Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

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When Computer Programming Was "Just Like Planning a Dinner"

Women were encouraged to seek employment in computing by appealing to traditional domestic roles

Robert Abbe's hourglass (NMAH)

Curing Cancer with a Single Gram of Radium

This glass tube, part of the museum’s collection, once contained a sample of helium. Its paper label reads, “HELIUM / SIR W. RAMSAY, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S. / THOMAS TRYER & CO., Ltd. / STRATFORD, LONDON, ENGLAND.”

The History of Holding Helium

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

The History of Getting the Gay Out

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

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Collecting In the Wake of January 6

Illustrating the Teddy Roosevelt Africa Expedition

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