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The National Museum of American History Is Displaying 250 Objects to Commemorate the Country’s Big Birthday. Here’s the Story Behind Ten of the Artifacts
Featuring iconic and everyday items, including a Revolutionary War gunboat and a first-generation iPod, “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness” is open now at the museum
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For more than three years, staff members at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History have been carefully planning a showcase of 250 objects across 250,000 square feet and all three floors of the building. The culmination of this work is finally here: “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness” is open through the end of the year at the museum to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The museum aimed to represent the broadest possible sweep of American history. “The exhibition helps us understand the complexities of history—how alive the national experiment still is, and still has to be, as we carry it forward in our hearts and minds to create that more perfect union,” says director Anthea Hartig.
Some of the artifacts date back to the country’s founding in the 18th century. Others honor modern historical moments of the 21st century, from sports to technology.
The exhibition’s title is reflective of a pivotal line from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Curatorial staff reordered those words. “Even at its outset, it was a highly edited document, and so this notion of editing the document still persists,” curator Theodore S. Gonzalves says. “We’re trying to ask the question: How have people actually pursued life, liberty and happiness? How have they actually been engaged in the making of history, whether that’s in 1776 or 1876 or 1976?”
Gonzalves hopes that “imaginations will be fired” by the showcase and the many threads in the American story. Here’s a sampling of ten objects to represent what “In Pursuit” has to offer.
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Thomas Jefferson’s desk
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Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776 on a portable desk that he designed. In 1825, before parting with the desk, Jefferson wrote the following note and attached it to it: “Politics as well as Religion has its superstitions. These, gaining strength with time, may, one day, give imaginary value to this relic, for its great association with the birth of the Great Charter of our Independence.”
He sent his portable desk to his granddaughter Eleonora Randolph Coolidge as a wedding gift. The Coolidge family donated it to the U.S. government in 1880. Gonzalves believes the story behind the desk makes it that much more relatable. “It’s the place where, essentially, the founding document of the United States was drafted on, and yet it’s also another way for a grandfather to make good on a promise for a very special day,” he says.
Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia
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A hit from a 24-pound cannon ball during the Revolutionary War sank the gunboat Philadelphia in 1776. The gunboat was part of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold’s small American fleet fighting the British invaders at Lake Champlain. In three days of battle, the British gained control of the lake, though the Americans successfully delayed the campaign of the invading forces.
The Philadelphia is the oldest surviving American fighting vessel, but it wasn’t raised until 1935. The museum acquired it in the 1960s. The gunboat recently underwent conservation needed after being damaged from the war, spending almost 160 years at the bottom of Lake Champlain and then decades on view.
Abigail Adams’ faux pearl necklace
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Abigail Adams, who famously wrote a letter reminding her husband, John Adams, to “remember the ladies” as he and others worked on declaring independence from the British, owned a necklace made of fake pearls.
“They’re blown glass covered with fish scales because they couldn’t afford pearls—being really important, amazing, well-educated people, but still not being of any kind of gentility or nobility,” Hartig says.
The museum notes that this necklace may be the one Adams is depicted wearing in a circa 1766 portrait painted by Benjamin Blyth.
Firefighter’s badge for Niagara Fire Company No. 8
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William P. Perry, a crew member of the independent all-African American volunteer firefighting team, Niagara Fire Company No. 8 of Charleston, South Carolina, is believed to have worn this badge made around 1861.
As in many other cities prior to the Civil War, Charleston’s volunteer fire officers and crew members were typically white men. A few municipal engines were led by white officers chosen by the city’s fire leadership but manned by free Black citizens who were not allowed to form independent crews. But the start of the Civil War changed things, as firefighter numbers diminished. Black firefighters then established independent crews, but often still used city engines. On Nov. 5, 1861, Ward 8 City Engine officially became Niagara Fire Company No. 8.
Because of its shape and miniature size, this style of pin is also known as a “thumbnail” badge. It’s proof that some of the most impactful artifacts displayed in the exhibition are small, Hartig notes.
Phyllis Diller’s joke file
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Phyllis Diller was one of the first female comics to become widely known in the U.S. She rose to prominence in the 1950s, and her punchlines often revolved around the idealized image of American mothers and homemakers. She took on the persona of an incompetent housewife and dressed in wild outfits while sporting equally untamed hair, breaking barriers in the process.
