African Americans turned to the courts to help protect their constitutional rights. But the courts challenged earlier civil rights legislation and handed down a series of decisions that permitted ...

Nineteenth-century Plains Indian drawings have often been called “ledger” drawings because they were made with pencil, ink, and watercolor on pages of old ledger or account books. When young Plains ...

The Smithsonian Chip Collection website launched in 1998 to provide access to our exceptional collection of microelectronics objects and images. The site contained information about individual ...

This exhibition looked at the efforts of people with disabilities, and their families and friends, to secure the civil rights guaranteed to all Americans. The website for this exhibition was retired ...

This Kermit the Frog puppet was created by Jim Henson in 1955 for Sam and Friends. It is the first Kermit puppet, and it is made from Jim Henson’s mother’s old spring coat and a pair of Jim’s blue ...

Jack Kilby’s demonstration of the first working integrated circuit (IC) in 1958 revolutionized the field of microelectronics. Instead of using discrete transistors, resistors, and capacitors to form a ...

Western Electric manufactured the pink “Princess” telephone beginning in 1959. The original Princess phone was model 701 that needed an external ringer; this phone is model 702B that was manufactured ...

Cookie Monster is a live-hand puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by David Rudman. In a live-hand puppet, like Cookie Monster, one of the performer’s hands is in the puppet ...

Before there were apps for tablets and smartphones, before mathematics education software was easily installed on personal computers, before electronic calculators entered professional practice and ...

Most drawings focused on warrior deeds and exploits—attacking, killing, or counting coup on enemies—and on warriors’ injuries and death during battle with Indian and non-Indian adversaries. Many ...

John Garand was a civil service employee. As the chief civilian engineer at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts, he invented a semiautomatic .30-caliber rifle known as the M1 or the "Garand." His ...