How a portrait of an African muslim came to hang side-by-side with the founding fathers in one of America's earliest museums.
Art of the Americas
Global trade in a cup of tea: Colonial America, sugar and slavery.
The triangle trade and the colonial table, ...
The gun that "won the West" also transformed American manufacturing and marketing.
Inventing America, Colt’s Experimental Pocket Pistol
Captured here in paint, this grand Californian landscape would soon disappear under water.
Albert Bierstadt, Hetch Hetchy Valley, California
This one-of-a-kind suitcase tells the surprising story of an artist, a wedding, and a people.
Nellie Two Bear Gates, Suitcase
The makers of this ostentatious ceramic jug used images from popular satire to poke fun at the Civil War politics.
Anna Pottery, Snake jug
This eclectic assortment of carved objects speaks to the experience of a formerly-enslaved man in the post-Civil War South.
William Howard (attributed), Writing desk
What most American students learn about as Custer's Last Stand was the last great victory for the Lakota people.
Henry Oscar One Bull, Custer’s War
Thought the Puritans were dour? Think again!
Puritan court cupboard
Built by Catholic monks to convert the indigenous population, these spaces combined pre-Hispanic and European forms.
Mission churches as theaters of conversion in ...
This image is so complex that its features could only be perceived, let alone understood, by the initiated.
Complexity and vision: the Staff God at ...
A short-lived Dutch colony produced art that sought to serve science but instead served racism.
Albert Eckhout, Series of eight figures
Why are these murals in the cloister of Acolman painted in only black and white?
Murals from New Spain, San Agustín de ...
Revolutionary priests and an ex-member of the Spanish military led a charge for independence and equality for some.
Mexican Independence
The Conceptionists were founded for elite, pure-blooded Spanish women. This nun just took her vows.
Crowned Nun Portrait of Sor María de ...
Two countries honor their love of democracy with a huge statue of a woman! Neither let women vote, though.
The light of democracy — examining the ...
Located in a high desert, Chaco’s residents dedicated much of their energy to controlling water for crops.
Introduction to Chaco Canyon
Ouro Preto was a remote yet cosmopolitan town where gold supported both artists and architects.
Church of São Francisco de Assis, Ouro ...
Chilkat weaving has been practiced by Tlingit for hundreds of years; here modernity and tradition weave together.
Clarissa Rizal, Resilience Robe
Red Star annotated photographs to restore dignity and context to government-issue photographs of Crow chiefs.