The Candy Kitchen: An American Immigration Story
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Fourth Wall Films, United States
This excerpt from the Emmy-nominated “River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6” tells the story behind the Wilton, Iowa Candy Kitchen restaurant. From its Greek origins to it’s classic Americana present, the heart and soul of this colorful little soda shop on a two-lane highway will always be Thelma and George Nopoulos.

Revolutionary City: A Portal to the Nation's Founding
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | American Philosophical Society Library & Museum, 104 S. 5th Street, Philadelphia, United States
“Revolutionary City: A Portal to the Nation’s Founding” is a one-stop-shop for students, teachers, scholars, and lovers of history to learn about diverse stories of the American Revolution from the perspective of early residents of America’s revolutionary city. Focused on the stories of everyday Philadelphians, the portal pushes beyond the Founder-centric narrative by bringing together archival collections from the American Philosophical, Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Insurance During the "Golden Age of Black Business"
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Filson Historical Society, United States
Mammoth Life and Accident Insurance, Co. (1915-1992) was one of the largest Black-owned and operated companies in Kentucky’s history. Four individuals founded Mammoth Life during the “Golden Age of Black Business” in Louisville, Kentucky: B.O. Wilkerson, Rochelle I. Smith, William H. Wright, and Henry E. Hall. By 1928, Mammoth Life opened district offices in seven neighboring states: Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. The corporation was central to the Black community for decades, especially during the height of racial segregation. In 1992, Atlanta Life Insurance brought out Mammoth Life, another Black-owned business headquartered in Georgia. By 1994, Atlanta Life closed down the flagship Louisville district office. This digital exhibit pairs together black and white photographs, newspaper clippings, and pastel portraits of former presidents to explore the history of Mammoth Life and Accident Insurance, Co.

General George Washington and the Crossing of the Delaware
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | America250, United States
George Washington and his army crossed the Delaware River on Christmas, 1776. They were heading from Pennsylvania to engage the British-paid Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey. Read about the dangerous travels to Trenton, and the challenges of returning to Pennsylvania after their victory.
America250 is a multi-year effort to commemorate the semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the United States. The purpose of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, created by Congress, and the corresponding America250 Foundation, is to catalyze a more perfect union by designing and leading the most comprehensive and inclusive celebration in our country’s history. America250 represents a coalition of public and private partners all working to create initiatives and programs that honor our first 250 years and inspire Americans to imagine our next 250.

History Of The Postage Stamp for Kids!
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | America250, United States
When it was first invented, people thought the postage stamp was silly. Why would anyone pay to send a letter, when they were used to paying to receive it? Learn the fascinating history of the postage stamp, and the first two stamps issued in the United States (can you guess who was featured on them?). Then, create your own postage stamp design!
Reading level: Grade 6
America250 is a multi-year effort to commemorate the semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the United States. The purpose of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, created by Congress, and the corresponding America250 Foundation, is to catalyze a more perfect union by designing and leading the most comprehensive and inclusive celebration in our country’s history. America250 represents a coalition of public and private partners all working to create initiatives and programs that honor our first 250 years and inspire Americans to imagine our next 250.

Sergeant Henry Johnson, WWI Hero
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | America250, United States
Henry Johnson, a Black man who had left the South as part of the Great Migration, signed up to serve his country during World War I. But the American military at the time was segregated, and Pvt. Henry Johnson and his regiment of Harlem Hellfighters were attached to a French army unit on the front lines. Read about their defense against enemy attack in May of 1918, and how Johnson became one of the first Americans ever awarded France’s Croix de Guerre. And read what happened afterwards…
America250 is a multi-year effort to commemorate the semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the United States. The purpose of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, created by Congress, and the corresponding America250 Foundation, is to catalyze a more perfect union by designing and leading the most comprehensive and inclusive celebration in our country’s history. America250 represents a coalition of public and private partners all working to create initiatives and programs that honor our first 250 years and inspire Americans to imagine our next 250.

Fresh Talk: Place and Power
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | National Museum of Women in the Arts, United States
To what degree are identities shaped by food exchanges—from cultivation and harvest to preparation and consumption? In this virtual program, food rights activist Ianne Fields Stewart, interdisciplinary artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, culinary historian Laura Shapiro, and interdisciplinary artist Zina Saro-Wiwa discussed questions of global food access, gender, class, and labor.

Haunted Halloween History
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | America250, United States
Halloween was introduced to the United States by Irish and Scottish immigrants in the mid-1800s. Read here how it became the very American holiday we think of today, including how railroads and telegraphs changed it, and about the woman who invented “trick or treat.” This article includes an activity for kids to write a Halloween story and design a costume.
Reading Level: Grade 8
America250 is a multi-year effort to commemorate the semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the United States. The purpose of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, created by Congress, and the corresponding America250 Foundation, is to catalyze a more perfect union by designing and leading the most comprehensive and inclusive celebration in our country’s history. America250 represents a coalition of public and private partners all working to create initiatives and programs that honor our first 250 years and inspire Americans to imagine our next 250.

