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0b6d8acee9062417390643a948224e91 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/extraordinary-discoveries-1507630/ | Extraordinary Discoveries | Extraordinary Discoveries
It took Chip Brown a couple of days to come to grips with El Mirador, the overgrown Maya city in the Guatemalan jungle that dwarfs the better-known Tikal. “Much is still buried,” he explains. “You have to stare at the topography awhile before you can quite let go of the idea that the contours ... |
56c4d31403a08ca9ce39f279d5b96033 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/facing-a-bumpy-history-144497373/ | Facing a Bumpy History | Facing a Bumpy History
In London in 1873, Mark Twain saw an advertisement for the services of a fellow American who had hung out a shingle on Fleet Street. At once inspired and skeptical, Twain made his way to the offices of Lorenzo N. Fowler, "practical phrenologist."
"I found Fowler on duty," Twain wrote, "amidst the... |
89f2e99f9c8b0bfa8fb94cfe678610b2 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/factory-oreos-built-180969121/ | The Factory That Oreos Built | The Factory That Oreos Built
If walls could speak, the brick at New York’s Chelsea Market would have more than a few stories to tell.
Alphabet (the parent company of Google) purchased the building in March of 2018 for $2.4 billion—an earth-shattering figure even in New York City’s real estate market—but this isn’t a gl... |
166fd99237aa7a9367942f501558aa40 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fall-rise-fall-pompeii-180955732/ | The Fall and Rise and Fall of Pompeii | The Fall and Rise and Fall of Pompeii
On a sweltering summer afternoon, Antonio Irlando leads me down the Via dell’Abbondanza, the main thoroughfare in first-century Pompeii. The architect and conservation activist gingerly makes his way over huge, uneven paving stones that once bore the weight of horse-drawn chariots.... |
df3cff3538d9b28fffa8ec4eff1a707b | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fanciful-and-sublime-74131278/ | Fanciful and Sublime | Fanciful and Sublime
Quiet can be a blessing, but unnatural silence is something else again. In the storeroom of the National Museum of American History where we keep a portion of the Smithsonian’s vast musical instruments collection, the stillness goes against the grain. Though all the objects in the room were made fo... |
8c08b1d37559b3de70007c40e1f244c0 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/father-reginald-foster-used-latin-bring-history-present-180976657/ | Father Reginald Foster Used Latin to Bring History Into the Present | Father Reginald Foster Used Latin to Bring History Into the Present
The death of Latin has been greatly exaggerated.
Of course, Latin is no longer the default language for European learning and diplomacy, as it was from the Roman Empire through the early modern period. Since the implementation of Vatican II in the earl... |
004c4e9ea3c065e4153162d38693f029 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fifty-years-ago-north-korea-captured-american-ship-and-nearly-started-nuclear-war-180967919/ | Fifty Years Ago, North Korea Captured an American Ship and Nearly Started a Nuclear War | Fifty Years Ago, North Korea Captured an American Ship and Nearly Started a Nuclear War
From missiles flying over Japan to threats of fiery destruction for Guam, North Korea spent much of 2017 provoking its East Asian neighbors—and the United States. While the recent missile tests and threats seem alarming, it’s hardly... |
e41fa66195ceefee7cee4bd33b776a0b | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fifty-years-ago-satchel-paige-brought-negro-leagues-baseballs-hall-fame-180977000/ | Fifty Years Ago, Satchel Paige Brought the Negro Leagues to Baseball’s Hall of Fame | Fifty Years Ago, Satchel Paige Brought the Negro Leagues to Baseball’s Hall of Fame
Eyewitnesses said that Satchel Paige, one of the best pitchers baseball will ever see, would tell his teammates to sit on the field, so confident that he’d strike out the batter on his own.
The right-handed ace’s showmanship was backed ... |
80f8fcf4f12a3f11c2ce9a89880f5e9c | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-children-who-led-sad-lives-180958099/?no-ist | The First Children Who Led Sad Lives | The First Children Who Led Sad Lives
In recent decades, most First Children have led charmed lives. Doted on by an adoring public, they have enjoyed opportunities that are rarely available to other Americans. Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush, for example, both parlayed their celebrity into cushy contracts with NBC News. ... |
69c2610257763d1717f89e1ad2170075 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-moments-hitlers-final-solution-180961387/ | The First Moments of Hitler’s Final Solution | The First Moments of Hitler’s Final Solution
Before the start of World War II, around 9.5 million Jewish people lived in Europe. By the time the war ended, the Nazis had killed 6 million European Jews in concentration camps, or pogroms, or ghettos, or mass executions in what we refer to today as the Holocaust. The Nazi... |
1e2efa9b21af6ed79dbddb057f028146 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-novel-children-taught-girls-power-reading-180968765/ | The First Novel for Children Taught Girls the Power of Reading | The First Novel for Children Taught Girls the Power of Reading
“Consider with me, what is the true use of reading,” begins Sarah Fielding in the preface to her 1749 book The Governess. “If you can fix this truth in your minds, namely, that the true use of books is to make you wiser and better, you will have both profit... |
25a668a73669a180ebd95d12b6924b9a | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/five-new-nonfiction-books-read-while-youre-stuck-home-180974524/ | Five New Nonfiction Books to Read While You’re Stuck at Home | Five New Nonfiction Books to Read While You’re Stuck at Home
As global efforts to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic continue, millions of people around the world are practicing social distancing and staying indoors. To help those in need of distraction from this stark new reality, Smithsonian magazine has compiled... |
e6cc7fa713f3d70aa22a64d59d6b91d9 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-studs-terkel-chicago-was-a-city-called-heaven-121647361/ | For Studs Terkel, Chicago Was a City Called Heaven | For Studs Terkel, Chicago Was a City Called Heaven
Editor's Note, May 16, 2012: Studs Terkel, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author and historian, reflected on the character of the city of Chicago for us in 2006. He died in 2008 at the age of 96. Today would have been his 100th birthday.
Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Mak... |
57e76c9c4079456ac0ed08f71fc144ec | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/forgotten-history-womens-football-180958042/ | The Forgotten History of Women’s Football | The Forgotten History of Women’s Football
This season, to much media acclaim, the National Football League hired its first female referee and two female coaches (one intern and one full-time). Considering the attention these additions generated, one could be forgiven for thinking that women were just beginning to get i... |
ba70d2ea5f150dde9095b987d20eb94f | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/four-hundred-years-black-history-keisha-blain-180976880/ | How to Tell 400 Years of Black History in One Book | How to Tell 400 Years of Black History in One Book
In August of 1619, the English warship White Lion sailed into Hampton Roads, Virginia, where the conjunction of the James, Elizabeth and York rivers meet the Atlantic Ocean. The White Lion’s captain and crew were privateers, and they had taken captives from a Dutch sla... |
034a2f961e6c90b8443108756966205d | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/francis-scott-key-the-reluctant-patriot-180937178/ | Francis Scott Key, the Reluctant Patriot | Francis Scott Key, the Reluctant Patriot
One by one, the buildings at the heart of the American government went up in flames. On the evening of August 24, 1814, British troops torched the Capitol, the Treasury, the President’s House (not yet called the White House). All burned ferociously, as did the structures housing... |
535faf3bed8fa9c30e3b20dd83b9ecce | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/frederick-douglass-always-knew-he-was-meant-to-be-free-1-31552633/ | Frederick Douglass Always Knew He Was Meant to Be Free | Frederick Douglass Always Knew He Was Meant to Be Free
Frederick Douglass was 6 years old when he began his life as a slave. By the standards of slavery, Douglass was often to get favored treatment. But the realities were to include hunger, cold and seeing his fellow slaves savagely beaten. These realities of slavery w... |
45e5ad00b4b899fbced1d9708d3541be | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/frost-nixon-and-me-99350263/?no-ist= | Frost, Nixon and Me | Frost, Nixon and Me
In May 1976, in a rather dim New York City hotel room filled with David Frost's cigar smoke, the British television personality put an intriguing proposition to me: leave your leafy academic perch for a year and prepare me for what could be a historic interrogation of Richard Nixon about Watergate.
... |
f5288d9692b8b8703fac26945daab959 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/garry-kasparovs-next-move-180949729/ | What is Garry Kasparov’s Next Move? | What is Garry Kasparov’s Next Move?
A vast global game of geopolitical chess seemed to be hanging in the balance the morning I met with Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess genius whom many regard as the greatest player of all time.
What’s less well known about him is that for the past decade Kasparov has become a major p... |
7b62fef5911851450f2ae79a2f4c76e3 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/george-friedman-on-world-war-iii-776748/ | George Friedman on World War III | George Friedman on World War III
George Friedman holds a doctorate in government from Cornell University and is the founder and chief executive of Stratfor, a geopolitical consulting firm in Austin, Texas. His most recent book is The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century. He spoke with Terence Monmaney.
[×] C... |
ba617013b55daa323c4a078709505117 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/george-jetson-gets-a-check-up-137749/ | George Jetson Gets A Check-Up | George Jetson Gets A Check-Up
This is the 14th in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season.
The 14th episode of “The Jetsons” originally aired in the U.S. on December 30, 1962, and was titled “Test Pilot.” This episode (like so many others) centers around the c... |
4f7da1a645e6a640303b50fd85f80336 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/george-washington-and-his-maps-72194830/ | George Washington and His Maps | George Washington and His Maps
First in war. First in peace. First to look at a map whenever he had a question about waging the former and sustaining the latter. It's not how we typically picture George Washington: bent over a map by candlelight, scrutinizing, measuring and in some cases actually drawing the topogra... |
5f2fa5a6ae6545a1ce711a6c2c2fd955 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/george-washington-the-reluctant-president-49492/?c=y&page=3 | George Washington: The Reluctant President | George Washington: The Reluctant President
Editor’s note: Even as the Constitution was being ratified, Americans looked toward a figure of singular probity to fill the new office of the presidency. On February 4, 1789, the 69 members of the Electoral College made George Washington the only chief executive to be unanimo... |
a24fb8c00615ec168512b96269dba7ff | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/george-washington-was-great-dad-too-180975139/ | The Father of the Nation, George Washington Was Also a Doting Dad to His Family | The Father of the Nation, George Washington Was Also a Doting Dad to His Family
George Washington is often described as childless, which is true, but only in the strictly biological definition. When I started digging into his archives, I was surprised to see that in reality, he was raising children from his late 20s un... |
791ae56b30fb2dd4cc13cbbe4ba28be4 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/german-pows-on-the-american-homefront-141009996/ | German POWs on the American Homefront | German POWs on the American Homefront
In the mid-1940s when Mel Luetchens was a boy on his family’s Murdock, Nebraska, farm where he still lives, he sometimes hung out with his father’s hired hands, “I looked forward to it,” he said. “They played games with us and brought us candy and gum.” The hearty young men who hel... |
