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National Museum of American History

Museum visitors participate in a flag folding while singing (or humming) the anthem (NMAH)

Why is the National Anthem So Hard to Sing?

The first stanza of the national anthem is projected prominently on the wall above the Star-Spangled Banner in the museum. (NMAH)

Why is There a Question Mark at the End of the National Anthem?

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

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

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

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

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

Mary Walker, the Original "New Woman"

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

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

Portrait of Jessica Govea. Courtesy of the Govea Family. (NMAH)

How One Girl Helped Build a Latinx Civil Rights Movement

This dress, with a matching necklace and ruby red high heels, was worn by Cornell to her prom in 2018 (NMAH)

How Isabella Aiukli Cornell Made Prom Political

A quarantine sign used in Connecticut (NMAH)

How Failed Quarantines Led to 20th-Century Measles Outbreaks

Luisa Moreno stands on a balcony in Mexico City, 1927 (NMAH)

The Case of Luisa Moreno

Hopper and a colleague examine a sequence mechanism (NMAH)

Grace Under Pressure

During World War I, Black soldiers served in segregated units. (Scurlock Studio Records, NMAH Archives Center)

How Black Philadelphians Fought for Soldiers During World War I

Many contemporaries argued that Black men had more than earned the right to vote through their military service in the Civil War. (NMAH)

In 1868, Black Suffrage Was on the Ballot

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

The trunk of Frank's car after three hours of collecting.

The Cold Morning of the Day After

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