American History

J. Frank Duryea, left, and race umpire Arthur W. White, right, in the 1895 Duryea during the Chicago Times-Herald race, the first automobile race in the U.S.

The Forgotten Car That Won America's First Auto Race

The zippy roadster won America's first automobile race in 1895 with an average speed of 5 mph

The aftermath of the 1919 Great Molasses Flood

The Sticky Science Behind the Deadly Boston Molasses Disaster

Nearly 100 years after the massive molasses tank ruptured, scientists are finally sussing out how this tragedy occurred

Martha, a farmworker in California, says a group of white locals often harass her, yelling that immigrants take U.S. jobs. “Why don’t they work in the fields?” she asked.

A Photographic Chronicle of America's Working Poor

<i>Smithsonian</i> journeyed from Maine to California to update a landmark study of American life

Indians Poisoned

A Smithsonian Scholar Revisits the Neglected History of the Chesapeake Bay's Native Tribes

Revisiting Indian Nations of the Chesapeake

Portrait of Edward Winslow

The Plymouth Hero You Should Really Be Thankful for This Thanksgiving

Without Edward Winslow, we probably wouldn’t even be celebrating the holiday

What Pilgrims Heard When They Arrived in America

They came to America seeking religious freedom, but what did their prayers, and those of the local Native Americans, sound like?

Activists picketing at a demonstration for housing equality while uniformed American Nazi Party members counterprotest in the background with signs displaying anti-integration slogans and racist epithets.

This Photo Book Is a Reminder That the Civil Rights Movement Extended Far Beyond the Deep South

Public historian Mark Speltz's new book is full of images that aren't typically part of the 1960s narrative

Deadwood's Racketeer Nickel

A Brief History of the Racketeer Nickel

A fraudulent 5-cent piece dug up in Deadwood may not be very valuable, but its story is worth its weight in gold

Author Steven Johnson looks at many of history's "artifacts of the future" that hinted at huge technological, scientific and cultural breakthroughs to come in his new book, Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World.

If Necessity Is the Mother of Invention, Then Play Is Its Father

In a new book, Steven Johnson argues that many inventions, considered mindless amusements in their time, wind up leading to serious innovations later

"I am well acquainted with Gen.l W. who is a man of very few words but when he speaks it is on purpose [and] what I have often admired in him is he [has] always avoided saying anything of the actions in which he has engaged in the last war. [H]e is uncommonly modest, very industrious - prudent." Charles Willson Peale to Edmond Jennings, August 1775

The Strange Case of George Washington’s Disappearing Sash

How an early (and controversial) symbol of the American republic was lost to the annals of history

An original Western Union stock ticker from the Oakland Museum of California.

The Physical Stock Ticker Is a Relic, But Its Influence Reverberates Loudly Today

On this day 149 years ago, the first digital transmitter debuted

Man Mound

Get to Know Man Mound, One of 10 New National Historical Landmarks

The Interior Department has designated new landmarks including James Merrill's house, a silent film studio and the only human-shaped effigy mound

Perfectly Preserved Shipwreck Found in Lake Superior

A team has found the The J.S. Seaverns which sank in Michipicoten harbor in 1884 with its hull intact and dishes still on the shelves

Mustard gas from wars past is decaying in the world's oceans—but scientists don't yet know how dangerous it could be. Here, U.S. Navy ship prepare for scheduled deployment in the Pacific Ocean in 2014.

Chemical Weapons Dumped in the Ocean After World War II Could Threaten Waters Worldwide

How worried should we be? Chemists are racing the clock to find out

A replica of the lost Mark IV nuclear bomb at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada

Diver Found Possible Inactive 1950 Nuke Off the Coast of British Columbia

The purported bomb was discovered by a man searching for sea cucumbers

Confederate Memorial Day exercises at the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia.

A Controversial Museum Tries to Revive the Myth of the Confederacy’s “Lost Cause”

The ideology has been used to whitewash slavery’s role in the Civil War for generations

This Is What the World Looked Like the Last Time the Cubs Won the World Series

Here are 10 ways life was different in 1908

Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks before a game at Wrigley Field, 1957

If Only Ernie Had Seen It. Here's Why "Mr. Cub" Is Part of the 2016 World Series Win

From Smithsonian Books, a treasure of baseball history for those who can’t wait for spring training

Gary Hart campaign (photo by Ken Regan), 1984

The Swag and Swagger Behind American Presidential Campaigns

From a coloring book to a painted axe, election ephemera remind us of the hard-fought elections of long ago

A middle school devastated by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake

Oil Drilling Could Be to Blame for Devastating 1933 California Quake and Others

Human-induced earthquakes could be much older than once thought

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