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National Museum of American History

This sixth Smithsonian building on the National Mall opened to the public in January 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology. The Museum collects and preserves over 3 million artifacts, maintaining everything from George Washington's field tent and the original Star-Spangled Banner to Dizzy Gillespie's angled trumpet and Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. The Museum's collections reflect US history in technology, the military, transportation, textiles, costume, domestic life, sports, arts and entertainment, and community life.

With an area of approximately 750,000 square feet, the museum houses ancient coins, racing cars, inaugural gowns of America's first ladies, musical instruments, weaponry, farm machinery, the portable desk Thomas Jefferson used while drafting the Declaration of Independence, and much more, presenting a vast mosaic of American life.

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Visit Online Highways' interactive American History project. A team of researchers is developing a site that will present U.S. history in the context of present day travel.