This panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt honors activist Roger Lyon, who died of AIDS in 1984.
Museum Artifacts
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:
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:
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:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
9/17/2015
Alfred Vail made this key, believed to be from the first Baltimore-Washington telegraph line, as an improvement on Samuel Morse's original transmitter. Vail helped Morse develop a practical system for sending and receiving coded electrical signals over a wire, which was successfully demonstrated
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
3/27/2018
Many Chinese men travelled to the United States and became gold miners following the discovery of gold in California in 1849. Woks such as this one were made in China, but brought to California in the 1800s and used by Chinese immigrants. As the mass influx of travelers arrived from a variety of
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
9/3/2020
Pennsylvania Germans near the Conestoga River first made Conestoga wagons around 1750 to haul freight. By the 1810s, improved roads to Pittsburgh and Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) stimulated trade between Philadelphia, Baltimore, and settlers near the Ohio River. Wagoners with horse-drawn C
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
5/14/2009
Acupuncture has gone in and out of fashion over the centuries in both China and the West. Part of a 2,000-year-old system of medicine that originated in China, acupuncture spread across Asia and the world with the migration of Asian peoples. In 2002, there were about 15,000 licensed acupuncturist
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
2/19/2009
Although introduced by Spanish settlers, the island's carnival celebrations, like mask making, music, and public performance, have developed into uniquely Puerto Rican traditions that also reflect the customs and sensibilities of Puerto Ricans' African ancestors. This carnival mask pictured here
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
1/29/2009
This custom-made "Silver Flair" trumpet belonged to renowned trumpeter, bandleader, and composer John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, a founder of the modern jazz style known as bebop. Renowned for his musical virtuosity and for his impish good humor and wit, Gillespie played this trumpet in the early 1
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
3/10/2009
To determine volume, weight, temperature, and time, cooks use measuring cups and spoons (for liquids and dry ingredients), thermometers of all sorts for the oven, freezer, or deep-fat fryer; for chocolate, dough, meat, candy, and jelly; scales for liquids and solids; salometers or hydrometers to
