As COVID-19 deaths spiked in 2020, Suzanne Firstenberg’s public art installation "In America: How could this happen…"
History Explorer Results (26)
Related Books (2)
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts
Date Posted:
4/7/2016
Invention rarely stops when the inventor introduces a new device. Thomas A. Edison and his team worked to improve his electric lighting system for some years after the initial introduction in 1880. This lamp shows the changes made after six years of labor aimed at lowering costs and increasing pr
Grade Range:
9-12
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials
Date Posted:
7/7/2008
Students can learn more about American railroads during the 20th century. This reference page is included in the online exhibition entitled America on the Move, which focuses on transportation in US history.
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Lessons & Activities
Date Posted:
2/15/2017
Working with a teacher, students will recreate some of the electrical experiments originally performed by Benjamin Franklin between 1746 and 1754. These hands-on experiments highlight Franklin’s innovative contributions to science and government. Visitors will experience static electricity and
Grade Range:
8-12
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials
Date Posted:
3/23/2018
James Smithson might be surprised to learn about some of the objects in the collections at the institution he established. The Englishman bequeathed his fortune to found "at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge a
Blog Post: Refrigerators and women’s empowerment: The “peaceful revolution” of rural electrification
Grade Range:
8-12
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials
Date Posted:
12/31/2021
"Although women's empowerment can have a revolutionary effect on society, it doesn't always look like a revolution. Today, organizations like UN Women work to empower women in rural areas through economic programs that help them “claim their rights to land, leadership, opportunities, and choices
Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials
Date Posted:
10/11/2009
Students will learn about Thomas Edison's life in the years after he had become one of the most famous men in the world. At the age of 40, with major inventions behind him, Edison faced a new technical world, which he had helped to create, and the challenge of competing with his ow
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
2/2/2012
Thomas Edison used this carbon-filament bulb in the first public demonstration of his most famous invention, the first practical electric incandescent lamp, which took place at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory on New Year's Eve, 1879.
As the quintessential American inventor-hero,
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Artifacts, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
11/10/2008
The ENIAC was a large, general-purpose digital computer built to compute ballistics tables for U.S. Army artillery during World War II. Occupying a room 30 feet by 50 feet, ENIAC—the Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer—weighed 30 tons and used some 18,000 vacuum tubes. It could compu
Grade Range:
6-12
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials, Interactives & Media
Duration:
5 minutes
Date Posted:
6/30/2014
Although we might think of fax machines as a relatively recent (if somewhat dated) technology, this episode uncovers the surprising history of the wireless fax machine. Host Tory Altman speaks with Hal Wallace, associate curator of the museum's electricity collection, about this 1930s device that
Grade Range:
9-12
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials, Primary Sources
Date Posted:
12/23/2010
Beginning eight days after the first shots of the American Civil War were fired and three days before his wedding, William Steinway’s remarkable diary bears witness to one of the most dynamic periods in American history. This website examines the life of William Steinway and the display of his
