In 1794, Eli Whitney patented a new kind of cotton gin.
American Stories
Grade Range: 4-12
Resource Type(s): Reference Materials
Date Posted:
5/11/2012
This online exhibition features approximately 100 objects from the Museum's collections to tell stories from the earliest days of America's colonial history through the 2008 presidential election. Each object is used as the starting point for a larger story about American history. The exhibition includes brief labels, large images, and an area for people to nominate objects from their own stories that would fill a gap in the exhibition.
The objects in the exhibition address a variety of themes from American history, including politics, popular culture, art, military history, and home life. They help tell the stories of famous Americans (including Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Apollo Anton Ohno) and anonymous everyday children, men, and women.
National Standards
United States History Standards (Grades 5-12)
Era 2: Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763)
2: How political, religious, and social institutions emerged in the English colonies
3: How the values and institutions of European economic life took root in the colonies, and how slavery reshaped European and African life in the America
Era 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
2: The impact of the American Revolution on politics, economy, and society
3: The institutions and practices of government created during the Revolution and how they were revised between 1787 and 1815 to create the foundation of the American political system based on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
2: How the industrial revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward regional tensions
3: The extension, restriction, and reorganization of political democracy after 1800
4: The sources and character of cultural, religious, and social reform movements in the antebellum period
Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
2: Massive immigration after 1870 and how new social patterns, conflicts, and ideas of national unity developed amid growing cultural diversity
3: The rise of the American labor movement and how political issues reflected social and economic changes
4: Federal Indian policy and United States foreign policy after the Civil War
Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
2: How the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism, and initiated the welfare state
3: The causes and course of World War II, the character of the war at home and abroad, and its reshaping of the U.S. role in world affairs