Revolutionary Questions
2023-05-03 19:18 (Pacific/Niue) | ActiVote, United States
Viewed through a wider lens, declaring independence involved more than a single document and a single historical moment. Before July 1776, numerous local organizations had urged the Congress to embrace independence. And it was not just “Founding Fathers” but also a broader population whose actions gave the Declaration meaning. A broad-based Founding Generation—ordinary free men, women held subordinate by law, enslaved African Americans, and others—brought their own ideas of liberty to the Revolutionary moment.
Later generations, too, would struggle over Revolutionary issues, some seeking to fulfill the Declaration’s proclaimed ideals and others promoting vested interests seeking to bypass popular consent. Given the many limits of the nation that the Revolution established, can the Declaration still be a source of commitment and identity for Americans today?
Explore these “Revolutionary Questions” to start a conversation in your community!

Community Conversation on "The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War" by President Jimmy Carter
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | America250, United States
When we reflect on the American Revolution, the crucial role of the South is often overlooked. In this pre-recorded conversation, speakers Jacob Ross and Tawnya Waggle, both from the National Park Service, reflect on President Jimmy Carter’s historical fiction set during the Revolution in the southern states. The conversation connected the book to President Carter’s views of government, the oppression of enslaved African Americans and Native Americans, and the complexity of the Southern Campaign.

American Indian Life Series (Multiple dates)
2023-05-03 19:18 (Pacific/Niue) | Colonial Williamsburg, 429 E. Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg, VA, 23185, United States
Join us for this thought-provoking series exploring past and present American Indian cultures. Each day, an American Indian Interpreter will delve into a different topic: You may examine certain native societies’ influence on American democracy and its struggle for independence and the ways in which they adapted to this changing world. You may discover how European fashion affected American Indian culture and vice versa or the diversity of American Indian religious practices and beliefs. No matter the topic, this exploration of the diversity of American Indian nations and their role in our collective story is sure to captivate.

Nation Builders Discuss the Cost of Freedom (Multiple Dates)
2023-05-03 19:18 (Pacific/Niue) | Colonial Williamsburg, 301 S. Nassau Street, Williamsburg, VA, 23185, United States
Join two Nation Builders to discuss the Cost of Freedom during the formation of the United States; the impact on soldiers and civilians in the war, the fight for religious freedom and separation of church and state, the arguments at the Constitutional Convention regarding the Bill of Rights, the self-liberation and emancipation of some enslaved people and the return to and continuance of bondage for others, the impact on families that stayed intact and those that were split apart, etc. Speak with the Nation Builders, and the historians who portray them, to give context to the ins and outs of their 18th-century world.

How Women's Sports Have Progressed Since Title IX
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | UT Center for Sport, Peace & Society, United States
On June 23, to celebrate 50 years of Title IX, the UT Center for Sport, Peace and Society will launch a website that includes interactive global maps highlighting the connection between national and international laws and policies to the history and progression of women’s sports. This multimedia storytelling and research project champions the fearless superheroes who are standing up to convention in their use of sport as a tool for social change on the field, in communities, across media and the world.

How young, undocumented organizers fought to bring DACA into existence
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, United States
Undocumented organizers catapulted themselves into the center of one of the nation’s fiercest debates to form an unlikely, yet powerful, political voice. From the DREAM Act, to DACA, to deportation and policing, undocumented organizers ushered in a new era of political activism, shaping policies, influencing elections, and sparking national conversations about exclusion and belonging.

The undocumented organizing collecting initiative explores the roots of how undocumented activists worked to fight for the DREAM Act, create DACA, and expand immigrant rights over the past two decades.

How one girl helped build a Latinx civil rights movement
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, United States
By the time she graduated high school, Jessica Govea knew without a doubt that social justice was her calling, and at the age of 19 she joined Cesar Chavez and the organization that would eventually become the United Farm Workers (UFW).

Isabella Aiukli Cornell makes prom political
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, United States
For Isabella Aiukli Cornell, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a prom dress was the perfect vehicle to express pride for her Native heritage and to signal her support of a growing political movement with which she has been deeply involved.

Fresh Talk: Liz Ogbu and Swoon—How do we build to better?
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | National Museum of Women in the Arts, United States
Liz Ogbu, a designer, urbanist and social innovator, participates in a conversation with artist Caledonia Curry (a.k.a. Swoon) about solving social problems through creative transformations of places, systems and communities. Moderated by journalist Kriston Capps.

