Image description: In 1817, Karl Drais, a young inventor in Baden, Germany, designed and built a two-wheeled, wooden vehicle that was straddled and propelled by walking swiftly. Drais called it the laufmaschine or “running machine.”
By 1818, the draisine craze reached the United States, but the high cost of the vehicle, combined with its lack of practical value, made it little more than an expensive toy. The two-wheeled vehicle would not become sustained until pedals were added in the late 1800s.
Photo from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Image description: President Barack Obama sits on the famed Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford Museum following an event in Dearborn, Michigan on April 18, 2012.
Photo by Pete Souza, White House
Image description: This photo shows the joining of two railroads, marking the 143rd anniversary of the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States. Completed on May 10, 1869, the railroad shortened the cross country trip from four months to just one week.
A ceremony was held in Promontory Summit, Utah, about 35 miles away from where the railroad was joined together by the “Golden Spike,” which finally connected the two sides of the railroad, marking its completion. The National Park Service now operates the Golden Spike Historical Site in Promontory Point, Utah.
Learn more about the First Transcontinental Railroad.
Photo by A.J. Russell and Charles Phelps Cushing, photographers documenting the event.
May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. The month-long observance was officially designated in 1992 and the month of May was chosen to commemorate the first Japanese immigrants to the U.S. on May 7, 1843 and to recognize the Chinese immigrants who helped lay tracks for the transcontinental railroad, which was completed on May 10, 1869.
Visit asianpacificheritage.gov to learn more about the contributions of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
Image description: Though it will be watched by huge audiences in person and on television this weekend, the Kentucky Derby only offers a taste of the prominence that horse racing used to have in American culture. During the decades leading up to the Civil War, rising political tensions between the North and South fueled the nation’s fascination with widely reported and attended super-races.
This 1845 lithograph from the National Museum of American History captures a moment in time from such a race, the clash between Alabama-bred chestnut mare Peytona and New Jersey’s Fashion, known as “Queen of the Turf.”
More than 100,000 people were said to have attended this May 13, 1845 duel, which is a huge crowd considering the country’s population (94% smaller than now) and transportation options (no cars). Newspaper reports described the scene as dangerous.
Find out who won and more about horse racing in the pre-Civil War era.
Image from the National Museum of American History.
