he objects in this section, many selected by curators at the National Museum of American History, pertain to the everyday life of Americans during the Civil War. The nation was on the cusp of an unprecedented industrial revolution that began laying the foundations for modern America. Yet life was still largely simple and unmechanized for the average person who wore hand-stitched clothing and who went to the village store and purchased goods with state bank notes. In this time before home mail service, the village store also served as the post office, where mail was sent and delivered with only a person's name and city of residence written on the envelope.