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City Night, Hambrücken (2026)

27/06/2025

75 years ago today, World War II officially ended. Photographer Carl Mydans captured the scene of Japanese delegates signing the Instrument of Surrender before Allied forces on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

In the photo, General Yoshijirō Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff, is signing the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. Watching from across the table are Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland and General Douglas MacArthur. During the morning ceremony, General MacArthur told listeners that the Japanese and Allies did not meet "in a spirit of mistrust, malice or hatred but rather, it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone benefits the sacred purposes we are about to serve."

A number of Americans who served in uniform during World War II later came to work at the Smithsonian. On our blog, our curator reflects on the impact that four veterans had on our museum and its collections, including landmark objects like the Gunboat Philadelphia and Star-Spangled Banner:

Follow the link in our bio to see the post: https://s.si.edu/3bkLmxz

27/06/2025

This snapshot of a farm worker picking pepper in a California field is just one of thousands of moments from the bracero program chronicled in the photography of Leonard Nadel.

In 1942, facing labor shortages caused by World War II, the United States initiated a series of agreements with Mexico to recruit Mexican men to work on U.S. farms and railroads. Between 1942 and 1964, an estimated two million Mexican men came to the United States on short-term labor contracts through the bracero program, named after the term used in Mexico for a manual laborer. "When the U.S. needed it most, we came to serve the United States,” recalled former bracero José Ramírez Delgado, “When the U.S. needed it most, I was here."

The bracero program was one of both exploitation and opportunity. Workers were able to send home money—but they earned that money through long hours of hard work, suffering through difficult and sometimes humiliating conditions on and off the fields.

To learn more about the bracero program and explore more of Nadel's photography, click the link in our bio: http://s.si.edu/Bracero

27/06/2025

Yolande Betbeze donned this rhinestone tiara, scepter, and sash after she was crowned Miss America 70 years ago today.

Though Betbeze won the pageant by unanimous vote, she quickly showed that she more than willing to break with its traditions. She refused to be photographed in Catalina swimwear advertisements. (In her words, “I don’t appear publicly in a bathing suit for anyone unless, of course, I’m going swimming.”) A decidedly modern example of Miss America, Betbeze supported equal rights for women and African Americans, joining NAACP protestors during civil rights demonstrations and criticizing the Miss America pageant for its lack of diversity.

Educated and well read, Betbeze often found herself refuting the stereotypes about beauty queen. The Miss America pageant has struggled with these stereotypes from the start, continually reinventing itself to keep up with changing mores. Beginning in 1921 as a “photographic personality contest,” Miss America was introduced through newsreels and newspapers. By the start of World War II, she was transformed into a symbol of patriotism. Educational scholarships for the winners attempted to modify the pageant’s focus, but television continued to emphasize the glitzy, highly calculated image of the event. Over time, the pageant shifted its focus to educational and professional goals, requiring contestants to address relevant social issues while educating the public—a change Betbeze welcomed. “I spoke out against the pageant when it was needed,” she told "People" magazine in 2000. “The pageant has changed, thanks to me.”

Today, several objects from Betbeze's career are part of our collection, and many of her papers and other documents are available to researchers in our Archives Center. Her story will be spotlighted in our upcoming exhibition, "Girlhood (It's complicated)" opening later this fall: https://s.si.edu/girlhood

📷: Archives Center

27/06/2025

On September 11, 2001, this squeegee handle helped save the lives of six people.

When a hijacked airplane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, six men, including Polish immigrant window washer Jan Demczur, found themselves trapped in an express elevator near the 50th floor.

Though they were able to stop the elevator from falling, the group was trapped between floors and could smell smoke. Together, they pried open the elevator doors and began to cut through the drywall of the elevator shaft, first with a pocketknife, then with handle of Demczur's squeegee. Eventually, they were able to punch a hole through the wall. The group fled downstairs and out into the street, escaping just minutes before tower fell.

After learning about the group's harrowing escape, museum curator David Shayt contacted Demczur. Here's how he described what happened next:

"I called Jan in December. . .met with him and asked him the big question: Did you hang onto the handle, do you still have that squeegee handle? He left the room and came back with something wrapped in a red handkerchief. Turned out to be the handle. He had kept the handle without realizing it. In his blind escape, he had somehow stuffed it in his pocket rather than put it in the bucket that he dropped later. His wife found it, rolled up in his dirty uniform, weeks later." Demczur agreed to donate the handle to the museum, along with the uniform and shoes he wore to work that morning.

