In this post, readers will discover some of the early history of bullet-proof vests and how Americans during the Civil War tried to protect themselves and their loved ones with this relatively new invention.  Written by Civil War scholar Sarah Weicksel, this post i

In this post, readers will explore the writings of an assistant surgeon in the 150th Pennsylvania infantry during the Civil War, M.A. Henderson.  Although Henderson did not see much action and describes little of his medical duties, his diary is a resource for understanding the Ci

In this post, readers will find hope even in the darkest of circumstances.  The story of Paul and May Ishimoto finding love in an Arkansas internment camp is one of perseverance, sacrifice, and artifacts.  Written by Cedric Yeh, Deputy Chair and Associate Curator for the Division of Arm

In this post, readers will learn about an historical moment from a personal point of view.  William Steinway recounts the terrors of the 1863 New York City Draft riots and why he feared for his family during those dangerous days.  Written by Curator Emerita Cynthia Adams Hoover and volu

In this post, readers will draw connections between the food on our tables and the people and organizations that helped put it there.  More than a warm meal, the foods Americans consume have been a source of political tension and national change throughout the 20th century. 

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, students will learn about the Civil War through a photographic album presented to Anna Lowell in 1864 by a group of attendants in D.C.'s Armory Square Hospital. In 1862, having recently been trained as a nurse, Lowell had traveled from Cambridge to D.C. and immediately gotten t

In this post, students will learn about the Bracero History Project, an oral history project that collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural work

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