Personal stories are key in telling the story of agricultural innovation
How many stories have been collected so far? The Agricultural Innovation and Heritage Archive has already collected about 40 stories from individuals and families in states around the country. By the end of the month, anyone will be able to browse all of the stories that have been accepted so far into the archive. I’m reading every story and looking …
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Crowdsourcing Agricultural History: Announcing the Agricultural Innovation and Heritage Archive
Today, March 19th, 2013, the National Museum of American History launched a new online initiative that aims to crowdsource the …
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Teens and Teena
I’ve never seen my career ambitions ending with a marriage or, as some of my friends call it, a “MRS …
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Pawning: the three balls lost and found
Late last winter, I was contacted by curator Nancy Davis, who wanted to talk about the history of pawning in …
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An industry “zAPPed”: the state of board games today
Last spring, I was given the most unique assignment in my graduate school education: visit the Hasbro board game factory …
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Marketing Moments: Creating Kash, Creating Culture
It was the summer of 2008 and my partner Sissy Estes and I were working on new ideas for our …
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The making of Labor Day
Labor Day, in its origins a nineteenth-century celebration of the dignity of work, swiftly evolved into today’s pleasant pause at …
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Playing the American dream: race, class, and opportunity in business board games
In the 1984 pilot episode of The Cosby Show, Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable lectures his son Theo about his poor …
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Inventing the Game of Life
How do you become successful as a toy inventor? Reuben Klamer, who developed the 1960 Game of Life, suggests inspiration, …
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Seeing artistry in Alfred Bloomingdale’s cartoon collection
The four years I’ve worked in the National Numismatic Collection, I’ve admired a set of quirky cartoons that adorned the …
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Soybeans and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition
“China sends tea and preserved ginger and funny nuts . . . [the Panama Pacific International Exposition] lets us know …
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