fac789ff78b8da451a9c79eeebe9dab8 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ghosts-my-lai-180967497/ | William Laws Calley Jr. was never really meant to be an officer in the U.S. Army. After getting low grades and dropping out of Palm Beach Junior College, he tried to enlist in 1964, but was rejected because of a hearing defect. Two years later, with the escalation in Vietnam, standards for enrollees changed and Calley—... | |
9da6d16fcd7e7ae7f97c4372405e3871 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/going-nuclear-over-the-pacific-24428997/ | Going Nuclear Over the Pacific | Going Nuclear Over the Pacific
The summer of 2012 will be remembered as a time when people around the world were caught up in events in the skies above Mars, where the rover Curiosity eventually touched down onto the red planet. Fifty years ago this summer there were strange doings in the skies above earth as well. In ... |
486efe29aa4d96bc571671c7a816998b | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/great-fire-london-was-blamed-religious-terrorism-180960332/ | The Great Fire of London Was Blamed on Religious Terrorism | The Great Fire of London Was Blamed on Religious Terrorism
The rumors spread faster than the blaze that engulfed London over five days in September 1666: that the fire raging through the city’s dense heart was no accident – it was deliberate arson, an act of terror, the start of a battle. England was at war with both t... |
b4d663af3996f457a5c9e7f23531b32f | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/great-los-angeles-air-raid-terrified-citizenseven-though-no-bombs-were-dropped-180967890/ | The Great Los Angeles Air Raid Terrified Citizens—Even Though No Bombs Were Dropped | The Great Los Angeles Air Raid Terrified Citizens—Even Though No Bombs Were Dropped
This past Saturday, residents of Hawaii were alarmed as cell phones across the island state chimed with an early morning emergency alert. “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill,” the mes... |
49f2910acf7b0f683fbd645dba5eb827 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/groundbreaking-exhibit-mount-vernon-slaves-speak-and-history-listens-180960747/ | In a Groundbreaking Exhibit at Mount Vernon, Slaves Speak and History Listens | In a Groundbreaking Exhibit at Mount Vernon, Slaves Speak and History Listens
You are dining with the President. Frank Lee, standing tall in his red-and-white livery, takes your note of introduction in Mount Vernon’s entry hall. The enslaved butler chooses a spot for you to wait–either in the elegant, robin’s egg blue ... |
1861b8910ff45f1a3b47d98c3a6704cc | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hamilton-takes-command-74722445/ | Hamilton Takes Command | Hamilton Takes Command
“ALEXANDER HAMILTON is the least appreciated of the founding fathers because he never became president,” says Willard Sterne Randall, a professor of humanities at ChamplainCollege in Burlington, Vermont, and the author of Alexander Hamilton: A Life, released this month from HarperCollins Publishe... |
268c93199080c58006659a91c60de66e | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/heartbreaking-history-of-divorce-180949439/ | The Heartbreaking History of Divorce | The Heartbreaking History of Divorce
Each Valentine’s Day, I start off feeling happy. My contentment grows as my husband and I put our five children to bed and we enjoy a quiet dinner in the kitchen. I’m still happy when we plop ourselves onto the sofa for an hour of television before bedtime. But then my mood changes ... |
3a350e93c1716c14ee594bd3a7af4429 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hidden-history-anna-murray-douglass-180968324/ | The Hidden History of Anna Murray Douglass | The Hidden History of Anna Murray Douglass
“The story of Frederick Douglass’ hopes and aspirations and longing desire for freedom has been told—you all know it. It was a story made possible by the unswerving loyalty of Anna Murray.”
So began Rosetta Douglass Sprague, daughter of Anna and Frederick Douglass, in a speech... |
e10dde623c3718dc3271e14fa1549a41 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hiroshima-usa-169079615/ | Hiroshima, U.S.A. | Hiroshima, U.S.A.
There’s no city that Americans fictionally destroy more often than New York.
New York has been blown up, beaten down and attacked in every medium imaginable throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. From movies to novels to newspapers, there’s just something so terribly apocalyptic in the American psych... |
258c4513aef7e80d5df57efd79dacee9 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/his-patriotic-birthday-five-facts-about-calvin-coolidge-180969516/ | For His Patriotic Birthday, Five Facts About Calvin Coolidge | For His Patriotic Birthday, Five Facts About Calvin Coolidge
This week the skies will erupt with fireworks honoring the anniversary of our nation’s independence. But a few lone sparklers may flicker for another patriotic cause: the birth of President Calvin Coolidge on July 4, 1872.
Silent Cal was most known for his br... |
431c8990a18d7ed969cecf96f11f3a70 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-college-dorms-180971457/ | The Evolution of the College Dorm Chronicles How Colleges Became Less White and Male | The Evolution of the College Dorm Chronicles How Colleges Became Less White and Male
When art historian Carla Yanni was assistant vice president for undergraduate education at Rutgers University’s New Brunswick, New Jersey, campus, she would often hear fellow administrators mocking their midcentury predecessors for bui... |
4613e966416373ea8506b42993d544ff | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-creepy-dolls-180955916/?utm_content=buffer5b67b&no-ist | The History of Creepy Dolls | The History of Creepy Dolls
Pollock’s Toy Museum is one of London’s loveliest small museums, a creaking Dickensian warren of wooden floors, low ceilings, threadbare carpets, and steep, winding stairs, housed in two connected townhouses. Its small rooms house a large, haphazard collection of antique and vintage toys – t... |
78714f7ba3532814551d93f48ae4469b | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-five-uniquely-american-sandwiches-180967078/ | The History of Five Uniquely American Sandwiches | The History of Five Uniquely American Sandwiches
Everyone has a favorite sandwich, often prepared to an exacting degree of specification: Turkey or ham? Grilled or toasted? Mayo or mustard? White or whole wheat?