A People’s Journey, A Nation’s Story
2023-05-03 19:18 (Pacific/Niue) | Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, 1400 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC, DC, 20560, United States
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by an Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 40,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

You decide: Revolutionary Points of View (Tuesdays)
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Colonial Williamsburg, E. Duke of Gloucester St. , Williamsburg, 23185, United States
It’s the eve of the American Revolution, and there are just as many opinions about war and independence as we hear about politics and religion today. Step back in time and encounter points of view that run the gamut. Then, engage in the most crucial debate in our nation’s history–you will decide whether we remain British or become Americans?
Tuesday evenings in May, June and July at Colonial Williamsburg.

Fresh Talk: Righting the Balance - Culinary Justice
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | National Museum of Women in the Arts, United States
Join the National Museum of Women in the Arts for a conversation about the gender inequity that pervades the culinary industry. Celeste Beatty, the first Black woman brewery owner in America; Jenny Dorsey, interdisciplinary visual artist and professional chef; and Ashley Rose Young, Historian of the American Food History Project at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History explore how creativity, ingenuity, and networking can create opportunities to level the field.
Image: Jenny Dorsey, Reclamation 65, 2020; Digital Photograph; Courtesy of the artist; © Jenny Dorsey

"They called me 'race traitor'": Joan Trumpauer Mulholland's lifetime of resistance
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, United States
By 21, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland had demonstrated against segregation dozens of times, been imprisoned for her work as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and been hunted for execution by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Many Tulsa Massacres: How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, United States
In 1921, the Tulsa Race Massacre was not an isolated incident, but part of a pattern of white mob violence against Black communities and institutions that stretched back to the founding of the United States.

Inkpaduta in Iowa: Dakota Decline, Dispossession and Erasure
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | State Historical Museum of Iowa, IA, United States
In this session, Kevin Mason, Waldorf University professor, presents about Iowa’s changing physical environment during the 1850s and how northwest Iowa’s worst winter on record (1856-1857) escalated tensions between settlers near Spirit Lake and Indigenous peoples led by Inkpaduta.

Iowa's Native Nations
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | State Historical Museum of Iowa, United States
This recorded program addresses some of the first people to live in the land we now call Iowa. Learn more about the Native nations, including the Iowa (Baxoje), with Lance Foster, vice chairman of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and author of “The Indians of Iowa” (2010, University of Iowa Press).

Prairie Fires: Urban Rebellions in the Midwest
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | State Historical Museum of Iowa, IA, United States
In this recorded session, Dr. Ashley Howard, University of Iowa, looks at the relationship between class, gender and region in urban uprisings in the Midwest; the central differences between the 1960s and the millennial revolts; and how these historical lessons can bring about change today.

"We Came Home Together": Black Civil War Veterans and Community Building in Iowa
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | State Historical Museum of Iowa, United States
In this recorded session, Dwain Coleman, University of Iowa Ph.D. candidate and co-director of the Iowa Colored Conventions Digital Project, discusses how Black Civil War Veterans of the 1st Iowa Regiment of African Descent (60th U.S. Colored Infantry) and their families used the goodwill obtained through their service to fight for equal rights and social space in Iowa’s communities.

Fourth of July Gathering Guide
2023-05-03 19:18 (Pacific/Niue) | Citizen University, United States
The Fourth of July can bring up lots of conflicting feelings: how are we supposed to be patriotic when our country is so full of challenges and contradictions? It’s time for a better way to observe Independence Day.
With the Fourth of July Gathering Guide, you’ll spend this holiday doing something meaningful and activating. You’ll create an intentional space for reckoning with America’s complexities, repairing wrongs, and recommitting to living like a powerful citizen. Based on the nation-wide “Civic Saturday” model, your gathering will help you strengthen your belief that it matters to show up and take responsibility. Whether you have five minutes by yourself or an hour with friends, you can use the music, poetry, texts, and discussion prompts in this guide to spark reflection and action. Turn this Fourth of July into something you can be proud of!

From Apathy to Agency: How to Reframe Elections for New Voters
2023-05-03 19:18 UTC | Vote By Design, United States
In the last presidential election, less than half of eligible young people voted. Why?
After all, countless initiatives have been launched to register and mobilize these voters. School lectures stress the importance of voting. Celebrities swamp social media with urgent pleas. And in some states, there are even drives to lower the voting age. Why then do young people reject their right, and responsibility, to vote?

Try Being George Washington!
2023-05-03 19:19 UTC | George Washington’s Mount Vernon, United States
Be Washington is a first-person interactive leadership experience. Come face to face with challenges that George Washington confronted as commander in chief and the president in four key scenarios that established precedents for veterans service, federalism, and foreign policy.
Be Washington can be played onsite at Mount Vernon or at bewashington.org. It is also available through the App Store and Google play

How Museums Can Help the Public Make Sense of Pandemics
2023-05-03 19:19 UTC | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, United States
Dr. Sabrina Sholts invites audiences to join the Smithsonian and leverage science communication and informal education as a safeguard against pandemic threats, helping to stem the tide of panic and confusion that can quickly inundate facts and reason when novel viruses emerge.
