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

Let’s Go Caps: A curator’s collecting trip into Caps mania 2019-06-12

I’m a lifelong resident of the Washington, D.C. area and a hockey fan. So imagine my excitement (and surprise) last year when my team, the Washington Capitals, finally won a Stanley Cup championship! I was going crazy. My family was going crazy. The whole town was going crazy! Fans were celebrating in the streets until […]

Reading the rainbow: The origins of the pride symbol 2019-05-31

In 2017, in response to a slew of racist incidents in the Gayborhood, Philadelphia added black and brown stripes to the traditional six-color LGBT rainbow flag. The backlash was severe. Many rejected the alteration of such a supposedly sacred symbol. Apart from failing to recognize the intersectional interests of queer and trans people of color, […]

The impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on Native Americans 2019-05-30

The Transcontinental Railroad was completed 150 years ago, in 1869. In 1800s America, some saw the railroad as a symbol of modernity and national progress. For others, however, the Transcontinental Railroad undermined the sovereignty of Native nations and threatened to destroy Indigenous communities and their cultures as the railroad expanded into territories inhabited by Native […]

"10 Free Hours!" Marketing and the World Wide Web in the 1990s 2019-05-24

Remember these?Getting free stuff in the mail can be exciting, especially if the stuff that’s free is new and novel. On the other hand, it can be frustrating to have unsolicited stuff pouring into your mailbox. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, households across the United States received promotional disks in the mail from […]

A sports star being political, 19th-century style 2019-04-18

There has been a lot of debate over the last few years about whether sports should be political. From NFL players taking a knee to a range of athletes refusing to visit the Obama and Trump White Houses, it might seem as if American sports have become politicized to an unprecedented degree. In truth, however, […]

Donald Duck: An American Diplomat? 2019-04-11

Every April, people throughout North, Central, and South America celebrate Pan American Day. The roots of Pan American Day go back to 1890, when the First International Conference of American States convened to establish the International Union of American Republics, an organization that would strengthen the bonds of friendship, mutual understanding, and respect for diverse […]

When the dandelion went to war: An American prisoner of war's story 2019-04-09

“We were picking dandelions on the lawn there and we would boil them up,” Henry T. Chamberlain remembered. During the Great Depression, Chamberlain’s mother lost her job and couldn’t pay rent. The family moved to the grounds of the Nebraska Territory capitol building (now Omaha Central High School). “There were a million people living on […]

How Evelyn Lauder took on breast cancer at the cosmetics counter 2019-03-18

They had just arrived in a foreign country and the small girl’s mother was sent away. Ernest and Mimi Hausner fled their home in Vienna in 1938, when little Evelyn was just a toddler. Nazi Germany had annexed Austria, putting the lives of Jews like the Hausners at risk. They made it to England as refugees, […]

The hidden tractor 2019-03-15

The National Museum of American History has a staggering 1.8 million objects in the collections. It isn’t possible for one person to know all the artifacts, but, as a curator of agricultural history, I am proud to be very familiar with the museum’s 14 full-sized tractors. Not only do these incredible objects help us explore […]

The (display) case of the Ruby Slippers 2018-11-29

Many noses are pressed against the case that houses Dorothy's Ruby Slippers each day. The famous shoes from The Wizard of Oz attract a lot of attention—the site of many selfies and squeals during the gallery's opening weekend.But how many people notice the case that holds them? Very few.Acting like a "preservation chamber," it does […]