We reached out to five food historians and asked them to tell the story of a sandwich of their choosing. The... |
ea86a1bd62fac8dc731b7fb2a02a2211 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-humble-suitcase-180951376/ | The History of the Humble Suitcase | The History of the Humble Suitcase
When Phileas Fogg decides to circle the globe in Around the World in 80 Days, the 1873 novel by Jules Verne, he doesn't take a suitcase. “We'll have no trunks,” he says to his servant Passepartout, “only a carpet bag, with two shirts and three pairs of stockings for me, and the same f... |
2ce5d98d99d6f0873559a1ca6b431f0a | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-mar-a-lago-180965214/ | The Ironic History of Mar-a-Lago | The Ironic History of Mar-a-Lago
Within 48 hours after the presidential election last November, the Palm Beach Daily News headlined a question that “many in town” were asking: “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago: Another Winter White House?”
By January, the president-elect had an answer: “Writing my inaugural address at the Winter Whi... |
7ce6f61c0489bf8eb8d5c10efdd41c5d | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-merit-badges-cultural-history-united-states-180970306/?page=12 | How the History of Merit Badges Is Also a Cultural History of the United States | How the History of Merit Badges Is Also a Cultural History of the United States
At first glance, there’s something undeniably old fashioned about the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts. The organizations have legacies that stretch back more than a hundred years to the days when boys were taught to tramp through the woods a... |
85dbb7c404b38554e830a35849e5bf59 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-white-picket-fence-180971635/ | How Did the White Picket Fence Become a Symbol of the Suburbs? | How Did the White Picket Fence Become a Symbol of the Suburbs?
In little Taylor, Mississippi, outside Oxford, a developer named Campbell McCool is building Plein Air, a 64-acre community that, in time, will include 200 wood-frame residences. Each house is advertised as traditionally Southern, most featuring wide front ... |
5dfef51fcfb022f58f237d097ac5b65c | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-wives-replacing-their-dead-husbands-in-congress-180974092/ | The History of Wives Replacing Their Dead Husbands in Congress | The History of Wives Replacing Their Dead Husbands in Congress
Tomorrow, Marylanders in the state’s 7th congressional district will vote in a primary election to decide who will be the nominees to replace Congressman Elijah Cummings, whose death in October 2019 left open the seat he had held since 1996. Among the many ... |
b2cbde097d63774e7ec46b83cc468649 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hit-by-a-bus-how-ben-hogan-hit-back-24870580/ | Hit by a Bus, How Ben Hogan Hit Back | Hit by a Bus, How Ben Hogan Hit Back
On the damp and chilly morning of Wednesday, February 2, 1949, Ben Hogan got up before the sun and hit the El Capitan Motel coffee shop in Van Horn, Texas. He and his wife, Valerie, had driven more than 500 miles east from Phoenix the day before, and while the road made his wife que... |
4f6cf8807f64f1e6062b3e34dba3632e | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/holocaust-and-hungary-prime-minister-180964139/ | Why It Matters That Hungary’s Prime Minister Denounced His Country’s Role in the Holocaust | Why It Matters That Hungary’s Prime Minister Denounced His Country’s Role in the Holocaust
On an early page of Night, Elie Wiesel’s autobiographical account of the Holocaust, he recalls the Hungarian police’s orders as they echoed throughout his small Jewish ghetto. “Faster! Faster! Move, you lazy good-for-nothings!,” ... |
d0693a9cc68d095b8d78b4a0d6b8d868 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-a-new-yorker-article-launched-the-first-shot-in-the-war-against-poverty-17469990/ | How a New Yorker Article Launched the First Shot in the War Against Poverty | How a New Yorker Article Launched the First Shot in the War Against Poverty
On January 19, 1963, the New Yorker published a 13,000-word essay, “Our Invisible Poor,” the longest book review the magazine had ever run. No piece of prose did more to make plain the atrocity of poverty in an age of affluence.
Ostensibly a re... |
da9880021aefb7461754bb61ae74726f | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-america-grappled-immigration-100-years-ago-180962058/ | Literacy Tests and Asian Exclusion Were the Hallmarks of the 1917 Immigration Act | Literacy Tests and Asian Exclusion Were the Hallmarks of the 1917 Immigration Act
“There is an old immigrant saying translated into many languages that goes, ‘America beckons, but Americans repel,’” says Alan Kraut, a professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C. The political debate today over the fl... |
ecff8594b3dbb84f7b84632e7116a794 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-dolley-madison-saved-the-day-7465218/ | When Dolley Madison Took Command of the White House | When Dolley Madison Took Command of the White House
In the years leading up to America’s second war with Britain, President James Madison had been unable to stop his penny-pinching secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, from blocking Congressional resolutions to expand the country’s armed forces. The United States... |
866a15ee5def476790bfc2a1d6a79bcf | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-epidemics-past-forced-americans-promote-health-ended-up-improving-life-this-country-180974555/?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email | How Epidemics of the Past Changed the Way Americans Lived | How Epidemics of the Past Changed the Way Americans Lived
At the end of the 19th century, one in seven people around the world had died of tuberculosis, and the disease ranked as the third leading cause of death in the United States. While physicians had begun to accept German physician Robert Koch’s scientific confirm... |
e9433863e935e8dca3600b77be320a93 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-first-lady-sarah-polk-set-model-conservative-female-power-180971393/ | How First Lady Sarah Polk Set a Model for Conservative Female Power | How First Lady Sarah Polk Set a Model for Conservative Female Power
In July 1848, as hundreds of women suffragists gathered in Seneca Falls to demand the right to vote and assert their right to participate in the public sphere, one prominent woman in Washington, D.C., was busy shaping the nation’s policy and guiding it... |
b8a18e74cefde94d3fb8a387013c7851 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-halloween-has-taken-over-england-180953211/ | How Halloween Has Taken Over England | How Halloween Has Taken Over England
In England, Halloween is so hot right now.
