The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History recently acquired at auction a rare 18th-century silver milk pot or creamer with engraved with symbols and an inscription that support the American colonists’ ongoing boycott of imported goods, especially tea, during the months following a

This historical investigation is aligned with the C3 Framework and is from C3teachers.org. This inquiry provides students with an opportunity to evaluate the relationship between the dramatic increase

John H. Irwin received patent number 35,158 on May 6, 1862, of this design of a coil oil lamp. Irwin’s lamp was designed for coal oils and other similar hydrocarbons (such as kerosene) which volatilized at low temperatures and required an excess of oxygen to support illumination. The excess of

Trace the cultivation, trade, purchase, and consumption of four key drinks from the Merchant Era: tea, chocolate, water, and whiskey.

The advertising business shaped the relationship between producers and consumers. Starting with newspapers, advertising financed media in the U.S., ensuring that it all became commercialized. Advertisers defined the benefits of consumption for Americans, linking products to personal improvement,

In these classroom activities, developed for the exhibition America on the Move, students will use visual, analytical, and interpretive skills to examine primary sources including a historical map and answer questions about them to learn more about global consumption, productio

This teacher's resource challenges students to think about the Lincoln-Keckley as an object that has multiple symbolic meanings. It includes a preliminary activity intended to introduce students to doing history with objects and 3 lesson plans focused on the multiple meanings of the dress, t

This object-based learning activity revolves around a dress that connects the lives of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, a popular African-American dressmaker who lived in Washington, D.C at the time of the Civil War. Students will learn how one object can tell many different stories.

This silver teapot was made by Samuel Casey of Little Rest (later Kingston, R.I.), about 1750, for Abigail Robinson, probably about the time of her marriage to John Wanton of Newport, R.I., in 1752. Shaped like an inverted pear, the teapot has silver feet and a wooden finial. The wooden handle is

In this post, students will learn how packaging—and the unspoken dialogue between consumers and producers—is one way to understand the connection between supermarkets and food consumption habits in the United States. Package colors, materials, and other design elements of food products a