BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: American Stories

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: American Stories:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIAHST_160318_003.JPG: Soul of Humanity award 2012 Little Rock Central High School was designated a National Historic Site in 1998, in recognition of the national importance of the events of 1957. In 2007 Minnijean Brown Trickey attended the fifty-year commemoration ceremony that celebrated the integration of Little Rock Public Schools and honored the Little Rock Nine. Her life after Little Rock has encompassed roles as a social worker, social justice and environmental activist and advocate, and teacher.
2. SIAHST_160318_014.JPG: Program 2007 for Little Rock Central High School fifty-year commemoration Little Rock Central High School was designated a National Historic Site in 1998, in recognition of the national importance of the events of 1957. In 2007 Minnijean Brown Trickey attended the fifty-year commemoration ceremony that celebrated the integration of Little Rock Public Schools and honored the Little Rock Nine. Her life after Little Rock has encompassed roles as a social worker, social justice and environmental activist and advocate, and teacher.
3. SIAHST_160318_020.JPG: Life magazine September 1957 In September 1957 a group of African American students became part of a movement to desegregate Arkansas's Little Rock Central High School. The young students were prevented from entering the school by members of the Arkansas National Guard, on orders from the state's governor. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent US troops to enforce integration. On February 6, 1958, Minnijean Brown received this suspension notice from Central High for a verbal altercation with a white student. Brown's parents appealed the suspension, stating that verbal and physical attacks against their daughter were a concentrated effort to have her expelled from the school. The appeal was denied.
4. SIAHST_160318_027.JPG: Suspension notice for Minnijean Brown 1958 In September 1957 a group of African American students became part of a movement to desegregate Arkansas's Little Rock Central High School. The young students were prevented from entering the school by members of the Arkansas National Guard, on orders from the state's governor. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent US troops to enforce integration. On February 6, 1958, Minnijean Brown received this suspension notice from Central High for a verbal altercation with a white student. Brown's parents appealed the suspension, stating that verbal and physical attacks against their daughter were a concentrated effort to have her expelled from the school. The appeal was denied.
5. SIAHST_160318_032.JPG: Graduation dress worn by Minnijean Brown 1959 On June 5, 1959, Minnijean Brown graduated from New York City's New Lincoln School, wearing this dress that she designed herself. She finished her education in New York City after being suspended from Little Rock Central High School. In New York Minnijean lived with Drs. Kenneth B. and Mamie Clark, both leading African American psychologists. The Clarks had contributed research that figured in the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision that led to the desegregation of public schools.
6. SIAHST_160318_038.JPG: Commencement program for New Lincoln School, New York City 1959 On June 5, 1959, Minnijean Brown graduated from New York City's New Lincoln School, wearing this dress that she designed herself. She finished her education in New York City after being suspended from Little Rock Central High School. In New York Minnijean lived with Drs. Kenneth B. and Mamie Clark, both leading African American psychologists. The Clarks had contributed research that figured in the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision that led to the desegregation of public schools.
7. SIAHST_160318_042.JPG: Elmo 1979 Elmo first appeared on Sesame Street in 1979, but his character, as a cheerful three-and-a-half-year-old with a positive attitude, didn't come together until 1984. Since then Elmo has become one of the most popular Sesame Street Muppets, appearing in television specials and videos and inspiring several toys -- notably, from 1996, "Tickle Me Elmo."
8. SIAHST_160318_051.JPG: Wedding-cake toppers 2008 used at the wedding of David DeFelice and Paul Scherbak in San Francisco The expansion of civil rights to LGBTQ people, begun decades ago, continues to be debated in the United States. Soon after California legalized gay marriage in June 2008, David DeFelice married Paul Scherbak. Five months later, voters passed Proposition 8 and limited marriage to opposite-sex couples. In June 2013, the US Supreme Court let stand the right for same-sex couples to marry in California, but did not address laws banning same-sex marriage in other states.
9. SIAHST_160318_057.JPG: Apple II computer 1980s made by Apple Computer, Cupertino, California Computers transformed how Americans experience daily life. Introduced in 1977, the Apple II series was affordable and commercially successful. It helped usher in the age of personal computing and make the United States the world leader of the computer revolution.