And what's making it more unbearable for some is the fact that the Americanized celebration of Halloween that is becoming more and more popular on October 31 may be coming at the expense of the most staunchly English (although equally insub... |
4da33ea4eefd435a2d222887fb5fa840 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-historic-preservation-shaped-early-united-states-180974871/ | How Historic Preservation Shaped the Early United States | How Historic Preservation Shaped the Early United States
In the middle of the 19th century, the homes of two founding fathers, John Hancock and George Washington, were in danger of being torn down. For the Massachusetts patriot with the famous signature, it was his house just off of Boston Common in the city’s urban ce... |
0fbc5e0641c96a90b2fd7693fe8fb7a3 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-horace-greeley-invented-persona-crusading-journalist-180974348/ | How Horace Greeley Turned Newspapers Legitimate and Saved the Media From Itself | How Horace Greeley Turned Newspapers Legitimate and Saved the Media From Itself
December 3, 1840, a Thursday. A bank president in New Jersey goes missing in broad daylight, leaving his office in New Brunswick around 10 a.m. He is never again seen alive. Some say he’s gone to Texas, others say Europe. There are no leads... |
607c7bd5be786995e54e354a4ec3705b | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-i-learned-about-cult-lost-cause-180968426/ | How I Learned About the “Cult of the Lost Cause” | How I Learned About the “Cult of the Lost Cause”
The Cult of the Lost Cause. There it was in black and white, in a 1999 application to put the equestrian statue of General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2015, after a year of closely guarded discussions about Confederat... |
eb6914663f21594997c2c9248dcb28cb | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-indigenous-australians-are-still-fighting-their-lands-25-years-after-landmark-court-case-180963893/ | How Indigenous Australians Are Still Fighting for Their Lands 25 Years After a Landmark Court Case | How Indigenous Australians Are Still Fighting for Their Lands 25 Years After a Landmark Court Case
Eddie Koiki Mabo couldn’t believe his ears. It was 1982, and two professors at Townsville, Australia’s James Cook University, where Mabo worked as a gardener, had just told him he had no right to his native land. Though h... |
4c9c0f9215d09be48a83e04d3d0683d4 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-much-do-we-really-know-about-pocahontas-4206184/ | How Much Do We Really Know About Pocahontas | How Much Do We Really Know About Pocahontas
Pocahontas is the most myth-encrusted figure in early America, a romantic “princess” who saves John Smith and the struggling Jamestown colony. But this fairy tale, familiar to millions today from storybook and film, bears little resemblance to the extraordinary young woman wh... |
c2d7b552023a1d56ffc4bf6e1e34f103 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-oil-spill-50-years-ago-inspired-first-earth-day-180972007/ | How an Oil Spill 50 Years Ago Inspired the First Earth Day | How an Oil Spill 50 Years Ago Inspired the First Earth Day
Forty-nine years ago, on April 22, 1970, University of Southern California students affixed a gas mask to a statue of their mascot, Tommy Trojan, and buried an engine to symbolize the fight against pollution. In Colorado, a throng of bikers swarmed the state ca... |
12e4abf06cf5da9041e15034dd2d37f1 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-pioneering-woman-health-officer-saved-portland-plague-180974499/ | The Pioneering Health Officer Who Saved Portland From the Plague | The Pioneering Health Officer Who Saved Portland From the Plague
Esther Pohl was a familiar sight around Portland, Oregon, by the summer of 1907. Thirty-five years old, with wavy hair piled atop her head, she was known for bicycling from house to house visiting the patients of her private obstetrics practice. One of th... |
fc3bc8d08258459f842cc2a95717aeea | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-teenaged-jewish-boy-went-refugee-assassin-puppet-nazi-propaganda-180971204/ | How a Jewish Teenager Went From Refugee to Assassin to Puppet of Nazi Propaganda | How a Jewish Teenager Went From Refugee to Assassin to Puppet of Nazi Propaganda
At age 15, Herschel Grynszpan was just another Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi Germany for safe haven in pre-war France. Like the 50,000 others that crossed the border to outrun Adolf Hitler’s reach, Grynszpan received a cold reception in his ... |
044329c7a079b20581460421a21f226a | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-battle-of-little-bighorn-was-won-63880188/?no-ist | How the Battle of Little Bighorn Was Won | How the Battle of Little Bighorn Was Won
Editor’s note: In 1874, an Army expedition led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer found gold in the Black Hills, in present-day South Dakota. At the time, the United States recognized the hills as property of the Sioux Nation, under a treaty the two parties had signed six years... |
6a9d04a01fffaee656db4e582be67afc | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-burgess-shale-changed-our-view-of-evolution-3678444/ | How the Burgess Shale Changed Our View of Evolution | How the Burgess Shale Changed Our View of Evolution
They are, in the opinion of no less an authority than the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, “the world’s most important animal fossils”—not Tyrannosaurus rex, not Lucy, but a collection of marine invertebrates mostly a few inches in size, dating from the very dawn of ... |
940f700119beab81f355962f853a64e6 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-flag-came-to-be-called-old-glory-18396/ | The Civil War | The Civil War
A tale of fidelity, family feud and argument over ownership is the subject of a new inquiry by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Old Glory, the weather-beaten 17- by 10-foot banner that has long been a primary NMAH artifact, is second only to Francis Scott Key’s Star-Spangled Banner as ... |
e38e007a5982e8f4667339178702d600 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-three-doughboys-experienced-last-days-world-war-i-180970701/ | World War I: 100 Years Later | World War I: 100 Years Later
Sgt. Harold J. Higginbottom. 2nd Lt. Thomas Jabine. Brigadier General Amos A. Fries. When these three U.S. servicemen heard the news about the armistice ending the First World War, they were in three very different circumstances. Their stories, told below in an excerpt from Theo Emery’s Hel... |
4b6c7e5a95adc8508889e4bec960c10f | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-uss-values-and-american-exceptionalism-have-shaped-our-pandemic-response-180976573/ | How the Belief in American Exceptionalism Has Shaped the Pandemic Response | How the Belief in American Exceptionalism Has Shaped the Pandemic Response
The spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. is out of control: As of December 1, more than 13.5 million people have been infected nationwide and some 269,000 people have died. Yet many in the U.S. still resist wearing masks in public and even deem... |
81c6b4c10c9f54a58cc088798041b16d | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-woodrow-wilsons-propaganda-machine-changed-american-journalism-180963082/ | How Woodrow Wilson’s Propaganda Machine Changed American Journalism | How Woodrow Wilson’s Propaganda Machine Changed American Journalism
When the United States declared war on Germany 100 years ago, the impact on the news business was swift and dramatic.