Reflecting on the donation in 2002, Shayt told the Washington Post: "It's collected not as a squeegee handle itself. . .but as evidence of life's affirmation."

27/06/2025

New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer wore this bunker coat on September 11, 2001.

One of the first fire-and-rescue units to arrive at the World Trade Center was Engine 7, Ladder 1, led by Pfeifer. The unit immediately set up a command center in the lobby of the north tower and sent firefighters upstairs to begin rescue work. When the south tower collapsed, sending blinding clouds of smoke and dust into the north tower, Pfeifer radioed his men to evacuate the building. Twenty-nine minutes later, the north tower also collapsed. In all, 343 New York firefighters, including the chief’s brother, Lt. Kevin Pfeifer, died in the World Trade Center collapse.

27/06/2025

In this photograph, Balbir Singh Sodhi holds his nephew and smiles at the camera.

Sodhi came to the United States at age 36, leaving behind limited economic opportunity and rising violence in his home in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. However, instead of realizing the the American dream, Sodhi experienced a nightmare of hate and violence.

On September 15, 2001, a gunman shot and killed Sodhi while he planted flowers in front of the gas station he owned with his brother. His murderer saw killing Sodhi as an act of retaliation for the September 11 attacks days earlier. When arrested, the gunman proclaimed, “I am a patriot” and told authorities that he wanted “to kill a Muslim.” Sodhi was not Muslim; he was Sikh (followers of a religion originating in northern India). The gunman sought to kill someone who looked like the photographs of Osama Bin Laden that had been widely shown on TV. He targeted Sodhi based on his beard, dark skin, and turban.

Sodhi’s death is one of many examples of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence in the United States following September 11. Learn more about Sodhi’s story, and the stories of other people affected by September 11 on our blog by following the link in our bio: https://s.si.edu/911Blog

26/06/2025

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland created these playing cards while behind bars, protesting racial segregation.

In the summer of 1961, Mulholland was 20 years old when she boarded a bus and joined hundreds of other Freedom Riders protesting racial segregation in Southern business and facilities. Like many other Freedom Riders, Mulholland was arrested in Mississippi and sent to the state's penitentiary, popularly known as Parchman Farm. She and fellow protesters were held in crowded cells on Parchman Farm's death row. Subjected to physical and psychological abuse by prison officials, the Freedom Riders kept up their spirits through song, discussion, and the occasional game. Mulholland improvised her own deck of playing cards using envelopes from the occasional mail she received.

Mulholland's lifetime of activism did not begin or end in 1961. Her work as a civil rights activist took her from sit-ins to marches, and eventually made her a target for ex*****on by the Ku Klux Klan. Follow the link in our bio to learn more about her work: https://s.si.edu/2Ft55j1

Intrigued by Mulholland's story? Don't miss our National Youth Summit next week (Tuesday, 09/22 3 PM EST) focused on teens' resistance to systemic racism. Registered teachers and facilitators will receive all the materials they need to bring the summit into their classroom next week, whether they can join the live program or not: https://s.si.edu/nys

26/06/2025

12 feet tall and constructed out of papier-mâché, this Lady Liberty was carried by agricultural activists on a two-week, 230-mile march in 2000. The statue's tomatoes are also papier-mâché, but the bucket that holds them is quite real; it was once used by workers in the field. One of the marchers' demands was a small pay increase for agricultural workers: one penny more per bucket of tomatoes.

Created by artist and community organizer Kat Rodriguez, this interpretation of the Statue of Liberty was a focal point for a protest march organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in 2000. As part of the March for Dignity, Dialogue, and a Fair Wage, the statue was carried by marchers over 230 miles between Fort Myers and Orlando, Florida, as a call for improved conditions and higher wages for agricultural workers. Rodriguez's depiction of Lady Liberty—complete with tomatoes in place of her typical torch and tablet—connects the struggles of diverse migrant farmworkers with the promise of America as represented by the original Statue of Liberty. 🗽

The papier-mâché statue’s original pedestal featured a simple message borrowed from African American poet Langston Hughes: “I, too, am America.” Use the link in our bio to watch our curator discuss the statue's design and ongoing signifigance: https://s.si.edu/3kpilnB

[📷: Courtesy of Kat Rodriguez]

26/06/2025

Metal needles and thread helped Ernie Martinez preserve his favorite glove as he grew up playing baseball in the 1960s and 1970s. He eventually stitched this glove back together three times.

