What happens when a people decide to govern themselves? America’s national treasures come to life in this compelling exhibition that examines the bold experiment to create a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” American Democracy: A Great Leap of Fait

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on this portable desk of his own design. It features a hinged writing board and a locking drawer for papers, pens, and inkwell. By the summer of 1776 members of the Second Continental Congress prepared to declare thei

This website features the diary of Civil War nurse, Amanda Akin. In April 1863, Akin left her home in Quaker Hill, NY, to serve as a nurse at Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C. During her 15 months at Armory Square, Akin wrote long letters to her sisters and recorded her daily activities

In September 1861 Ulysses S. Grant was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers by President Abraham Lincoln. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. On April 9, 1865,

This Medal of Honor was awarded to Sergeant Major Christian Fleetwood, 4th U.S. Colored Troops, for heroism on the field of battle at Chaffin’s Farm on September 29, 1864. Fleetwood seized the colors after two color bearers had been shot down, and bore them nobly through the fight. Fleetwood wa

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

The letter reveals George Washington’s active engagement in shaping the nation during the critical period following the American Revolution. Washington wrote the letter to Dr. David Stuart from Mount Vernon on November 30, 1785. Stuart was both a trusted associate and a member of Washington’s

The national anthem describes an actual event in American history. In this classroom activity, students will be able to recite the first verse and paraphrase "The Star-Spangled Banner." Students will also be able to explain why Francis Scott Key wrote these words in 1814. This activity is include

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

In this post, students will read an interview with Marcia Quackenbush, a social worker in San Francisco in the early 1980s. She wrote one of the early textbooks for K-12 teachers, Teaching AIDS. Interviewer John O’Keefe is a guest assistant curator of the showcase displa