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

Culture in the colonial classroom: A failed attempt at assimilation 2018-09-06

As our Philanthropy Initiative continues to explore the history of giving, we're eager to share stories of success and failure. This story of a failure comes from one of our nation’s most famous philanthropists: Benjamin Franklin.Immigrants were pouring into the country. They spoke a different language. They worshiped in a different way. Leaders were worried […]

What you may not know about the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire 2018-09-03

Shirtwaist made by Fisk, Clark & Flagg, about 1910.Shirtwaists, tailored blouses of the 1890s and early 1900s, became especially popular with working-class women because, unlike a full dress, they were easy to clean and offered freedom of movement.One of the most infamous tragedies in American manufacturing history is the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire of 1911. […]

Sailor, statesman, symbol: reflecting on John McCain and the Vietnam War 2018-08-31

This past Saturday, August 25, Arizona Senator John S. McCain III bid the nation farewell. For 60 years, McCain served the country either as a naval officer or as an elected official. Like everyone, his life experienced public and personal highs and lows with the added factor of always being cast in the public eye. […]

Recovered Ruby Slippers visit museum for examination by conservators, curators . . . and FBI agents 2018-08-30

Dawn Wallace and Richard Barden stood in the museum's objects conservation lab over two shoes. Red. Sequin-covered. Small heels. Petite in size. Wallace, an objects conservator, had recently spent more than 200 hours examining the museum's long-cherished pair of Ruby Slippers, worn by Judy Garland while filming the iconic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. Barden, […]

4 music-inspiring objects through the eyes of our Making American Music interns 2018-08-16

Musical inspiration abounds in the collections and exhibitions around us. As interns in the Making American Music project, we get to follow that inspiration to make music and engage museum visitors in a conversation about the relationship between music and history in the United States. With the guidance of artist-in-residence Dom Flemons, we’ve been exploring […]

Reflecting on the Queen of Soul's reign in American culture 2018-08-16

Today we're reflecting on the life of singer, songwriter, diva, civil rights activist, and cultural icon Aretha Franklin. Over 100 of Franklin's records, mostly 45s and 33s, are in our collection, together chronicling the vast expanse and depth of her recording career.Young, Gifted and Black, released in 1972, in the museum's collectionOne of music curator […]

An anti-slavery anthem reimagined for today 2018-08-07

Turn right at the Batmobile. Take the elevator behind the John Bull locomotive. If you hit Julia Child's kitchen, you've gone too far. My first week as an intern at the National Museum of American History, I spent a lot of time trying to get my bearings among the objects and exhibitions. But somehow I […]

"What's on your neighbor's table..." 2018-08-03

In 2018, the Smithsonian Food History Team is taking a close look at regional foodways and why they matter. From our monthly live-cooking demonstration program Cooking Up History to our fourth annual Food History Weekend this November, we are researching, writing, and talking about the power of place and the changing dynamics of regional foodways […]

M*A*S*H ended, but is not gone or forgotten 2018-07-26

The final episode of “M*A*S*H” was co-written with eight collaborators and directed by star Alan Alda.Despite the photo ops and historic border crossings that emerged from the on-again off-again Korean summit this past spring, the Korean War has yet to come to a formal close because South Korea never signed the 1953 truce ending hostilities. […]

Total eclipse of the sun, partial eclipse of inequality 2018-07-23

"It was now quick work," Maria Mitchell noted. "As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the corona burst out all around the sun, so intensely bright near the sun that the eye could scarcely bear it."Maria Mitchell brought a team of Vassar graduates—"Vassar girls" as the press called them—2,000 miles to study the July 1878 […]