“Over seventy years ago, in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American athlete to play in the World Series, having famously broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball earlier in the year. In another breakthrough, Leopoldo “Polín” Martinez, a Mexican American ballplayer, pl

This yellow, floral patterned tea length patterned dress was worn by Minnijean Brown during the Spingarn Award Ceremony in 1958. The Spingarn Medal is a gold medal that has been awarded annually since 1915 by the NAACP. According to the NAACP, the purpose is “to call the attention of the American

This historical investigation is aligned with the C3 Framework and is from C3teachers.org. This annotated inquiry leads students through an investigation of the civil rights movement using the lens of

This Medal of Honor was awarded to Sergeant Major Christian Fleetwood, 4th U.S. Colored Troops, for heroism on the field of battle at Chaffin’s Farm on September 29, 1864. Fleetwood seized the colors after two color bearers had been shot down, and bore them nobly through the fight. Fleetwood wa

Students will learn about American industrial creativity by looking at industrial drawings, considering their aesthetic value as well as their importance to the design process. Engineers, inventors, and designers produce drawings as part of their creative process. They draw to work

In this section of the online exhibition entitled Treasures of American History, students will learn how biographies of important Americans can reflect the circumstances of their times, provide a personal perspective on the past, and make up a fascinating and multifaceted portr

The Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in late 1957 sparked interest in the United States in science education even among elementary school children. In 1958, King Seeley Thermos produced this imaginative box evoking space travel and landings on distant moons and planets. Children provided a