Smithsonian Snapshot

Rudolph first appeared in 1939 when Montgomery Ward asked one of its copywriters to create a Christmas story the store could give away to shoppers. 

Astronauts Walter "Wally" Schirra and Tom Stafford played "Jingle Bells" with these bells in 1965.

Picasso recommends Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris, among others for the 1913 Armory Show.

The Alabama native worked as a seamstress at the Montgomery Fair department store.

In 1901, paleontologist Eugene Pfizenmayer excavated the remains of a well-preserved mammoth in northeastern Siberia.

Jeweler Harry Winston sent the fabled gem by registered first-class mail.