Museum Artifacts

This Mercury fuming box for developing daguerreotypes is certainly among the earliest photographic equipment used in America, dating 1839-1840. Working closely with Dr. J.W. Draper in New York, Morse was instrumental in promoting photography in America, furthering experimentation, and producing e

This hand-modeled and molded, unglazed red earthenware pitcher honors Frederick Douglass, "Slave Orator/ United States Marshall, Recorder of Deeds D.C./ Diplomat."

This Smith & Wesson was found loaded at the Little Big Horn Battlefield in 1883. The Smith & Wesson Schofield revolver, .45 caliber, was manufactured from 1875 to 1878. The vast majority of the 9,000 guns went to the U.S. Army. Many saw service in the Indian Wars, though th

Motorola produced this BPR 2000 model pager around 1982. Prior to the widespread availability of inexpensive cell phones many people carried telephone pagers to stay in contact with work or home. A miniature radio receiver, a pager alerted the user that someone needed to talk to them and provided

This is one of the first models of Liberty cast in the United States. Often described as the American Committee Model, this statuette was produced in the tens of thousands. It was sold to subscribers to finance the construction of a pedestal for the full-size statue in New York Harbor.

These shoes, worn by dancer Stella Abrera in a January 2018 production of The Nutcracker, have been pancaked to match Abrera's skin color. When they are dancing without wearing tights, dancers pancake their shoes to match their skin color.Stella Abrera joined the American Ballet Theatre in 1996 and

Blue wool uniform coat, gold-colored buttons on jacket front and sleeves. Epaulettes and gold trim at neck and cuffs. This coat adheres to the 1813 uniform regulations; single-breasted, of dark blue wool, four buttons placed lengthwise on the sleeves and skirts. A gold star is embr

Cher Ami was a registered Black Check cock carrier pigeon, one of 600 birds owned and flown by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I. He delivered twelve important messages within the American sector at Verdun; on his last mission, October 4, 1918, he was shot through the breast

Thomas Edison used this carbon-filament bulb in the first public demonstration of his most famous invention, the first practical electric incandescent lamp, which took place at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory on New Year's Eve, 1879. As the quintessential American inventor-hero,

Hattie Carnegie, one of a few female entrepreneurs in the early to mid-20th century, was born Henrietta Kanengeiser in Vienna, Austria, in 1886. She came to the United States in 1892. Her first job was as a messenger, sometime milliner, and model in Macy's department store. She decided to change