Hidden Treasures

Archives Help Businesses Learn from Mistakes

January 16, 2006 • The documents, products and records a company keeps in its archive help it to create institutional memories -- good and bad. Nike turns to shoes in its archives to be reminded of past successes and failures.

Hidden Treasures: Mrs. Parmeter's Klan Quilt

September 27, 2005 • A blue-and-white quilt at a Washington state museum has an unusual and mysterious story behind it. Made in 1928, the quilt includes cloth from discarded Ku Klux Klan masks.

Harvard's Indispensable Specimens

August 10, 2005 • The back rooms at a Harvard University museum are filled with millions of items that will never be displayed. But curators just can't bring themselves to throw anything away.

Mechanical Musical Marvels Play On in Museum

June 7, 2005 • The Morris Museum is home to one of the world's largest collections of mechanical musical instruments and automatons, some of which date to the early 16th century.

A Gruesome Stroll Through Medical History

May 16, 2005 • The National Museum of Health and Medicine in D.C. is not for the squeamish. Founded in 1862, the museum displays everything from a large human hairball to skull fragments from Abraham Lincoln.

Hidden Treasures: Opening the 'Public Vaults'

March 8, 2005 • A new exhibit reveals some of more unusual pieces of American history contained in the vaults of the National Archives. Items include Albert Einstein's immigration papers.

Hidden Treasures: Vice Presidential Artifacts

January 19, 2005 • A portrait of Spiro Agnew -- done entirely in bird feathers -- is part of the nation's hidden treasures.

Hidden Treasures: Gifts Fit for a President

October 20, 2004 • Every American president receives gifts from fans and foreign dignitaries, but as Harriet Baskas reports for Hidden Treasures, an occasional series on All Things Considered, some of the most precious and peculiar ones never get displayed.

Hidden Treasures: Warhol's Ongoing Work of Art

September 8, 2004 • When Andy Warhol died in 1987 he left hundreds of sealed and dated boxes full of trash and treasure. The time capsules are opened periodically by the Warhol Museum. Harriet Baskas reports.

Hidden Treasures: A Museum for the Mob

May 21, 2004 • The mayor of Las Vegas is proposing a museum exploring the history of organized crime's involvement in the building of the city. Opponents point out that coming up with material to display might be tough given the mob is known for covering its tracks. Harriet Baskas reports in this installment of "Hidden Treasures."

Hidden Treasures: Hawaii Custody Battle

April 15, 2004 • A museum and indigenous Hawaiians are in a custody battle rare carved artifacts, some of which have been repatriated to sacred burial caves. The story is the latest in NPR's Hidden Treasures series.

Hidden Treasures: Lewis and Clark's Map

March 29, 2004 • In 1806, over a camp fire and food, Nez Perce Indian chiefs made a map for William Clark showing a short and safe journey through the Rockies. The rare Indian map, one of only a hundred surviving, went overlooked for decades. Harriet Baskas tells the story as part of All Things Considered's Hidden Treasures Radio Project.

Hidden Treasures: Sacred Relics of the Freemasons

December 30, 2003 • In Boston -- the birthplace of the American Freemasonry society -- some ceremonial objects are considered so sacred, they're kept locked away. As part of the Hidden Treasures Radio Project, Harriet Baskas goes inside the Grand Lodge's vaults for a look at objects with ties to such illustrious Freemasons as George Washington and Paul Revere.

Hidden Museum Treasures: 'In Cold Blood'

November 14, 2003 • Years ago, the tombstones of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith -- the two killers portrayed in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood -- mysteriously disappeared. Now they have resurfaced at a museum that won't put them on display. Harriet Baskas reports on a Kansas museum's dilemma as part of the "Hidden Treasures" series.

The Forgotten Wright: Katherine Wright

October 15, 2003 • The third, unsung Wright sibling. Some historians say that without her, the famous pioneers of flight might not have gotten off the ground. Yet Orville tried to keep her contributions out of the newspapers and history books. In the next installment of the series "Hidden Treasures," Harriet Baskas tells us why.

Hidden Museum Treasures: Fortune's Bones

September 16, 2003 • A small museum in Waterbury, Conn., is struggling with a big question: what to do with a set of human remains in its collection. In the next installment of All Things Considered's "Hidden Treasures" series, Harriet Baskas reports on a real skeleton in the closet, named Fortune.

Hidden Museum Treasures

August 28, 2003 • From shrunken heads to items literally too hot to handle, many museums collect items of note, but choose not to display them. Harriet Baskas takes a look around the back rooms of some of the nation's most prominent museums to see what they're not showing the public.