150th Traveling Exhibition

Only if we can remember our past--its important events, the people we love, our country's history, and communities' stories--can we begin to understand the meaning of our own lives. We preserve memories, like treasures, in our minds. To aid our memories, we have created methods of record-keeping, public memorials, and social institutions that preserve our personal and collective past in tangible forms. The Smithsonian is an enormous, many-roomed treasure house that performs a function similar to our own memories. The Institution houses hundreds of thousands of objects and written records that represent our past and speak to our future. The Smithsonian's collections provide us with avenues into people's lives, beliefs, and thoughts. They commemorate momentous historical events and the most personal aspects of people's everyday lives. They teach us about the unfamiliar and reaffirm the familiar. They reveal the common cultural bonds that unite human beings and reinforce our sense of belonging to a shared community.

• Ancient Cultures
• Leading the United States
• The Civil War
• A Celebration of Community
• American Inventors and Inventions

American Pastimes

• Arts
• Entertainment

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