Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

The 2024 Political Conventions Find a Home in the Smithsonian Collections

The cheering, clapping and speechifying are over. Historians from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History have returned after their trips to the 2024 political party conventions to collect materials – from balloons to banners to blinking wristbands – at each of them.

DNC Convention

Smithsonian Curator's Encounters at the Democratic National Convention

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What Smithsonian Curators Will Be Doing at the Democratic National Convention

2024 Republican National Convention signs

Highlights of What the Smithsonian Is Archiving From the Republican Convention

stage at the 2024 Republican National Convention

How Smithsonian Curators Visit Political Conventions to Explain the Present to the Future

Hand-stitched American flag

How This WWII Flag Fulfilled a General's Dying Wish

Three cards where visitors left handwritten messages invoking girl power. One card reads: “you think we're not good enough but we're just to [sic] good for you, girl power.”

What Does 'Girl Power' Really Mean?

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Soldiers in Fur Coats and 'Doggles'

DACA graduation robe

Reflecting on the Ten Year Anniversary of DACA

Poppies Washington Monument

Before Memorial Day, Learn the Language of Flowers

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Where Black and Indigenous History Come Together

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How Butterfly Wings Helped a New Collecting Initiative Take Flight

In a scene from the HBO series, Tulsa’s masked police force prepares for a raid. Detective Wade Tillman (known as “Looking Glass”) is played by Tim Blake Nelson. Detective Angela Abar (known as “Sister Night”) is played by Regina King (Mark Hill for HBO).

When Watchmen Were Klansmen