Martinez grew up outside of Los Angeles, California, in a working-class, baseball-loving family of four boys, three girls, and their mother and father. His father, Leopoldo “Leo” Martinez, was an amateur baseball player in Texas, Mexico, and Southern California for about 30 years. In the 1940s, prior to becoming a U.S. citizen, Leo played shortstop for the Mexican National Baseball Team. In an interview with Margaret Salazar-Porzio, curator of Latina/o History and Culture, Ernie's brother Howard noted that "[t]here wasn’t a lot of money in the house with seven kids, so you had to take care of the stuff you had.”

Martinez's glove and homemade repair kit are just two of the many objects that will be featured in our 2021 exhibition, "¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas." The exhibition will take visitors on a journey into the heart and history of U.S. Latino baseball, exploring the historic role that baseball has played as a social and cultural force within Latino communities across the nation for over a century—and how Latinos in particular have influenced and changed the game. "¡Pleibol!" will open in our museum in 2021, and it will tour the country as a traveling exhibition, opening at thecastlemuseum, from January 23 to April 18, 2021, as part of the sitesexhibitions.

Can't wait for 2021? The exhibition's companion book, "¡Pleibol! En los barrios y las grandes ligas," by curator Margaret Salazar-Porzio and Professor Adrian Burgos, Jr. is available now (link in bio): https://s.si.edu/2FIQOyq

¡Pleibol! has received generous support from the Cordoba Corporation and the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the slc_latino.

26/06/2025

In 1968, José Feliciano was invited to perform “The Star Spangled Banner” before Game 5 of the World Series in Detroit. Using this custom Concerto Candelas guitar, Feliciano delivered a wholly original rendition of the national anthem. In the words of our curator John Troutman, Feliciano's performance was "soulful, searching, steeped in blues and seasoned with the percolation of his fingers across a guitar built in the Sunset boulevard shop of a family of immigrants from Torreon, Mexico."

Not everyone appreciated Feliciano's new interpretation of the song, but his rendition sent "The Star Spangled Banner" into the pop charts for the first time ever. It also sparked conversations that continue to this day about how the national anthem should be performed. In 2018, Feliciano donated his guitar to the museum, along with many other objects from his decades-long, Grammy-award winning career. He also served as the keynote speaker—and performed "Star Spangled Banner"—for the naturalization ceremony of 19 new U.S. citizens. (Swipe to hear it!).

Today is and . If you'd like to brush up on your civic knowledge today, use the link our bio to visit our recently updated website: Preparing for the Oath: U.S. History and Civics for Citizenship—s.si.edu/prp-oath. A product of both our museum and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Preparing for the Oath is designed to support aspiring citizens’ efforts to prepare for the civics portion of the naturalization test.

26/06/2025

We’re reflecting on the life and work of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a lifelong fighter for equality under the law who became an unexpected popular culture icon.

Ginsburg taught law at Rutgers University and Columbia University, co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as an appellate court judge before joining the nation's highest bench as the second woman to serve an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The sharp and insightful justice was known for her collegiality and her wit. Ginsburg became a pop culture icon as “the notorious R.B.G.” and a feminist inspiration and role model to thousands of women and girls. Her popularity, even notoriety, was the product of a long and accomplished career. As a lawyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued six cases before the Supreme Court. As a Justice she authored thirty-two of the court’s majority opinions but is probably more famous for her minority or dissenting opinions. From her place (seat 7) on the bench Ginsburg supported gender and racial equality, abortion rights, voting rights, and marriage equality. She was scheduled to receive the museum’s Great Americans Medal in October.

26/06/2025

On Friday, September 25, our museum will reopen to the public.

To create a safe environment for our visitors, we'll reopen with enhanced health and safety measures, including free timed-entry passes. You can reserve passes on our website (link in bio). We'll be open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. from Friday through Tuesday, with last entry at 3:30 p.m. We'll be closed Wednesdays and Thursdays.

A few things to know: visitors ages six and older are required to wear face coverings during their visit, and face coverings are also highly recommended for all visitors between the ages of two and six, per CDC guidelines. Groups larger than six won't be permitted, and visitors will need to maintain at least six feet of distance between themselves and people outside their group. Some spaces in our museum—including our cafeteria, cafe, hands-on spaces like Draper Spark!Lab and Wegmans Wonderplace, and many of our stores—will remain closed until further notice.

Planning a visit? Follow the link in our bio to learn more and reserve a free ticket: https://s.si.edu/visit-NMAH

Not ready or able to visit yet? We'll continue to offer online programs and distance learning resources and share stories from our nation’s history here. Our website has lots to explore: exhibitions, blogs, videos, and more than a million objects and records.

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