The Blackberry is a handheld wireless Personal Data Assistant (PDA) and communication device.
Museum Artifacts

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
9/2/2020
The TV dinner represented a change in the way Americans were thinking about food. Introduced in 1954 by Swanson & Sons, of Omaha, Nebraska, it offered women--more and more of whom were working outside the home but still assumed to be responsible for cooking--an alternative to time-consuming meal pre

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
9/3/2020
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented all but a few Chinese to enter the United States legally. In 1906, a major earthquake and resulting fire in San Francisco destroyed public records, allowing many Chinese to claim that they had been born in San Francisco. These men, with newly established c

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
12/31/2010
Printed in Morse code and transcribed by Samuel Morse himself, this message was transmitted from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., over the nation's first long-distance telegraph line.

Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
11/30/2010
The compact boarding axe was an effective weapon in close combat. While an effective in hand-to-hand combat, it was more effective as a tool. The boarding axe was used to clear the decks of lines and broken timbers. It was invaluable at removing hot shot which caused devastating fires on board sh

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
11/10/2010
Cherished by generations of child artists, Crayola crayons were invented in 1903 by the Binney & Smith Company of Easton, Pennsylvania. Using paraffin wax and nontoxic pigments, the company produced a coloring stick that was safe, sturdy, and affordable. The name "Crayola," coined by the wife

Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
11/30/2010
During the American War of Independence the French government supplied large quantities of muskets to the Continental army. Several arsenals in France produced muskets but the Charleville Model 1763 was the most common and soon all French muskets were referred to as "Charlevilles." In March 1777,

Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
12/17/2010
This Sharps rifle was made especially for John Brown, though it bears no maker’s mark or number. Brown carried this weapon on his Kansas campaign in 1856 and later presented it to Charles Blair of Collinsville, Connecticut. In 1857, Brown contracted Blair to forge pikes for the clandestine slav

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
6/10/2009
Called upon by the British government to help fight the French in Canada in 1689, Massachusetts authorities were hard-put to comply, because official money was unavailable. The Hull/Sanderson mint, which had created Pine Tree Shillings and other coins, had been closed on Crown orders years before

Grade Range:
6-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
5/23/2014
This robot was constructed in 1987 by Dr. Kenneth Kinzler and his colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center's Molecular Genetics Lab run by Dr. Bert Vogelstein. It was used to conduct PCR in research on the p53 gene, which is linked to 50 percent of human cancers. Polymerase chain reaction,

Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
12/29/2010
On May 22, 1863, Ulysses Grant sent brigades from three corps of the army to assault Vicksburg. While the assault showed some success, a long bitter struggle ensued and the Confederates quickly restored their original lines of defense. Realizing that the city could not be taken by assault, Grant