Aristocrats plotted to kill the Siberian peasant, who wielded undue influence over Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. But the conspiracy backfired, hastening the coming Russian Revolution
Mario Van Peebles' "Outlaw Posse" is the latest attempt to correct the erasure of people of color from the classic cinema genre
Documenting episodes of the phenomenon thousands of years ago may help us predict damaging solar storms in the future
In 1990, scholars found a Sierra Leonean woman who remembered a nearly identical version of a tune passed down by a Georgia woman’s enslaved ancestors
A new adaptation offers a fresh take on James Clavell's 1975 novel, which fictionalizes the stories of English sailor William Adams, shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and Japanese noblewoman Hosokawa Gracia
A new anthology identifies frustration as a recurring theme in journals written between 1599 and 2015
Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries
To mark the February heritage month, these images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest offer proof that African American history is timeless
Mary Cardwell Dawson created unprecedented opportunities for aspiring Black musicians
Two historians tell us why the pioneering 19th-century feminist, suffragist and abolitionist’s legacy has so frequently been misrepresented
Untold Stories of American History
Denied burial alongside Union soldiers killed during the Battle of Gettysburg, the 30 or so men were instead buried in the all-Black Lincoln Cemetery
Historian Camilla Townsend separates fact from fiction in the life of the Powhatan "princess"
A Smithsonian curator and a historian discuss the links between the Johnson-Reed Act and Executive Order 9066, which rounded up 120,000 Japanese Americans in camps across the Western U.S.
You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts
Untold Stories of American History
Charles Lewis Tiffany purchased the surplus cable from the 1858 venture, turning it into souvenirs that forever linked his name to the short-lived telecommunications milestone
The story behind the glitzy stretch of highway that became the destination for America’s most sublime—and most sordid—aspirations
A chic light fixture reveals how female designers remade the Tiffany brand—and went largely uncredited for nearly a century
Inside the search for a plane shot down over the Pacific—and the new effort to bring its fallen heroes home
Untold Stories of American History
Harriet M. Buss' missives home detail the future congressman's candid views on race and the complicity of Confederate women
Feminist. Preacher. Abolitionist. Civil rights pioneer. Now the full story of the American icon's life and faith is finally coming to light
Here’s how Venice, Rio de Janeiro, Trinidad and Tobago, New Orleans, and Quebec City mark the pre-Lenten season
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