F-YEAH HISTORY

1950s-1980s

You Better Not Cry

All they want for Christmas is a hug — just not from Santa Claus.

1969

Well, this is awkward.

Even the Swingin’ Sixties had gawky teen dances.

by Chris Wild

On This Day in 1862, Henry Mosler wrote about the Battle of Perryville in his diary. He wrote, “In the evening Col Blake Cotton and myself went out to view the Battlefield which was a sight that I have not the power to express we where also at the Hospital where about 200 wounded where lying suffering some crying Oh Mother Oh! Doctor Oh! give me some water, enough to make any one feel the terror of this war.”

This diary is currently on view in our exhibition "A Day in the Life: Artists’ Diaries from the Archives of American Art."

For more on Henry Mosler’s Civil War diary, visit our digital exhibition http://civilwardiary.aaa.si.edu/

Henry Mosler Civil War diary, 1862. Henry Mosler papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

1885: Bullfight Poster

In honor of National Coffee Day, here’s a coffee service given to President Ford by Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik of Denmark on May 10, 1976.

This Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Colonial Coffee-service includes a coffee pot with lid, a creamer, a sugar bowl with lid, four coffee cups, four coffee saucers, and a serving tray. Each item features the silhouette of an American Patriot such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. Additionally, each piece has a tortoise shell glaze and a gold band around the bottom, with a gold grapevine inlay around the top.