The drawings included in this online exhibition are first-person records of military conflicts, cultural life, and "Americanization." The website shares an American Indian perspective on westward expansion through primary sources. In the late 19th century, life was changing rapidly for the N

This medal accompanied Lewis and Clark on their epochal journey West. The medal is hollow, consisting of two thin, embossed silver plates, one for each side of the medal. The two were held together by a silver ring, running around the entire circumference of the piece. The medal was created

This website is a comprehensive set of web based resources and activities suitable for students at every grade level. Produced through a collaborative partnership including the National Park Service, the University of Houston, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and the Chicago

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

In the 15th century, decades before they sailed into the Caribbean, Spanish merchants, captains, and adventurers had already conquered and enslaved the people of the Canary Islands in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. On the western coast of continental Africa, the Portuguese had been cultivating a sla

Before the famous California gold rush, several important strikes were made in the East: in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The earliest took place in Mecklenburg County, N.C., in 1799, where a nugget weighing several pounds was discovered. Its finder used it as a doorstop until some

This telegraph register, manufactured in accord with the Morse patent, was installed in 1848 in South Bend, reputedly the first telegraph office in Indiana. Stamped on the base is "j. Burritt & son ithaca." Pulses of electricity caused the two vertical electromagnets (on the right) to pull ag

Students can use this online collection search to explore hundreds of artifacts related to America's military history. The objects are part of an online exhibition, The Price of Freedom: Americans at War.

In the decades following the Civil War, the U.S. Army fought dozens of engagements with Indians in the West. This website explores Federal Indian policies and conflicts that arose as Americans flooded west into the Great Plains. Through the use of images and objects from the Museum's collections,

Coveting what remained of the Indian lands in the Southeast and lower South, the United States forced tribes to cede their "rights of occupancy" and give up their ancestral homelands. Students will learn about the Creek Indian War and the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and the policies that led t