Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: Paleobiology: Paleo Art
Collection of art demonstrates a branch of scientific illustration that specializes in drawing fossils and other paleontological subject matter. Includes information on providing proper care for historical paleo art and offers methods of...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Themes: Auto Safety Pioneers
Since the 1970s, Americans have witnessed an amazing number of safety improvements in automobiles and the driving environment. Seat belts, air bags, safer fuel tanks, the Jaws of Life, and driving while intoxicated (DWI) campaigns are...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Themes: Container Back Story: Container Revolution
America on the Move tells the story of containerization-the technological and operational revolution that transformed the way cargos are loaded and moved among ships, trains, and trucks. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at how the...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Themes: Pete's Postcard
Journey through America's past with Pete as he hitchhikes across the country while viewing the postcards written to his then fiance Dot that highlight his adventures on the road.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Transforming the Waterfront: San Francisco and Oakland, Ca.
Containers-steel boxes stuffed with goods-and the systems for transferring them between ships, trucks, and trains transformed commercial shipping. Containerization streamlined freight handling and slashed the cost of transporting cargoes...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Transportation in America Before 1876
In 1800, the United States was made up of 16 states, all east of the Appalachians, and most people lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic. Oceans and rivers were the nations' highways, providing the only viable way to travel long...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: What Is an Emblem?
This tour divides the Smithsonian's collection of 278 radiator emblems into different groupings to demonstrate how similar objects can be interpreted to emphasize certain themes and relationships. The exhibition uses the radiator emblems...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Transatlantic Souvenirs
The Smithsonian's maritime collections contain many objects relating to the steamship Leviathan, the largest American passenger ship of the 1920s and 1930s. View these mementos originally preserved by passengers and crew to remember...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: A Streetcar City: Washington, d.c. 1900
American cities in the 19th century were walking cities-most residents worked and shopped close to where they lived. But as electric streetcar (trolley) systems were built in the 1880s, 1890s, and early 1900s, cities expanded. Many white...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Americans Adopt the Auto
This exhibition explores the role of transportation in American history focusing on the way the automobile went from being a plaything of the rich to a major factor in the American transportation landscape.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Auto Safety History
America on the Move explores the role of transportation in American History highlighting its role as a vital part of our business, social, and cultural history. This section provides an overview of the history of automobile safety...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: American Railroads in the 20th Century
A brief history of the last century and more of American railroads, from the early locomotives from the mid 1800s to today's fast passenger trains.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: American Racing: A Diversity of Innovation
American auto racing has a century long history of grass roots invention. From an American-European rivalry to uniquely American forms of racing, the history of racing includes business interests, enthusiastic fans, and alternative...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: City and Suburb: Chicago and Park Forest, Illinois 1950s
Exhibition highlights the differences between city and suburbia living. Visit Park Forest, Illinois, a new suburb of Chicago, where every day is moving day. A station wagon and moving boxes sit in front of a new house and the new kids on...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Collection: Transportation
The Museum's online transportation collection includes more than 1500 artifacts and photographs. Browse the collection by selecting multiple categories, eras, regions, etc.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Community Dreams: Santa Cruz, California 1876
Discover how connecting Santa Cruz, California to the national railroad network in the late 1800s helped the town prosper and change.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Crossing the Country: Somewhere in Wyoming 1903
Come along on the first successful cross-country automobile trip with H. Nelson Jackson, Sewall Crocker, and their dog Bud as they traveled in 1903 from California to New York in 63 days.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Cta Car 6719 From Scrap to History
Follow the story of Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) rapid-transit car 6719 from the day it was delivered to the transit agency in 1959 to the day it was placed in the Smithsonian's new transportation exhibition, America on the Move in 2003.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Delivering the Goods: Watsonville. California 1895
Railroads changed agriculture. As railways linked farms to a wider commercial world, city dwellers could buy fruits and vegetables year-round. Farms became commercialized, often specializing in single crops and tied to the ups and downs...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Family Camping: York Beach, Maine
The Cate family is on vacation at Decatur Motor Camp, York Beach, on the southern coast of Maine. It's late afternoon and the Cates are settling down after their day. Mrs. Cate and her daughter are preparing dinner in the trailer; Mr....
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Making Sense of "Failed" Car Technology
America on the Move explores the role of transportation in American History highlighting its role as a vital part of our business, social, and cultural history. Learn about the auto industry's experiments, dead-ends, and temporary...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Learning Resources
This activity guide accompanies the exhibition America on the Move and provides documents and activities that students can use to build a deeper understanding of how transportation shaped American commerce, communities, landscapes, and...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Lives on the Railroad: Salisbury, North Carolina 1927
Replica of the Salisbury, North Carolina railway station teaches about riding and working on the railroad in the 1920s when railroads were a central part of American life. Railroad lines crisscrossed the country. They carried people,...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Marine Patent Models
View the Smithsonian's collection of patent models that demonstrate marine inventions from the 1770s to the 1950s that attempted to change and improve the challenges Americans encountered working and traveling on the water.