Artifacts

“We’ve been taxing work, output and income and subsidizing non-work, leisure and unemployment. The consequences are obvious! To Don Rumsfeld,” Arthur Laffer wrote around the graph, signing and dating his work as well.

The Restaurant Doodle That Launched a Political Movement

How one economist’s graph on a napkin reshaped the Republican Party and upended tax policy

"This book was representative of an era during which colonialism and the associated conversion to Christianity oppressed the indigenous population in often violent ways,” says curator Gabriela Pérez-Báez.

A Rare Public Display of a 17th-Century Mayan Manuscript

With the book newly digitized, scholars are reinterpreting a story of native resistance from within its pages

The cracked-plate portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner, 1865, albumen silver print

A Smithsonian Historian Wanders the “Bardo,” Exploring the Spiritual World of the 19th Century

George Saunders’ new novel, “Lincoln in the Bardo” recalls the melancholy that hung over a nation at war

The lost colony of Roanoke

The Mystery of Roanoke Endures Yet Another Cruel Twist

An artifact found 20 years ago turns out to not be what archaeologists thought

April 25, 2017, marks the centennial birthday of Ella Fitzgerald (above, in a triple-exposure undated photograph).

Never Mind Her Stellar Jazz Career, Young Ella Fitzgerald Just Wanted to Dance

The preeminent vocalist didn't actually start out as a singer

A quarter of the U.S. population (including a girl in Moline, Illinois) turned out for the Liberty Bell.

How the Liberty Bell Won the Great War

As it entered World War I, the United States was politically torn and financially challenged. An American icon came to the rescue

Ruth Law, (circa 1915, at the controls of her Curtiss Model D Headless biplane) once said that wearing a seatbelt "was a bit cowardly."

This Ace Aviatrix Learned to Fly Even Though Orville Wright Refused to Teach Her

With flint and derring-do, the early 20th century pilot Ruth Law ruled American skies

This Virginia Winery Once Housed One of WWII's Most Important Spy Stations

Speakeasies are so 2012—this place has actual secrets

Coralline algae of the genus Clathromorphum are specific to the Arctic and Subarctic, and they have critically important stories to tell about their ocean and how it has changed over the centuries.

In Its Layers, This Stunning Pink Coralline Algae Holds Secrets of Climates Past

Unseen and unsung for centuries, these underwater species of coralline algae are providing scientists with an unparalleled new archive of information

What Maximum Security Meant for Ancient Tomb Raiders

The Han dynasty tombs were packed with some of the empire's most valuable relics. To guard against theft, colossal stones, each weighing six tons

The first-known photograph of the White House, by John Plumbe, Jr.

Five Cool Finds From Google Arts & Culture's Presidents' Day Collection

The platform is sharing more than 2,000 items steeped in political history

Asli Saghatelyan stands next to her father-in-law’s 240-gallon karas, a clay vessel traditionally used in Armenia, until recently, for storing and fermenting homemade wine.

Unearthing Armenia’s Giant, Ancient Earthenware

These 240-gallon clay karases, crucial to the early development of winemaking, once held enormous value

Now on display in the museum’s “Musical Crossroads” exhibition, the boombox is a striking symbol of the early years of hip-hop.

The Ballad of the Boombox: What Public Enemy Tells Us About Hip-Hop, Race and Society

Thirty years after Public Enemy's debut album, the group's sonic innovation and powerful activism resonate powerfully today

Twain's living room

Mark Twain Museum Battles Mold

A malfunctioning HVAC system led to mold contaminating 5,000 artifacts in a storage room, which will be restored over the next four months

At the height of their popularity in the 1950s, children's coonskin caps like this one from the Smithsonian collections, sold at the rate of 5,000 per day.

The Invention of Vintage Clothing

It all began with the Davy Crockett coonskin hat craze and a bunch of Bohemians yearning to swathe themselves in decades-old fur

The gravestone of a former slave

Found in the Remains of a Former Gilded Age Mansion, an Ancient Roman Artifact Reveals Its Secrets

Bridging three periods of income inequality, the gravestone of a former slave finds a new home

The upcoming Museum of the American Revolution.

Nine New Must-See Museums Opening This Year

From the American Revolution to fashion design, these are the new museums to see in 2017

Among other necessary items, the list includes "greenfish," a "fireshovel" and two dozen pewter spoons.

Seventeenth-Century Shopping List Discovered Under Floorboards of Historic English Home

Penned in 1633, the “beautifully written” list hints at household life 400 years ago

Like most innovations in science, the study of whale earwax—a.k.a. earplugs—as oceanic core samples came about by asking a question no one had thought to ask.

For Scientists, Chunks of Whale Earwax Can Be Biological Treasure Troves

Biologists are waxing poetic about these unusual oceanic core samples found in the ears of cetaceans

Fragment from a flag that read "'Kaiser' Wilson Banner East Gate White House Monday, August 13, 1917." The original banner read "Kaiser Wilson Have You Forgotten Your Sympathy With the Poor Germans Because They Were Not Self-Governed? 20,000,000 American Women Are Not Self-Governed. Take the Beam Out of Your Own Eye"

'Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait For Liberty?'

In January 1917, women took turns picketing the White House with a voice empowered by American democracy

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