Students will learn how the Smithsonian acquired the house at 16 Elm Street Ipswich, Massachusetts and saved more than a dozen family stories and 200 years of American social history. They will also learn some of the methods historians and curators used to learn about this house's past, the ways

How does American business affect you? How and why has it changed since the United States began? Come explore stories of business men and women who have changed the world. See hundreds of intriguing objects that illustrate transformations in society. Think about how Americans have mixed capitalis

New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) was an auto manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, operated jointly by Toyota and General Motors from 1984 until 2010. GM had operated the plant at Fremont from 1960 where the clashes between management and union workers resulted in the pla

The reprint of Fortune Magazine’s “Issei, Nisei, Kibei”, which reviewed the war relocation program, reached a wide swathe of the United States and confronted Americans with the severe social issues taking place on the home front. Awareness of the prejudicial treatment of these specific citi

This exhibition is about Clotilde Arias, a Peruvian immigrant who came to New York City in 1923 at age twenty-two to study music. Decades later she translated the national anthem into the official Spanish version at the request of the U.S. government. Arias died in 1959 in Manhattan at age fifty-eig

The Quakers published this booklet titled "El Obrero y sus Derechos" in 1981. The 23-page Spanish language booklet uses cartoons to inform and instruct workers on their rights and where to go for help. It covers a wide variety of occupations (apparel, agriculture, construction, car washing, etc.) Th

“With the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing civil unrest, historians, educators, and the general public once again fixated on the “long hot summers” of the 1960s. Where every year, for the latter half of the decade, America was embroiled in widespread violent protest. While this keystone

“Lena Richard was an African American chef who built a culinary empire in New Orleans during the Jim Crow era. She reshaped public understanding of New Orleans’ cuisine by showcasing and celebrating the black roots of Creole cooking in a time when pervasive racial stereotypes surrounded the food

A vejigante is a person who dresses in costume to help celebrate Carnival in Ponce, Puerto Rico. In this activity, students will read about being a vejigante and then design their own Carnival costume. OurStory is a series of modules designed to help children and adults enjoy exploring histo

In this brief video, curators Harry Rubenstein and Larry Bird share key objects from the political history collection representing inaugurations and presidential campaigns dating back to the early 1800s.  See how objects are stored and continuity and change in campaign and inaugural material