During the late 1950s and 1960s, American scientists and educators proposed using machines for instruction. Teaching machines and related programmed textbooks used a careful sequence of questions for teaching. Jerome C. Meyer and later William R. Hafel, both of Sunnydale, California, believed that i

“"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

“Getting free stuff in the mail can be exciting, especially if the stuff that’s free is new and novel. On the other hand, it can be frustrating to have unsolicited stuff pouring into your mailbox. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, households across the United States received promotional dis

Shave Head uses a two-level drawing shows a buffalo hunt with four wounded animals, and a separate hunt and the wounding of an elk. The Cheyenne warriors wear full headdress and four of the five also wear their mountain lion bow and quiver, symbolically powerful pieces of hunting gear.

This online exhibition uses objects to tell the stories of disabled Americans from the 1800s to the present. The exhibition covers many aspects of life, including home, schools, and institutions, as well as how changes in technology and medicine have impacted the disabled. In addition to the exhi

In this episode of the History Explorer Podcast, curator Rayna Green discusses what we can learn from seemingly simple line drawings about the lives and memories of Plains Indians who lived over 130 years ago.  The resources include a teacher guide and related image. 

While training for combat on the fields of Yale University in 1917, Private J. Robert Conroy found a brindle puppy with a short tail. He named him Stubby, and soon the dog became the mascot of the 102nd Infantry, 26th Yankee Division. He learned the bugle calls, the drills, and even a modified do

This buckskin coat was worn by Custer when he was Lieutenant Colonel with the 7th U. S. Cavalry in the Dakotas. It was one of several owned and worn by Custer, who prefered to dress like a frontiersman while out West. In 1912, Custer's widow, Elizabeth, donated this buckskin coat t

On the Catholic calendar, the Three Kings are celebrated on the 6th of January. On this date Puerto Rican children traditionally expected their Christmas gifts, not from Santa Claus, but from the Three Kings. In Puerto Rico, the Three Kings, (in Spanish called Reyes Magos) are depicted a

The drawings included in this online exhibition are first-person records of military conflicts, cultural life, and "Americanization." The website shares an American Indian perspective on westward expansion through primary sources. In the late 19th century, life was changing rapidly for the N