Cherished by generations of child artists, Crayola crayons were invented in 1903 by the Binney & Smith Company of Easton, Pennsylvania. Using paraffin wax and nontoxic pigments, the company produced a coloring stick that was safe, sturdy, and affordable. The name "Crayola," coined by the wife

This object-based learning activity revolves around the desk on which Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. Students will learn how the Jefferson desk can help them understand the meaning of the Declaration, both at the time that it was written as well as to future g

Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the annexation of Texas, the land claims of many Mexican families were not respected, either by the new English-speaking settlers or by the U.S. government. Dispossession from family- and community-owned lands dealt a severe economic blow to the livel

For most of the twentieth century, two generations of Scurlocks documented Washington, D.C.'s African American community and city life.  Portraits of a City is a web resource from the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, that preserves and provides access to the pho

Family photograph albums hold the history of generations, preserving the memories of birthdays, holidays, travels, and all general aspects of life. African American Mary Taylor used her 35mm Bell and Howell camera to document her family's life in the black community of Los Angeles, California, du

Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564), an early European physician and professor of medicine, wrote an important treatise on the human body, published in 1543. He provided detailed illustrations that demonstrated muscle structure and other features of human anatomy, based on his work dissecting cadavers

The short-handled hoe brings back memories of back-breaking labor for generations of Mexican and Mexican American migrant workers who sustained California's booming agricultural economy.

The Densho Project is a non-profit educational organization that preserves historical first-person accounts, photographs and documents in a digital archive. Digitally videotaped oral history interviews include personal experiences of immigration, family life, mass incarceration of Japanese Americ

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