10. SIAHST_160318_064.JPG: Integrated circuit (1994) November 1995 Pentium Pro chip made by Intel Before the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958, many electronic devices relied on large glass vacuum tubes or transistors to create and process electrical signals. Continuing development has led to silicon-based microchips that are smaller and faster; as a rule the number of components on integrated circuits doubles every two years. This chip used 21 million transistors. Chips now hold billions of tiny electronic switches, and offer ever-greater computing power at low cost.
11. SIAHST_160318_073.JPG: Silver milk pot about 1774 made by Daniel Dopuy, Philadelphia In the 1760s and 1770s, the British Parliament imposed a series of taxes no tea imported to America, leading to public debates about buying, selling, and drinking the popular and expensive beverage. To drink tea or not became a political act, symbolized by the decoration and inscription this milk pitcher. Engraved above the date is "Britons take back your baneful tea / You N'er shall make a Slave of me."
12. SIAHST_160318_087.JPG: Shackles 1865 worn by Lincoln assassination conspirators The Confederate army surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, signaled the end of four long years of civil war. Northern victory preserved the Union and ended slavery, and President Lincoln prepared to rebuild the nation. But five nights later Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth fatally shot the president at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. The attack was part of a larger failed plot to murder national leaders and throw the Union into turmoil. Booth was later killed by a federal officer, and eight co-conspirators were arrested and jailed, where they wore these arm and leg shackles. Four were hanged and the other sent to prison.
13. SIAHST_160318_092.JPG: Bronze cast of Abraham Lincoln's life mask 1886 made by Augustus Saint-Gaudens after Leonard Volk's 1860 original As the United States expanded westward, Americans debated and fought over the issue of allowing slavery in the new lands. Abraham Lincoln rose to national prominence after delivering a speech at the Cooper Union in February 1860 arguing against the extension of slavery. Following his election that year, seven southern states, fearing that he was anti-slavery, seceded from the Union. When a portrait of Lincoln appeared on the cover of Harper's Weekly in November 1860, southern postal officials refused to deliver it, hinting at the divisions to come.
14. SIAHST_160318_100.JPG: United States Colored Troops medal 1864 commissioned by General Benjamin Butler to honor black troops under his command Less than a year after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 promised freedom to Confederate slaves, tens of thousands enrolled in black military regiments. By war's end, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors fought for the North. Usually under white leadership, black troops fought in thirty-nine battles; 37,000 died in service. The Butler medal was the only one created for a black unit. After General Butler was relieved of his command in 1865, the 300 black soldiers who had received the medals were forbidden to wear them on their uniforms.
15. SIAHST_160318_110.JPG: Sunstone capital about 1846 from the temple of the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon in 1830, during a great Christian revivalist movement. Persecuted from the beginning, the Latter-day Saints left New York State and went west in search of sanctuary. Nauvoo was just one step along the way of a migration toward what became Salt Lake City, Utah; it drew tens of thousands of converts from the eastern United States and many European countries.
16. SIAHST_160318_116.JPG: Plate commemorating the Latter-day Saints temple in Nauvoo, Illinois 1844–46 made by Joseph Twigg's Newhill Pottery, England Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founded the town of Nauvoo in 1839 and finished construction of their elaborate temple in 1846. Initially welcomed by the Illinois General Assembly, growing anti-Mormonism and the 1844 murder of leader Joseph Smith drove them to abandon the town and head west.
17. SIAHST_160318_121.JPG: Tinfoil phonograph 1878 invented by Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Edison helped usher in an age of organized research in support of commerce and industry that reshaped American life. Vowing to turn out inventions on a regular basis, Edison and his team of scientists, engineers, draftsmen, and laborers developed or improved over 1,000 patents, from huge electric generators to this early phonograph.
18. SIAHST_160318_129.JPG: Incandescent lamp about 1891 made by Edison General Electric Company Many inventions in the late 1880s helped speed urban growth, allowing for taller buildings, more efficient factories, and better transportation. One of the most dramatic improvements occurred in artificial lighting. Thomas Edison's development of an electric lamp that did not rely on open flames made lighting more practical for factories, offices, and homes, and transformed city life.