In its crusade to “make the world safe for democracy,” the Wilson administration took immediate steps at home to curtail one of the pi... |
1f9cf6510b07a9353c3836138fee16fe | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-writers-timeless-mined-history-its-riveting-second-season-180969070/ | How the Writers of “Timeless” Mined History for its Riveting Second Season | How the Writers of “Timeless” Mined History for its Riveting Second Season
It’s not every TV season that a show comes along that fits so snugly into Smithsonian.com’s wheelhouse.
That’s why we were so excited when “Timeless” got picked up for a second season, giving us self-professed history nerds a chance to geek out ... |
52420632f0aebba4a84d73b906981fca | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/howard-hughes-h-1-carried-him-all-the-way-89476521/ | Howard Hughes’ H-1 Carried Him “All the Way” | Howard Hughes’ H-1 Carried Him “All the Way”
The object at hand is silver and imperially slim, a fast and famous airplane. And not merely fast and famous either, but probably the most beautiful airplane ever built. Its wings fair into the fuselage with such a smooth and gracious curve that you can almost feel the air j... |
1a559c3ffb0093d281377a7b401e8d66 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hypatia-ancient-alexandrias-great-female-scholar-10942888/ | Hypatia, Ancient Alexandria’s Great Female Scholar | Hypatia, Ancient Alexandria’s Great Female Scholar
One day on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, in the year 415 or 416, a mob of Christian zealots led by Peter the Lector accosted a woman’s carriage and dragged her from it and into a church, where they stripped her and beat her to death with roofing tiles. They then to... |
1720485e33fded5b90641ac1103222fc | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/i-hope-it-not-too-late-180963640/ | World War I: 100 Years Later | World War I: 100 Years Later
U.S. General John J. Pershing, newly arrived in France, visited his counterpart, French general Philippe Pétain, with a sobering message on June 16, 1917. It had been two months since the U.S. entered World War I, but Pershing, newly appointed to command the American Expeditionary Force in ... |
63969b966ab273994ea642e749696dc5 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/if-theres-a-man-among-ye-the-tale-of-pirate-queens-anne-bonny-and-mary-read-45576461/?no-ist | If There’s a Man Among Ye: The Tale of Pirate Queens Anne Bonny and Mary Read | If There’s a Man Among Ye: The Tale of Pirate Queens Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Last week Mike Dash told a tale of high seas adventure that put me in mind of another, somewhat earlier one. Not that Anne Bonny and Mary Read had much in common with kindly old David O’Keefe—they were pirates, for one thing, as renowned for ... |
f6fb393057a34b0593cd838c67688794 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/igorrote-tribe-traveled-world-these-men-took-all-money-180953012/ | The Igorrote Tribe Traveled the World for Show And Made These Two Men Rich | The Igorrote Tribe Traveled the World for Show And Made These Two Men Rich
A group of tribespeople danced with jerky movements as a man, barefoot and wearing only a g-string, dragged a dog by a rope. The mutt snapped and snarled. Then with one deft stroke, the man slit the animal’s throat before chopping its lifeless b... |
6268307b4000aeff771b26bf37098262 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/illustrious-history-misquoting-winston-churchill-180953634/ | The Illustrious History of Misquoting Winston Churchill | The Illustrious History of Misquoting Winston Churchill
“If I were married to you, I’d put poison in your coffee,” Lady Astor once famously remarked to Winston Churchill. “If I were married to you,” he replied, “I’d drink it.”
