2016 elections – Patriots Tickets

Philip J. Schuyler – An Election Time Opportunity To Reflect

2016-03-03

With the insanity of the primaries taking over the minds and media of our nation, I wanted to step back and explore a bit of America’s early history. Visiting the Schuyler Mansion was the perfect place to do this. The mansion brought me back to the roots of America: the Revolutionary War general Philip J. …

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Patriots & History

Baseball in December: Leopoldo Martinez and the 1947 Amateur World Series 2018-12-07

Over seventy years ago, in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American athlete to play in the World Series, having famously broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball earlier in the year. In another breakthrough, Leopoldo “Polín” Martinez, a Mexican American ballplayer, played in a world series that year as well—just not the […]

Thousands of tiny red sequins bask in individual attention as part of the conservation of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers 2018-11-28

Wielding an adorably tiny vacuum, objects conservator Dawn Wallace peered through her stereomicroscope at thousands of 80-year-old red sequins. As the soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz drifted through the Conservation Lab, Wallace gently began vacuuming every single delicate sequin, carefully removing surface dirt with a soft brush and a pipette attached to a vacuum […]

A behind-the-scenes look at museum fundraising 2018-11-26

Most people don't realize that while the federal funding the Smithsonian receives supports its buildings and about 2/3 of its staff; exhibitions, programs, object care, and many positions are privately funded.Who better to learn from about Smithsonian fundraising than the head of the museum's Office of External Affairs, who handles private fundraising for the National Museum of […]

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? 2018-11-26

Sesame Street was an innovative and radical children's television program when it premiered in 1969. In the 1960s, many parents were concerned about the amount of violence and commercialism in children's television. Children were watching more and more television: according to some studies, preschool-aged children were watching 27 hours of TV per week. Critics began to […]

The history of getting the gay out 2018-11-15

Title page to Garrard Conley's workbook from the gay-conversion camp Love in ActionIt is dangerous to be different, and certain kinds of difference are especially risky. Race, disability, and sexuality are among the many ways people are socially marked that can make them vulnerable. The museum recently collected materials to document gay-conversion therapy (also called […]

How black Philadelphians fought for soldiers during World War I 2018-11-08

Suffering from "shell shock and a general breakdown," Charles Mackall and James Randall arrived in Philadelphia in September 1918 from military service in France in the Great War. Mackall had been in trenches on the front line and had lain unconscious for 10 days. Randall had been a water tank driver. His afflictions, a newspaper […]

Church bells and the noise of democracy 2018-11-02

Like many other churches in the early republic, the Congregational meetinghouse in Castine, Maine, served both sacred and secular functions. Built in 1790, it was home not just to worship services but town meetings and judicial proceedings. Taxpayers paid its pastor’s wages. Though the ratification of the First Amendment made such arrangements unconstitutional at the […]

Matt Shepard objects in our collection remind us of the familiarity of an LGBTQ icon 2018-10-23

In October 1998, a college student named Matt Shepard was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, by two young men. Matt was slight of build, 5'2", and gay. The two men who murdered him pretended to be gay in order to rob him. His killing made headlines around the world and resulted in an outpouring of […]

EDM in the history museum: Steve Aoki gear travels the world and finds a home at the museum 2018-10-17

Music blasts toward the audience as concertgoers dance to Steve Aoki's pounding bass rhythms and bright LED displays. The DJ throws cakes at his cheering audience, to their delight, and jumps off the stage in his signature "Aoki Jump." Many electronic dance music (EDM) fans will tell you that there is nothing quite like attending […]

Satchel Paige: Pitching through history 2018-10-02

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?" – Satchel PaigeWith a professional baseball career spanning the jazz age to the space age, pitcher Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige (1906—1982) established himself not only as one of the most dominant American athletes of all time, but also as one of the […]