This Santa Cruz helmet was worn by downhill skateboarder Judi Oyama while racing during the late 1970's and into the 1980s. Oyama began skating as a teen and was sponsored by Santa Cruz Skateboards in the mid-seventies. She skated both vert and street but her passion was slalom and downhill racing w

Associate Chief Joseph A. Banco Jr. is a highly decorated, 22-year-veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol. During his long and distinguished career, Mr. Banco served on our Nation’s southwestern, coastal, and northern borders as well as internationally.This uniform was worn during the late 1990s betwee

This website features the diary of Civil War nurse, Amanda Akin. In April 1863, Akin left her home in Quaker Hill, NY, to serve as a nurse at Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C. During her 15 months at Armory Square, Akin wrote long letters to her sisters and recorded her daily activities

This segment of Preparing for the Oath: U.S. History and Civics for Citizenship teaches about the geography of the United States through short videos, mini-activities, and practice questions. The eight questions in this segment cover topics such as, the longest rivers in the country, the oceans t

In lesson from the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, students examine a primary source that might seem both familiar and strange: a yearbook from Rutgers in 1860, complete with farewell messages from classmates. On close study, the messages from reveal much about the

This flag belonged to the 84th Regiment of Infantry, United States Colored Troops. The red stripes bear the regiment's name and number and some of the battles in which the 84th fought. The unit was organized April 4, 1864 and mustered for service on March 14, 1866. The unit fought

The United States National 34-Star flag was adopted with the admission of Kansas as the 34th state in January 1861. It was used until 1863 when West Virginia became a state. At no time did the national flag lose stars.

USS Carondolet was a 512-ton ironclad gunboat in the style of the Cairo. It was built in Saint Louis and commissioned in January 1862. Within a month it had contributed to the capture of both Fort Henry and Fort Donelson.

Until May 12, 1864, this shattered stump was a large oak tree in a rolling meadow just outside Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. The same fury of rifle bullets that cut down 2,000 combatants tore away all but twenty-two inches of the tree's trunk. Several of the conical minie balls (bullets) ar

At the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union saw the value of securing a rocky outcropping called Little Round Top.  Strong Vincent seized the opportunity, taking the boulder and yelling to his men, “Don’t give an inch.” As he uttered the words a bullet tore through his thigh and lodged