The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law on July 2, 1964. President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill using this pen and ...

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery announced today that it has acquired the earliest known photograph of a U.S. First Lady for its permanent collection. Likely dating from 1846, the recently ...

Labor Day was officially established and signed into law by President Grover Cleveland in 1894 to recognize the contributions of American workers. Smithsonian Libraries houses many books dealing with ...

National Museum of African American History and Culture Photograph of Mary J. Blige at the NY Music Awards after party at China Club ...

Inspired by the allure of the space age, many Americans of the 1960s took great interest in mathematics and science. One of them was the cartoonist, book illustrator, and children’s author David ...

After generations of struggle for suffrage, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in 1919 and ratified in August 1920. To mark the centennial anniversary of women’s suffrage in 2020, ...

The year that Amelia Earheart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world was a tumultuous one. The Hindenburg airship went down in flames in New Jersey. Pablo ...

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, artist and cultural provocateur Andy Warhol reveled in challenging traditional conceptions of fine art. Following his success in the 1950s as a graphic artist ...

In the course of the 1970s, handheld electronic calculators transformed the way tens of millions of people did arithmetic. Engineers abandoned slide rules, business people gave up desktop calculating ...

Explore collection items related to Ireland and Irish American history and heritage. Learn how a chance encounter and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival helped launch a revival of Irish American music.

The laces made in Belgium during World War One are an important part of the lace holdings of the Division of Home and Community Life’s Textile Collection in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of ...

In 1907 Mrs. James W. Pinchot proposed to assemble a collection of arts and crafts for the Smithsonian Institution. To start this endeavor, Mrs. Pinchot and her collector friends loaned or donated ...