The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed the two states to decide the issue of slavery by a popular ballot. The fight in Kansas was so intense that the state earned the nickname “Bleeding Kansas.” John Brown bought 2,000 of these revolvers and sent them to Kansas for the “Free-Soilers.”

Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis (1914-1981) lost his first bout with Nazi Germany's champion Max Schmeling in 1936, but the return match was a triumph for America. This towel was thrown in by Schmeling's handlers at Yankee Stadium, New York City, June 22, 1938, where Louis pummeled his oppo

This cardboard CARE package, contains seven smaller boxes and bags of macaroni, cornmeal, Carnation instant chocolate flavored drink mix, and nonfat dried milk. It has a paper insert reading "August 6, 1962. Greetings from the men of the U.S.S. Lake Champlain." The macaroni boxes are marked "Pack

This website is a comprehensive set of web based resources and activities suitable for students at every grade level. Produced through a collaborative partnership including the National Park Service, the University of Houston, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and the Chicago

Spend time exploring Globalization and Food, two topics from the Global Era.

Take a closer look at the Global Era topics of Finance and Discount Retail.

Dig deeper into the Global Era topics of Networks and Earnings.

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, readers will see what a Civil War-era lithograph reveals about life in a prisoner of war camp early in the Civil War.  The significance of the piece, however, lies both in that insight and in the contrast between living conditions in the camp in 1862 and in the later war years.

In this post, readers will investigate a few examples of drawings made by Plains Indians who, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were held in captivity by the U.S. Army at places like Fort Marion in Florida.  Curator Rayna Green describes how these images depict