19. SIAHST_160318_144.JPG: Bell's mother and wife were deaf, leading him to experiment with hearing devices; he filed the first American patent for a telephone in 1876. Here Bell inaugurates New York-to-Chicago telephone service in 1892.
20. SIAHST_160318_147.JPG: Edison did not invent the lightbulb, but he did develop the first commercially practical incandescent bulb and a fully integrated lighting system.
21. SIAHST_160318_151.JPG: Stock ticker about 1900 made by the Western Union Telegraph Company The U.S. economy grew rapidly after the Civil War, fueled by an astounding rise in wealth, wages, production, and corporate mergers, along with limited government regulation. The volume of stocks traded rose sharply with corporations' need for investment capital and the development of new technologies. The 1867 invention of the stock ticker, transmitting up-to-the-minute share prices over telegraph lines, modernized the stock exchange.
22. SIAHST_160318_158.JPG: Economic growth was accompanied by a series of financial panics, recessions, and depressions. Here Harper's Weekly illustrated a May 14, 1884, Wall Street panic.
23. SIAHST_160318_160.JPG: Alexander Graham Bell's big box telephone 1876 one of the first commercially available telephones Telegraph lines could carry only one coded message per wire at a time, which became a hindrance as the volume of communication increased. To overcome this problem, Alexander Bell used his knowledge of acoustics to devise a method of sending multiple tonal messages over a wire. This led to the telephone, and a communication revolution that transformed business and daily life.
24. SIAHST_160318_163.JPG: Statue late 1800s made by the Union Porcelain Works, Greenpoint, New York In the late 1800s, black Americans gained citizenship and the vote, while immigrants from Europe and Asia came to the country in record numbers. As these minorities strove for economic prosperity and social justice, some white Americans reacted to the rapidly changing social order with apprehension and hostility. The relationship of the three figures in this statue captures this tension.
25. SIAHST_160318_173.JPG: Dorothy's ruby slippers 1938 from the 1939 MGM The Wizard of Oz What makes this pair of shoes one of the most cherished items in the Museum's collections? These treasured artifacts show how objects capture our imagination and connect us to the past.
26. SIAHST_160318_180.JPG: Dorothy's ruby slippers 1938 from the 1939 MGM The Wizard of Oz In the modern fairy tale The Wizard of Oz, a brave American girl relies on ingenuity, courage, and imagination to make her way home from a faraway land. Released near the end of the Great Depression and just a month before Germany's invasion of Poland sparked World War II, the film's message of friendship and triumph over evildoers resonated with millions of viewers. In the film version of the book, Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, found a new world of color when she stepped into Oz. The same Technicolor camera that captured Oz on film is currently on display in Places of Invention (1st Floor West).
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Description of Subject Matter: American Stories
April 12, 2012 – Indefinitely
A chronological look at the people, inventions, issues, and events that shape the American story, this exhibition showcases more than 100 historic and cultural touchstones of American history from the museum's vast holdings, supplemented by a few loans. A changing exhibition space features new acquisitions. Highlights include:
* a fragment of Plymouth Rock
* a section of the first transatlantic telegraph cable
* a sunstone capital from the Latter-day Saints temple at Nauvoo, Illinois
* the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz
* baseballs used by Babe Ruth and Sam Streeter
* a Kermit the Frog puppet
* clothing artifacts, including a “quincea�era” gown worn for a 15th-birthday celebration
* Apolo Ohno’s speed skates from the 2002 Winter Olympics
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Everything)] [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Non-Events)] [Museums (History)]
2016 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Seven relatively short trips this year: two Civil War Trust conference (Gettysburg, PA and West Point, NY, with a side-trip to New York City), my 11th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Utah, Nevada, and California), a quick trip to Michigan for Uncle Wayne's funeral, two additional trips to New York City, and a Civil Rights site trip to Alabama during the November elections. Being in places where people died to preserve the rights of minority voters made the Trumputin election even more depressing. Number of photos taken this year: just over 610,000.
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