This month marks 50 years since the death of one of history’s most quotable people. Churchill... |
c43c976d0da135146a01ae2d879280e3 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/incomplete-history-told-new-yorks-kgb-museum-180971458/ | The Incomplete History Told by New York’s K.G.B. Museum | The Incomplete History Told by New York’s K.G.B. Museum
After downing a second vial of “baby blue truth serum,” which mysteriously tasted like vodka, I admitted something to myself. I wasn’t enjoying the sardine-and-hard-boiled-egg appetizer at the opening night party for the new KGB Spy Museum in downtown Manhattan. E... |
cc3418fe384cdd0928994698b653d2fa | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-founding-fathers-debate-over-what-constituted-impeachable-offense-180965083/ | Inside the Founding Fathers’ Debate Over What Constituted an Impeachable Offense | Inside the Founding Fathers’ Debate Over What Constituted an Impeachable Offense
The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia was winding down, the draft of the United States’ supreme law almost finished, and George Mason, the author of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, was becoming alarmed. Over the course of the con... |
05ccd8b33044b6fbc6488a86c540e2cc | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-intense-rivalry-between-eliot-ness-and-j-edgar-hoover-180952784/ | Inside the Intense Rivalry Between Eliot Ness and J. Edgar Hoover | Inside the Intense Rivalry Between Eliot Ness and J. Edgar Hoover
The massive warehouse took up a block on Chicago’s South Wabash Avenue. Shades and wire screens blocked the windows. Iron bars reinforced the double doors. The sign read “The Old Reliable Trucking Company,” but the building gave off the yeasty odor of br... |
568d8c75f34ceaab17e2c85512283d6f | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/interactive-map-visualizes-queer-geography-20th-century-america-180974306/?preview | This Interactive Map Visualizes the Queer Geography of 20th-Century America | This Interactive Map Visualizes the Queer Geography of 20th-Century America
At first glance, Bob Damron’s Address Book reads like any other travel guide. Bars, restaurants, hotels and businesses are grouped by city and state, their names and addresses listed in alphabetical order. An introductory note reassures readers... |
0cafccaabfb6abc840035b38d19efc65 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/interactive-maps-out-lives-former-presidents-180961861/ | This Interactive Maps Out the Lives of Former Presidents | This Interactive Maps Out the Lives of Former Presidents
After leaving the highest elected office in the nation, what's a President of the United States to do? What can top a position as the most leader of the free world?
Thirty-five of the 43 presidents have gotten to experience life after holding office (President Ob... |
e3be8080a3f75a7a987b5bef64685858 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/intergalactic-battle-ancient-rome-180961416/ | The Intergalactic Battle of Ancient Rome | The Intergalactic Battle of Ancient Rome
A long time ago, in a world not so far away, a young man who longed for adventure was swept up in a galactic war. Forced to choose between two sides in the deadly battle, he befriended a group of scrappy fighters who captained… three-headed vultures, giant fleas and space spider... |
b142bc1f434e9d5b62fd984e04bbd51d | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inventing-alphabet-180976520/ | Who Invented the Alphabet? | Who Invented the Alphabet?
Centuries before Moses wandered in the “great and terrible wilderness” of the Sinai Peninsula, this triangle of desert wedged between Africa and Asia attracted speculators, drawn by rich mineral deposits hidden in the rocks. And it was on one of these expeditions, around 4,000 years ago, that... |
5208e58c92426be1744ba6d1ad445598 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/islams-medieval-underworld-15821520/ | Islam’s Medieval Underworld | Islam’s Medieval Underworld
The year is—let us say—1170, and you are the leader of a city watch in medieval Persia. Patrolling the dangerous alleyways in the small hours of the morning, you and your men chance upon two or three shady-looking characters loitering outside the home of a wealthy merchant. Suspecting that y... |
5c6a182c07a10fdfa611ca9c3513ffd8 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/its-a-wurlitzer-61398212/ | It’s a Wurlitzer | It’s a Wurlitzer
Of all the musical instruments in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of 5,200 violins, pianos, banjos and others, the largest—it fills three rooms—represents a unique period of nearly forgotten American history.
It’s a Wurlitzer theater organ. In the early 20th century, thousands of these giganti... |
340fafa40ca99970299e18afbadcada0 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/its-time-to-cut-barbie-a-little-slack-4110448/ | It’s Time to Cut Barbie a Little Slack | It’s Time to Cut Barbie a Little Slack
She’s wearing entirely too much eyeliner. When the Mattel company introduced Barbie to the world, in 1959, she wore a black-and-white striped one-piece bathing suit, black heels, white sunglasses and...entirely too much eyeliner. The makeup was no doubt applied because Barbie was ... |
842004c0757e10b98b7d50c726e885c4 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/jacques-louis-david-60191520/ | Jacques-Louis David | Jacques-Louis David
The savagery of the French Revolution, which declared the Rights of Man but turned to bloody-handed tyranny and repressive terrorism, has long puzzled historians. Among the list of causes, and one rarely remembered, Elizabeth Wilson writes, was the painter Jacques-Louis David. Today, he is best know... |
8beac626e609b7bb72582a9df3005c81 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-adams-out-thomas-jefferson-sally-hemings-180960789/ | Did John Adams Out Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings? | Did John Adams Out Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings?
The first eight months of 1802 were mercifully dull for President Jefferson. France and England signed a peace treaty, reopening European and Caribbean ports to American commerce. The Navy was making headway against Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean. West Point ... |
7487bb7ee0f12406e918d4f726e6c8dc | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-browns-day-of-reckoning-139165084/ | John Brown’s Day of Reckoning | John Brown’s Day of Reckoning
Harpers Ferry, Virginia, lay sleeping on the night of October 16, 1859, as 19 heavily armed men stole down mist-shrouded bluffs along the Potomac River where it joins the Shenandoah. Their leader was a rail-thin 59-year-old man with a shock of graying hair and penetrating steel-gray eyes. ... |
447c89b6059904d3bdeb292f850abfe7 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-m-barry-on-roger-williams-and-the-indians-9322792/ | John M. Barry on Roger Williams and the Indians | John M. Barry on Roger Williams and the Indians
John M. Barry is the author of New York Times bestsellers The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History and Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood 1927 and How It Changed America. His most recent book, Roger Williams and the Creation of the Amer... |
ce6b9e49071eae7d6ce2d6921960c055 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/juanita-moody-woman-helped-avert-nuclear-war-180976993/ | On the morning of Sunday, October 14, 1962, Juanita Moody exited the headquarters of the National Security Agency, at Fort Meade, Maryland, and walked the short distance to her car, parked in one of the front-row spaces reserved for top leadership. The sky was a crystalline blue, “a most beautiful day,” she recalled la... | |
8e1ae3d4a998cae07eec7f836f4dfc12 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kielce-post-holocaust-pogrom-poland-still-fighting-over-180967681/ | Kielce: The Post-Holocaust Pogrom That Poland Is Still Fighting Over | Kielce: The Post-Holocaust Pogrom That Poland Is Still Fighting Over
The massacre started with a blood libel. That wouldn’t be unusual, except this wasn’t the Middle Ages or even Nazi Germany—it was 1946, a year after the end of World War II.
