Politics

America’s public, partisan and passionate campaigns fired up uniformed young men who participated in torchlit marches, a style pioneered by the Republican Wide Awakes stumping for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 (above: a procession stomped through Lower Manhattan’s Printing House Square).

The Little-Known Story of 19th-Century America's Partisan Warfare

In a new book, Smithsonian curator Jon Grinspan examines the history of America's furious and fractious politics

Geraldine Ferraro and Walter Mondale by Diane Walker, 1984

Walter Mondale Never Won the Presidency, but He Changed American Politics Forever

A trove of Smithsonian artifacts document the man who was first to put a woman on the presidential ticket and reshaped the vice presidency

This dress, with a matching necklace and ruby red high heels, was worn by Cornell to her prom in 2018.

How Isabella Aiukli Cornell Made Prom Political

As citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a prom dress became the perfect vehicle to signal the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women

Violet Gibson, a 50-year-old Irish woman, attempted to assassinate Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1926.

The Little-Known Story of Violet Gibson, the Irish Woman Who Shot Mussolini

A free radio documentary tells the tale of the long-overlooked individual who nearly killed the Italian dictator in 1926

The Royalists used the cookbook to paint Oliver and Elizabeth Cromwell as commoners unfit to rule the kingdom.

This 17th-Century Cookbook Contained a Vicious Attack on Oliver Cromwell's Wife

The Cromwell Museum has republished a text first issued by the English Lord Protector's enemies as propaganda

On March 13, 1996, a gunman murdered 16 students and their teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland. Pictured: the class of 5- to 6-year-olds and their teacher, Gwen Mayor

How the 1996 Dunblane Massacre Pushed the U.K. to Enact Stricter Gun Laws

A devastating attack at a Scottish primary school sparked national outcry—and a successful campaign for gun reform

Chosen for the 2021 inauguration, this 1859 painting by the African American artist Robert Duncanson depicts the promise of America.

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on Healing a Divided Nation

We must use the lessons of the past to help our country grow and move forward

In the background, a photograph taken by an American U-2 spy plane over Cuba on October 14, 1962, shows a secret deployment of Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. Right, Juanita Moody, head of the National Security Agency’s Cuba desk.

The Once-Classified Tale of Juanita Moody: The Woman Who Helped Avert a Nuclear War

America’s bold response to the Soviet Union depended on an unknown spy agency operative whose story can at last be told

A framed display of locks of George and Martha Washington's hair is estimated to sell for upward of $75,000.

Trove of Presidential Memorabilia, From Washington's Hair to JFK's Sweater, Is Up for Sale

RR Auction is offering a collection of nearly 300 artifacts, including a signed photo of Abraham Lincoln and a pen used by FDR

A copy of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was gifted to the National Museum of American History and exhibited in a 2015 exhibition "The Early Sixties: American Culture."

The Powerful, Complicated Legacy of Betty Friedan's 'The Feminine Mystique'

The acclaimed reformer stoked the white, middle-class feminist movement and brought critical understanding to a “problem that had no name”

In another executive order, President Biden canceled permits for construction on the Keystone XL pipeline. Alberta construction of the pipeline is pictured here, taken in October 2020.

The United States Will Rejoin Paris Climate Accord

The move is one of several climate-related actions taken by President Joe Biden on his first day in office

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From His Tattered Chair, TV's Archie Bunker Caricatured America's Divides

The 1971 show aired the fraught political differences that were "All in the Family"

An illustration of the British burning Washington in 1814

The History of Violent Attacks on the U.S. Capitol

While the building has seen politically motivated mayhem in the past, never before has a mob of insurrectionists tried to overturn a presidential election

In this newspaper illustration, the Electoral Commission holds a secret candlelit meeting in the courtroom of the Supreme Court on February 16, 1877.

Five Things to Know About the 1876 Presidential Election

Lawmakers are citing the 19th-century crisis as precedent to dispute the 2020 election. Here's a closer look at its events and legacy

Rainey’s “polite and dignified bearing enforces respect,” an 1871 newspaper report said before disparaging him as unequal to the “best men of the House.”

Meet Joseph Rainey, the First Black Congressman

Born enslaved, he was elected to Congress in the wake of the Civil War. But the impact of this momentous step in U.S. race relationships did not last long

The Library of Congress recently completed a major digitization effort, making collections of 23 U.S. presidents' papers available online for study. From left: Calvin Coolidge, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Benjamin Harrison and Thomas Jefferson; behind: Jefferson's June 1776 draft of the Declaration of Independence

Library of Congress' Presidential Papers, From Washington's Geometry Notes to Wilson's Love Letters, Are Now Online

Four newly added collections mark the conclusion of a two-decade digitization project

Americanization, a mural by Dean Cornwell.

How the Belief in American Exceptionalism Has Shaped the Pandemic Response

A political scientist discusses how national identity influences how the country has dealt with the Covid-19 crisis

The election of 1800 didn't invent the idea of a peaceful transition of power from one set of ideals to another, but it did engrave the United States into history as a democracy.

How John Adams Managed a Peaceful Transition of Presidential Power

In the election of 1800, for the first time in U.S. history, one party turned the executive office to another

Local officials approved plans to install the statue on St. Peter's Hill in Grantham.

Why a Planned Statue of Britain's 'Iron Lady,' Margaret Thatcher, Is So Polarizing

Set to be installed in the prime minister's hometown of Grantham next year, the ten-foot-tall work has both supporters and detractors

The 74-day clash found Argentina and the United Kingdom battling for control of the Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the South Atlantic.

A Brief History of the Falklands War

The latest season of Netflix's "The Crown" dramatizes the 1982 clash between Argentina and the United Kingdom

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