Her “gag file” held 48 drawers containing over 52,000 index cards, each holding a typewritten joke, including this one from May 19, 1967: “When Fang and I got married he said, ‘In a couple of years, we will hear the pitter-patter of little footsteps.’ So I set traps.”
The file also shows the effort behind comedy, Gonzalves notes.
“These are active writers, and they practice this craft again and again, and there is an archive that they work with,” he says. “It goes to the notion that comedy is serious business. It’s a lot of hard work to put people in a moment of enjoyment.”
Surfboard shaped by Duke Kahanamoku
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In 1925, a boat capsized near Newport Beach, California. Duke Kahanamoku, a Native Hawaiian Olympic gold medal swimmer, used his surfing skills to rescue eight of the men on the boat and help recover many of the dead.
“The local law enforcers and folks from the shore had never seen anything like this,” Gonzalves says. “I don’t think many people on the West Coast—or the United States—had seen anything like this. And yet, surfing is something that has been going on in Polynesia for about a few thousand years.”
Early Polynesians called the spiritual exercise “wave sliding.” Kahanamoku was dubbed the “father of modern surfing” for making the sport accessible to the average person. He put on exhibitions around the world after his gold medal performances at the 1912 and 1920 Olympics. He drew many Californians to visit Hawaii, where he assisted with surfing lessons and other tourist activities.
A redwood surfboard that Kahanamoku shaped on the beach at Corona del Mar, California, in 1928 is featured in the exhibition. Craftsman Joe Quigg reshaped the board in 1961, and artist Larry Miller re-carved the flying “V” on the board in 1989.
Weber kettle charcoal grill
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The charcoal grill helped grow backyard barbecuing in the emerging U.S. suburbs after World War II. Many grilling and outdoor cooking models spun off from the Weber grill’s iconic design. The Weber grill on exhibit, from around the late 1960s, might be recognizable to museumgoers whose grandparents or parents may have had one in their backyards, Hartig notes.
She says she hopes that when they see this familiar item, they’ll wonder: “What does that say about leisure time? What does that say about cooking? What does that say about masculinity? What does that say about family life? What does that say about even having a weekend? What does it say about post-war America?”
Fun fact: An entire kitchen at the National Museum of American History
Beloved cook Julia Child is widely credited with making French cuisine accessible and popular stateside. The museum acquired her home kitchen in 2001, and today it shows the tools and utensils Child used to help Americans try new cooking methods.
“Miracle on Ice” hockey player Phil Verchota’s gloves
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The U.S. men’s hockey team defeated the Soviet Union in 1980 to advance to the gold medal game, in which they prevailed over Finland. The semifinal game that saw the Americans triumph over the Soviets became known as the “Miracle on Ice.” It was a cultural event that many Americans would distinctly remember watching, and it was later depicted in the 2004 Disney movie Miracle.
Phil Verchota was a player on the American team, and his gloves are displayed in the exhibition. “A lot of Americans still find it so precious and fascinating to be able to turn to those kinds of artifacts, because of how it made them feel,” Gonzalves says.
Ironworker Dennis Quinn’s hard hat
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Ironworkers’ specialized skills were in immediate demand when the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York City collapsed following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Dennis Quinn, a member of an ironworkers’ union in Chicago, and four colleagues drove to Ground Zero to help carefully remove debris from the remnants of the structures. The crew worked from 4 p.m. to midnight every day for six weeks. Quinn’s hard hat features stickers depicting the Statue of Liberty, support for unions and the American flag.
First-generation iPod
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Apple’s iPod made waves in the music industry when it debuted in 2001. “We’ve kind of changed the way that we listen to music and experience everything electronically,” Gonzalves says. “Who thought that you could travel with thousands of pieces of music in your pocket? It just really was unimaginable.”
With the innovations of smartphones, which can house music alongside typical cellphone and app functions, iPods—and MP3 players in general—became obsolete. Apple stopped making the iPod in 2022. But, according to Reader’s Digest, iPods have had a bit of a resurgence. The magazine reports that some students use them as a loophole to get around smartphone bans in the classroom, while others enjoy them as a piece of nostalgia and a simpler digital device.