The Strangest Objects Housed in the Smithsonian’s Collections

A battered crash-test dummy may look like an oversized toy that has survived an exceptionally rough afternoon, but these artificial bodies represent decades of lifesaving automotive research. The Smithsonian has preserved examples connected with the development of vehicle safety testing, when engineers needed standardized substitutes for human occupants to measure what happened during collisions. Sophisticated dummies contain sensors capable of recording forces affecting the head, chest, legs, and other parts of the body, allowing researchers to evaluate seat belts, airbags, dashboards, and structural designs without deliberately exposing people to catastrophic crashes. Their proportions and internal components have evolved as researchers developed more realistic models of human anatomy and injury. The unsettling damage visible on older examples can itself document the violent conditions these devices were built to endure repeatedly.