In this post, students will learn about the work the Museum is doing to preserve the history from September 11, 2001. Students will hear an insider's perspective on the decision-making process, and discover what it's like to sort and collect important objects that will help tell the story for gen

In this post, students will learn about the concept of eco-cities (cities designed to be in balance with nature) and their impact on the sustainability movement. Written by Art Molella, Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Director of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, thi

This post helps teachers understand how to both memorialize September 11 and contextualize the history of the day through five essential questions. Targeted toward secondary students, the questions can help teachers and students compare aspects of September 11 to other events in American his

In this post, students will learn about the Bracero History Project, an oral history project that collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural work

In this post, students will learn about the work at the Museum to collect both professional and amateur photographer's images of the September 11 tragedy, as well as the stories told by the photographers. More than 2000 images and several cameras were collected for the Smithsonian from 25 ph

In this post, students will learn about the interdependence and interconnectedness of Mexico and the U.S., especially during the late 19th and early 20th century and its impact on the Mexican Revolution. The Revolution spanned twenty years, involving two nations and several colorful pub

In this post, students will learn about the thousands of American women who volunteered in World War I through their uniforms. Most of the women's uniforms in the Museum's collections from WWI belong to civilian relief and welfare organizations, like the Salvation Army, not to the armed forc

In this post, students will learn about the origins of the holiday known today as Halloween, and the history of its celebration in the United States, including trick-or-treating and costumes. All-Hallows-Even (that is, evening) is the night before All Hallows Day. The apostrophe in the earlier sp

In this post, students will learn about the first approved HIV/AIDS drug, AZT (also called Zidovudine (ZVD) and Retrovir)

In this post, students will discover the history of electric car technology over the course of the last century. In the early 20th century, motorists had a choice of electric, steam, or gasoline cars, and it wasn’t clear that any one type would dominate the market. Electricity was beginnin