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Smithsonian Virtual Adventures by Smithsonian Associates
Smithsonian Associates - Entertaining, Informative, Eclectic, Insightful

Object of the Week for January 25

The Beginning of the Gold Rush

This small piece of yellow metal, now in the American History Museum's collection, is believed to be the first piece of gold discovered in 1848 at Sutter's Mill in California, launching the gold rush.

"The City of Gold - 1971" from the Natural History Museum

Links

  1. Read the story of that tiny gold flake above
  2. Listen to a Smithsonian Sidedoor podcast episode about gold and West Africa
  3. American History tells how the Gold Rush made California
  4. Older students, join along on Van Valen's Gold Rush Journey in this web interactive
  5. Younger students, play this Gold Rush game from the U.S. Mint
  6. All That Glitters Is Gold in this Smithsonian Spotlight
  7. Check out this artwork in the American Art Museum depicting miners
  8. Depicting the CA Gold Rush accurately on a stamp
  9. Gold in American Enterprise
  10. SI-Harvard scientists explain: Earth's gold came from colliding dead stars