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National Museum of American History

The Star Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired our national anthem (NMAH)

8 Things You Didn't Know About the Star Spangled Banner

The Story Behind the Iconic Photo of Gay Dads Kissing

Title page to Garrard Conley's workbook from the gay-conversion camp Love in Action (NMAH)

The History of Getting the Gay Out

Matt Shepard in high school, taken in Lugano, Switzerland (NMAH)

Matt Shepard's Objects at the Smithsonian Show Us the Familiarity of an Icon

Leo Baker's personalized skateboards (NMAH)

How LGBTQ Skateboarders Have Carved Out a Place at the Park

Transgender flag designed by Monica Helms (right), and friends. The flag's stripes represent the traditional pink and blue associated with girls and boys and white for intersex, transitioning, or of undefined gender. Helms served in the United States Navy and became an activist for transgender rights in the late 1990s in Arizona where she grew up. She designed the flag in 1999. (NMAH)

Can an Object Be Gay? LGBTQ Collecting

Picket signs carried by protestors at the White House and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, 1960s (Frank Kameny Collection, NMAH)

The Most Radical Thing About Stonewall Wasn't the Uprising

Miscellaneous objects from the museum’s collection that feature rainbows, including “That’s So Gay!” trivia game, coasters, and flags promoting marriage equality and immigration equality (NMAH)

Where Did the Rainbow Flag Come From, Anyway?

Speaker’s card advertising Walker’s services as a lecturer. Walker described herself as

Mary Walker, the Original "New Woman"

In a scene from the HBO series, Tulsa’s masked police force prepares for a raid. Detective Wade Tillman (known as “Looking Glass”) is played by Tim Blake Nelson. Detective Angela Abar (known as “Sister Night”) is played by Regina King (Mark Hill for HBO).

When Watchmen Were Klansmen

Alice Tetsuko Kono in her Women's Army Corps uniform, around 1943 (NMAH)

Why Japanese American Alice Tetsuko Kono Joined the WAC During World War II

This black metal suitcase belonged to Iku Tsuchiya. It went with her to Tanforan Assembly Center, then to the Topaz camp, and back home to San Leandro, California. (NMAH)

What Happened to Japanese American Houses During Incarceration?

While held at the Poston camp in Arizona, Yasu Takei made this one-thousand-stitch sash to bestow good luck and protection to her son Jim Kuichi Takei, who was fighting with the 442nd in Europe. (NMAH)

Memories of Japanese Incarceration Camps Remind Us That Our Freedoms Are Fragile

The all-star team from Gila River (Arizona) that played at Heart Mountain (Wyoming). Tetsuo Furukawa is in the top row, fourth from the right. (NMAH)

Baseball Behind Barbed Wire

Norman Granz and Ella Fitzgerald at a microphone, 1950. (Ella Fitzerald Papers, NMAH Archives Center)

How Norman Granz Revolutionized Jazz for Social Justice

This 1989 custom-made guitar was designed by Prince and constructed by a small company, Knut-Koupee Enterprises, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (NMAH)

Five of the Most Intriguing Electric Guitars at the National Museum of American History

Photograph for a Coca-Cola ad featuring Selena, 1994. Photo by Al Rendon. (NMAH)

How Do We Remember Selena?

Rendon working on a photoshoot with Selena, 1994. Photo courtesy of Rick Tolar. (NMAH)

How an Advertising Photographer Created Some of the Most Iconic Images of Selena

How Do the Arts Promote Social Change?

Lena Richard (Image courtesy of Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Library Special Collections, Newcomb College Institute, Tulane University)

How Chef Lena Richard Became a Culinary Icon and Activist

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