to the side of the cap. Before head protection became mandatory in industrial workplaces, miner’s c