Our mission is to empower people to create a just and compassionate future by exploring, preserving, and sharing the complexity of our past.

In the 1920s, railroads were a central part of American life. Railroad lines crisscrossed the country. They carried people, manufactured goods, food, the daily mail, and express package. Railroads ...

The Ruby Slippers were made famous by Dorothy Gale, a character portrayed by Judy Garland (1922-1969), in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank ...

Learn where to eat, shop, and play during your visit to the museum. The main eatery for the National Museum of American History is Eat at America’s Table, serving a changing menu of American regional ...

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the association led the black civil rights struggle in fighting injustices such as the ...

The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: Aids in relieving distress and discomforts of colds by its fourfold action -- as an analgesic, as an antipyretic, as an ...

Nineteenth-century Plains Indian drawings have often been called “ledger” drawings because they were made with pencil, ink, and watercolor on pages of old ledger or account books. When young Plains ...

From the impact of new technologies to the influence of social and cultural changes, FOOD: Transforming the American Table explores the transformation of food and drink in post-World War II America.

The First Ladies explores the unofficial but important position of first lady and the ways that different women have shaped the role to make their own contributions to the presidential administrations ...

The Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection (NNC) is America's collection of monetary and transactional objects. This diverse and expansive global collection contains objects that represent every ...

Understanding women’s history is integral to understanding the American experience. Although often underrepresented in recorded histories, women helped build the United States of America of today and ...

African Americans turned to the courts to help protect their constitutional rights. But the courts challenged earlier civil rights legislation and handed down a series of decisions that permitted ...