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

This is a Bata Cubana, or Cuban Rumba dress, donated to the Smithsonian by Celia Cruz, the great Cuban salsa singer in 1997. An adaptation of the traditional Cuban rumba dress, it was made in the United States by Cuban-born designer José Arteaga. The Bata Cubana has its roots in the 19th century

While leg makeup has been commercially available since the 1920s, it wasn't until rationing was introduced during the World War II that the product became an essential commodity for many American women. Unable to procure silk or nylon hose, many women resorted to painting their legs with products

Life on America's farms in the 1920s and 1930s meant hard work and frugal habits. Farm families were used to "making do" with what they had, wasting nothing that could be recycled or reused. With feed sacks and flour bags, farmwomen took thriftiness to new heights of creativity, transforming the

This website includes 10 objects from the Smithsonian’s First Ladies Collection supplemented with contextual information. Part of the online exhibition entitled Legacies: Collecting America’s History at the Smithsonian, this resource will give students a unique look at the life of some of Ame

In this post, readers will learn how fashion interacted with and reflected the Woman’s Suffrage movement of the early 1900s.  At the turn of the century, the tide of political change went hand-in-hand with the liberation of women’s bodies from corsets and close-fitting outfits.  An

In this post, students will learn about Celia Cruz's life, music, and impact on Caribbean and Latino immigrants in America. In a career that spanned six decades and took her from Cuba to the United States, Cruz became known around the world for her piercing and powerful voice and larger-than