Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

Crystal Moten, PhD

Dr. Crystal M. Moten is curator of African American history in the National Museum of American History’s Division of Work and Industry. A south side of Chicago native, she received her MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin Madison and has taught at small liberal arts colleges on the east coast and in the upper Midwest. Her research and curatorial interests include the intersectional connections between African American labor, business, and civil rights history with emphasis on post-World War II Black freedom movements in the urban Midwest.

Rea Ann Silva with an oversized version of the Beautyblender sponge (Courtesy of Beautyblender)

How Rea Ann Silva Invented the Beautyblender—and Changed Makeup Forever

Silva’s work as a makeup artist on "Girlfriends" unexpectedly thrust her into the beauty products industry as an innovator and entrepreneur

Rebecca Lukens (National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum, Coatesville, Pennsylvania)

How Rebecca Lukens Became the Nation's First Woman Industrialist

Maggie Lena Walker (Scurlock Studio Records, NMAH Archives Center).

How Maggie Lena Walker Became the First Black Woman to Run a Bank in the Segregated South

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For Some, September 11 Turned the American Dream Into a Nightmare

How the Smithsonian Preserved a Stock Certificate Destroyed on September 11

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