A few days earlier, an 8-year-old Polish boy named Henryk Błaszczyk had gone ... |
cd075885229167846836f8de551882a7 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kon-tiki-sails-again-5404357/ | Kon-Tiki Sails Again | Kon-Tiki Sails Again
The most harrowing scene in Kon-Tiki, the new Oscar-nominated Norwegian film about the greatest sea voyage of modern times, turns out to be a fish story. In the 2012 reconstruction of this 1947 adventure, six amateur Scandinavian sailors—five of whom are tall, slim and valiant—build a replica of an... |
265de64bb47167e381bcdca3ae99df13 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/learn-origins-term-affirmative-action-180959531/ | The Origins of the Term “Affirmative Action” | The Origins of the Term “Affirmative Action”
For a term as loaded with political meaning as “affirmative action,” it might come as a surprise to learn that its origins on the political landscape still remain somewhat of a mystery. Merriam-Webster places its first known use in 1965, but the historical record shows it be... |
d5b24cd0b72f0c1fd49aaf191a655cc7 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/legacy-black-hawk-down-180971000/ | Twenty-five years ago, I was drawn to Somalia in the aftermath of Operation Restore Hope, a U.S. initiative supporting a United Nations resolution that aimed to halt widespread starvation. The effort, started in 1992, secured trade routes so food could get to Somalis. The U.N. estimated that no fewer than 250,000 lives... | |
64d169a84d3ecd97aecbe2b0e2c4290f | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/legends-what-actually-lived-no-mans-land-between-world-war-i-trenches-180952513/ | World War I: 100 Years Later | World War I: 100 Years Later
During World War I, No Man’s Land was both an actual and a metaphorical space. It separated the front lines of the opposing armies and was perhaps the only location where enemy troops could meet without hostility. It was in No Man's Land that the spontaneous Christmas truce of December 1914... |
f1715d3684060444624a5d93c1d43024 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leopold-and-loebs-criminal-minds-996498/ | Leopold and Loeb’s Criminal Minds | Leopold and Loeb’s Criminal Minds
Nathan Leopold was in a bad mood. That evening, on November 10, 1923, he had agreed to drive with his friend and lover, Richard Loeb, from Chicago to the University of Michigan—a journey of six hours—to burglarize Loeb's former fraternity, Zeta Beta Tau. But they had managed to steal o... |
c4bfdee52e417e13a6ac2ecd6dbd96e8 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/letters-mothers-president-lincoln-180951395/ | Letters from Mothers to President Lincoln | Letters from Mothers to President Lincoln
In the summer of 1818, when Abraham Lincoln was nine years old, his mother, Nancy, caught “the milk-sick,” a then-mysterious disease caused by drinking the milk of cows that had eaten white snakeroot. (We know it today as brucellosis.) Her breath grew shorter, her skin turned s... |
c93e22c62d0686ad31f6b820cbc832de | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lincoln-as-commander-in-chief-131322819/ | Lincoln as Commander in Chief | Lincoln as Commander in Chief
When the American Civil War began, president Abraham Lincoln was far less prepared for the task of commander in chief than his Southern adversary. Jefferson Davis had graduated from West Point (in the lowest third of his class, to be sure), commanded a regiment that fought intrepidly at Bu... |
d594ab43bd0a8eac65369a62d251dd98 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lincolns-missing-bodyguard-12932069/ | The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln | The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
When a celebrity-seeking couple crashed a White House state dinner last November, the issue of presidential security dominated the news. The Secret Service responded by putting three of its officers on administrative leave and scrambled to reassure the public that it takes the job o... |
75db18198d622d1927c619257e25e780 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lincolns-missing-bodyguard-12932069/?all&no-ist | The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln | The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
When a celebrity-seeking couple crashed a White House state dinner last November, the issue of presidential security dominated the news. The Secret Service responded by putting three of its officers on administrative leave and scrambled to reassure the public that it takes the job o... |
48f41618f6165cbf002b8c7ae66e10f3 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/little-brother-of-war-147315888/ | Little Brother of War | Little Brother of War
"Sticks" such as those at left were the principal weapons used in a semi-sacred ball sport variously known as "They Bump Hips" or the "Little Brother of War" that American Indians believe was given to them by the Creator sometime in ages past. This pair is part of the American Indian exhibit in th... |
0f1ec8c68344b6c55ae51d25893c99b3 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-history-disease-and-fear-other-180953310/ | The Long History of Disease and the Fear of the “Other” | The Long History of Disease and the Fear of the “Other”
Health consists of having the same diseases as one’s neighbors,” the English writer Quentin Crisp once quipped. He was right. And what is true of the individual seems to be true of societies as a whole. “Parasite stress,” as scientists term it, has long been a fac... |
b1c9df4ffbc5b66e01e3ff26feb826f6 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-lasting-legacy-great-migration-180960118/ | The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration | The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration
In 1963, the American mathematician Edward Lorenz, taking a measure of the earth’s atmosphere in a laboratory that would seem far removed from the social upheavals of the time, set forth the theory that a single “flap of a sea gull’s wings” could redirect the path of a tor... |
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