"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:
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:
1/27/2009
Part of a Pullman porter's job was to make up the sleeping berths in his assigned sleeping car, and to provide extra blankets to passengers requesting them. The standard Pullman blanket in the 20th century was dyed a salmon color, which became almost a trademark of the company. When a blanket bec

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
4/4/2016
New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) was an auto manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, operated jointly by Toyota and General Motors from 1984 until 2010. GM had operated the plant at Fremont from 1960 where the clashes between management and union workers resulted in the pla

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
9/3/2020
First introduced in 2001, the Development, Relief, Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, would address the growing number of undocumented youth in the United States that were unable to continue with their higher education and job prospects. It would also provide a gradual legalization pathway. Howe

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
1/2/2022
During the late 1950s and 1960s, American scientists and educators proposed using machines for instruction. Teaching machines and related programmed textbooks used a careful sequence of questions for teaching. Jerome C. Meyer and later William R. Hafel, both of Sunnydale, California, believed that i

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

Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
1/8/2010
On the Catholic calendar, the Three Kings are celebrated on the 6th of January. On this date Puerto Rican children traditionally expected their Christmas gifts, not from Santa Claus, but from the Three Kings. In Puerto Rico, the Three Kings, (in Spanish called Reyes Magos) are depicted a