Most of my readers have been to the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington at 1300 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20560. I went there in January of 2025 to explore sites that you could visit in the cold winter months when you don’t want to walk the battlefields.
The museum has the largest collection of objects related to American history of any museum in the world. I won’t try to give you an overview of all the historic items on display. These range from the Pre-Columbian to pop culture from just a few years ago. Two relatively new museums, the African American History and Culture Museum and the American Indian Museum, have seen transfers from the collection of the American History Museum in recent years. However, the Civil War related displays are still very significant. All of the 1860s materials are not in the same gallery or even on the same floor. I encourage you to see as much as you can see during you visit to the museum. It took me about 45 minutes to see most of the significant displays on the Civil War.
If you go the Second Floor of the museum, where the Star Spangled Banner is displayed, go into the gallery marked American Democracy.
Inside you will see relics of past campaigns. The Lincoln Campaign passed out axes to his supporters, not to chop off the heads of Democratic adherent, but to symbolize Abe Lincoln as the Workingman’s candidate. Abe was known as “The Rail-splitter” to Northern voters during a period when voters turned away from electing very rich men to the highest office in the land.
The display shows a rail that became a symbol of the working class origins of Lincoln at a time when class-analysis was common in American politics.
Another exhibit displays the anti-democratic movements in the United States. The pre-war Know Nothing party set its sights on deporting immigrants and taking away birthright citizenship from the children of immigrants. After the war, the Ku Klux Klan exploded as whites down South sought to exclude Blacks from voting, serving on juries, and holding government jobs. By the end of Reconstruction, the Klan was inactive, but during the first part of the 20th Century it was revived again to confront immigrants, Jews, Catholics, and unions.
Mass movements also arose to further democratic aims. For instance, the Wide Awakes were a Republican force that arose in 1860 to support the candidate of the Republican Party. When Lincoln won the Republican nomination, Wide Awakes marched through the streets of many cities in the North to show they supported him. They carried torches. On is below in the exhibit.
There is a second exhibit displaying an assortment of torches, including those from the Wide Awakes.
Nearby is The Great Historical Clock of America which includes Civil War symbolism.
A Union officer.
A Confederate officer.
There are several illustrations to show how campaigns used graphic images to familiarize voters with their candidate.
On the third floor, there are three galleries where individuals from the Civil War have relics. In the First Ladies gallery you can see Mary Lincoln’s dress. This dress was made by African American dressmaker Elizabeth Keckly. Mrs. Lincoln never again wore it after her husband was assassinated.
Below is one of the most precious items in the American History Collection. This is the top hat Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theater on the night he was assassinated. The hat was made by J. Y. Davis, a Washington hat maker. The black band at the base of the hat was in remembrance of his son Willie.
The top-hat was taken by the War Department after the assassination. In 1867, it was given to the Smithsonian, however it was hidden in storage. The Smithsonian’s director felt that there was so much public excitement caused by the assassination that it would be an incitement to display. The hat first appeared in public in 1893!
More info on the Lincoln Assassination exhibit below.
Also on the Third Floor is The Price of Freedom exhibit. Since some of what is displayed is not about freeing people, but instead is about taking land from Indigenous peoples, I would rather it just be called A Military History. The Civil War has some very important objects in it, but, unlike the section on the Revolution which includes a restored American naval vessel and full-size dioramas of the fighting, this is a much smaller display.
The Civil War exhibit starts off with John Brown’s Raid where a pike that was supposed to be handed out to Black recruits is displayed.
There are a number of uniforms on display here. The most notable is the Zouave unform of the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry (Duryée’s Zouaves),
Apart from the uniforms, there are a variety of armaments and flags on display.
At the end of the exhibit, you will seen one of the most viewed Civil War items. These are the chairs that generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee sat in to sign the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. Lee sat in the caned chair on the right in the photo below. The table where Grant signed the treat was in the possession of Elizabeth Custer, the general’s wife. She left it to the Smithsonian in 1936 according to the terms of her will.
The chair on the left was Grant’s chair. It is inscribed with this: “This is the chair in which Genl. U. S. Grant sat when he signed the Articles of Capitulation resulting in the surrender of the Confederate Army by Genl. R. E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 9th, 1865.”
If you get hungry, there is a cafeteria in the basement. Called the Eat at America’s Table Cafe, it is a fairly mass market and very large space. You can get hamburgers and French fries, fried chicken, and a number of other dishes. On the first floor is a Jazz Cafe which offers coffee and pastry in a less mass-market setting.
