In the early 1960s, the Chicago firm of Playskool introduced this educational toy for children three to six years old, seeking to give them an early familiarity with numbers. It has two rows of relatively large rotating wooden rectangular blocks, each with a row of square rotating wooden blocks belo

Some girls made history by simply going to school and claiming their right to belong. Minnijean Brown is one of those girls. In 1957, she and eight classmates integrated the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the civil rights movement. White students physically and verbal

“"It was now quick work," Maria Mitchell noted. "As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the corona burst out all around the sun, so intensely bright near the sun that the eye could scarcely bear it." Maria Mitchell brought a team of Vassar graduates—"Vassar girls" as the press called

In this episode of the History Explorer podcast, we go behind the "seams" to explore the many layers of the Museum’s latest acquisition—Elphaba’s dress from the Broadway Musical Wicked, which gave a new spin on L. Frank Baum’s well known book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

This online exhibition explore the role of the portable printing press in conveying information during the Civil War. The ability to communicate quickly in wartime can profoundly affect military actions and outcomes. The invention of portable tabletop printing presses at the time of the American

This apparatus was designed by Catherine Stern, a physicist by training and the founder of a Montessori school in her native Germany. Stern and her husband were of Jewish descent, and emigrated to New York City in 1938 to avoid persecution by the Nazis. There she developed these materials, descri

The individual identified in Japanese characters, here is, Michibiku Ozamoto, or, in English, T. Ozamoto. The numbers 24-4-3 stand for Block 24, Barracks 4, Apartment 3.

From 1861-1865, Americans battled over preserving their Union and ending slavery.  The Civil War is the focus of this section of The Price of Freedom: Americans at War, an online exhibition. This pivotal and complicated period of American history is divided into sections that allow

This booklet, connected to the Invention at Play online exhibition from the Lemelson Center, highlights inventors who started out as great players and who recall a strong link between their play and inventing. It encourages adults to create an enriching play/inventing environme

In this classroom activity, students will analyze political cartoons and letters to the editor in order to identify and analyze the range of reactions to the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision, and the ways in which the Court's mandates were enacted or blocked. Students will also be able to co