Some of the items included a cap worn by a sleeping-car porter working for the Pullman Co. and a gold-colored pin given to a top saleswoman by Madam C.J. Walker, a black entrepreneur who built a fortune by developing and marketing hair care and beauty products to African-American women in the early 1900s.

"Some people say you can never be too rich or too thin. I say you can never have too much tissue paper," Mary Ballard, a senior Smithsonian textiles conservator, said as she stuffed acid-free paper into the Pullman cap.

Lonnie Bunch III, the museum's founding director, said he came up with the idea for the event while thinking about how the museum will build its collection. The museum, created by an act of Congress in 2003, is to be built on a site on the National Mall in Washington, with construction expected to be completed in 2015.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-african-american-treasures,0,1503301.story