A mid-18th-century dress made of silk grown and spun in South Carolina by Eliza Lucas Pinckney, one of the most prominent women in American history, was recently given to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History by Pinckney’s direct descendants. The dress had been on loan to the museum’s costume collection since 1912.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has received a gift of $4.5 million from the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation. The gift will fund the completion of a major new exhibition “On the Water: Stories from Maritime America,” scheduled to open in 2009.

Was the Inventor of the First Color Photograph a Genius, or a Fraud? New Research Reveals the Answer to a Much-Debated 156 Year-Old Mystery. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (NMAH), the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), and the Getty Foundation have teamed up to examine a 156 year-old mystery that remains, to this day, one of the most controversial questions in photography – and their research has revealed some rather surprising results.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History joined with inventor Daniel A. Henderson to acquire two prototypes and related documentation for a pioneering wireless picturephone technology developed in 1993. Henderson recently was awarded six U. S. patents for innovation incorporated in the wireless system and device.

An exhibition by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History which explores rare and historically significant artifacts from its National Numismatic Collection—more than half of which have never been on view or have not been displayed for many years. “Legendary Coins & Currency” draws 56 objects from this internationally acclaimed collection.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is proud to announce a special loan of its “Whatever Happened to Polio?” exhibition to the Georgia Department of Labor’s Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. The exhibition is scheduled to be on display for two years in historic Roosevelt Hall in Warm Springs, Ga. beginning on Aug. 15.

In a special ceremony Twentieth Century Fox and actor/producer Bruce Willis donated objects from the Oscar-nominated "Die Hard" movie to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History officially accepted objects and archival records that reflect the 60-year history of Nordic Ware, a Minneapolis-based manufacturer of cookware products at a special donation ceremony today at the Fancy Food Show.