Back to: National History Day Menu
National History Day 2006–2007
Finding Artworks
When you go to the "Search the Collection" page, you can look for artworks in a number of ways. First, begin with what you know. Do you want artworks by a particular artist? Do you know the title of an artwork you seek? If so, follow the directions under "Finding Images by Title or Artist."
Are you looking for artworks by category, period, or subject? If so, then see the directions for "Finding Images Using Keywords."
Finding Images by Title or Artist
Go to "Search Collections." Type the artist's name or the title of the artwork into the correct box and click "Go" or hit the return key. Results will show only artworks in the Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection.
If you need to find artworks outside SAAM's collection, go to "Art Information Resources." Explore links under the heading "Get Art Information Online." If you still cannot find the image you are looking for, go to our online reference librarian, "Ask Joan of Art."
Finding Images Using Keywords
Are you looking for images that show a person, place, or time in American history? Use these steps to search our collection using keywords. First, go to "Search Collections." Because you are searching for images, click the radio button to get "SAAM artworks with online images." Try typing one of the sample key terms below into the box labeled "keyword." [Please note that you can use only one keyword per search.]
For the theme of "Triumph and Tragedy," suggested history topics, keywords, and search returns are listed below. You may also view a list of topics, keywords, and search returns from 2004 or 2005.
Triumph
Search for images using the keyword "triumph" or "allegory."
Images:
Nike, 1964, Kenneth Campbell, 1986.6.13A-B
"Winged Victory, modeled 1921, Daniel Chester French, 1973.166
Victory, n.d., James Daugherty, 1990.5.2
Tragedy
Search for images using the word "defeat," "fear," or "injustice."
Images:
Sweet Medicine: Council Grounds of the Great Treaty at Horse Creek, Nebraska, 1987, printed 1989, Drex Brooks, 1991.21.1
Shapes of Fear, 1930-1932, Maynard Dixon, 1956.10.1
Kultur, ca. 1940, Aaron J. Goodelman, 1981.44.1
Discovery
Search for images using the word "exploration."
Images:
A View of the Men of War on Discovery to Greenland..., 1822, William Frankland, 1988.47.1
Commodore Peary and Henson at the North Pole, ca. 1945, William H. Johnson, 1983.95.54
Coronado's Exploration Party in the Palo Duro Canyon (Mural Study, Amarillo, Texas Post Office), ca. 1941, Julius Woeltz, 1965.18.54
War
Search for images using the word "military," "soldier," or "battlefield."
Images:
Assembly Line, ca. 1940, Jolan Gross Bettelheim, 1973.185.2
Battle Between Sioux and Sac and Fox, 1846-1848, George Catlin, 1985.66.545
The Battle at Bunker's Hill near Boston, n.d., John Trumbull, 1990.5.6
Post War
Search for images using the word "military," "wound," or "soldier."
Images:
Fifty Years after the Battle, Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry--First Duryee Zouaves, Known as the "Fighting Fifth," 1912, Walter Beck, 1923.5.10
Hero, ca. 1939-1940, Joseph Hirsch, 1971.447.36
Private John Bar, Recovery after a Penetrating Wound of the Abdomen with Fracture of the Left Os Innominatum, from the Photographic Catalogue of the Surgical Section, 1865, William Bell, 1994.91.19
Civil Rights
Search for images using the words "civil rights movement," or "black history."
Images:
April 4, 1969, Sam Gilliam, 1973.115
Farm Workers' Altar, 1967, Emanuel Martinez, 1992.95
The Soprano at the Mourning Easter Wake of 1968, 1968, Daniel Pressley, 1997.124.78
Modern Marvels
Search for images using the word "architecture," "industry," or "construction."
Images:
Construction of the Dam (study for mural, the Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.), 1938, William Gropper, 1965.18.11A-C
T. R. in Panama, 1939, Edward Laning, 1984.148
Golden Gate Bridge, 1934, Ray Strong, 1965.18.50
Labor
Search for images using the word "mine," "mill," or "labor history."
Images:
Mine Rescue (mural study for Kellogg, Idaho Post Office), 1939, Fletcher Martin, 1974.28.315
Days without End, ca. 1937, Frank Cassara, 1964.1.216
Orphan in Doorway: a Child Laborer in a Mill, ca. 1910, printed later, Lewis W. Hine, 1994.91.82
Freedom
Search for images using the word "liberty," or "political."
Images:
Liberty, ca. 1884, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, XX76
The Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President, from Harper's Weekly, March 4, 1861, 1861, Attributed to Winslow Homer, 1996.63.112
"Liberty does not consist in mere general declarations of the rights of men. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action."--Woodrow Wilson, Address, Independence Hall, July 4, 1914. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man., 1956, Robert Andrew Parker, 1984.124.234
Nature
Search for images using the word "disaster," or "fire."
Images:
Prayer for Rain, 1938, James E. Allen, 1972.74.24
Prairie Meadows Burning, 1832, George Catlin, 1985.66.374
Mount St. Helens Area, Washington, 1980, Emmet Gowin, 1983.63.635
For a list of keywords that we use to index our collection, see the Subject Term Manual (PDF file, 148K).
Pictured: Stow Wengenroth, Old North Church, 1976, lithograph, 15 3/4 x 11 5/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Frank McClure