The Life and Crimes of “Old Mother” Mandelbaum
She had the eyes of a sparrow, the neck of a bear and enough business acumen to build an empire as the "Queen of Fences."
September 06, 2011 |
By Karen Abbott
Inside the Great Pyramid
No structure in the world is more mysterious than the Great Pyramid. But who first broke into its well-guarded interior, and when? And what did they find there?
September 01, 2011 |
By Mike Dash
Burr, Ogden and Dayton: The Original Jersey Boys
Known as much for their troubles as their successes, these childhood friends left their mark on early American history
August 12, 2011 |
By David O. Stewart
How to Trademark a Fruit
To protect the fruits of their labor and thwart "plant thieves," early American growers enlisted artists
August 2011 |
By Daniel J. Kevles
David O’Keefe: The King of Hard Currency
The Irish American immigrant made a fortune by supplying the giant stone coins prized by Yap islanders
July 28, 2011 |
By Mike Dash
Ask an Expert: What Did Abraham Lincoln’s Voice Sound Like?
Civil War scholar Harold Holzer helps to decode what spectators heard when the 16th president spoke
June 07, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
How Charles Dickens Saw London
Sketches by Boz, the volume of newspaper columns that became Dickens’ first book, invokes a colorful view of 19th-century England
June 06, 2011 |
By Rebecca Dalzell
Documenting the Death of an Assassin
In 1865, a single photograph was taken during the autopsy of John Wilkes
Booth. Where is it now?
May 06, 2011 |
By Ashley Luthern
Gauguin's Bid for Glory
Of all the images created by the artist Paul Gauguin, none was more striking than the one he crafted for himself
March 2011 |
By Ann Morrison
A Murder in Salem
In 1830, a brutal crime in Massachusetts riveted the nation—and inspired the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne
November 2010 |
By E.J. Wagner
A Seminole Warrior Cloaked in Defiance
A pair of woven, beaded garters reflects the spirit of Seminole warrior Osceola
October 2010 |
By Owen Edwards
How Annie Oakley, "Princess of the West," Preserved Her Ladylike Reputation
Born in 1860, the famed female sharpshooter skillfully cultivated an image of a daredevil performer with proper Victorian morals
August 12, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
The Grand Women Artists of the Hudson River School
Unknown and forgotten to history, these painters of America's great landscapes are finally getting their due in a new exhibition
July 21, 2010 |
By Judith H. Dobrzynski
Mark Twain in Love
A chance encounter on a New Orleans dock in 1858 haunted the writer for the rest of his life
May 2010 |
By Ron Powers
A Rare Pony Express Artifact
A letter that took two years to reach its destination evokes the hazards of the Pony Express
May 2010 |
By Owen Edwards
Victorian Womanhood, in All Its Guises
Frances Benjamin Johnston's self-portraits show a woman was never content playing just one role
May 2010 |
By Victoria Olsen
Lincoln's Missing Bodyguard
What happened to Officer John Parker, the man who chose the wrong night to leave his post at Ford's Theater?
April 08, 2010 |
By Paul Martin
A 160-Year-Old Photographic Mystery
In 1851, Levi Hill claimed he invented color photography. Was he a genius or a fraud?
April 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Ireland's Forgotten Sons Recovered Two Centuries Later
In Pennsylvania, amateur archaeologists unearth a mass grave of immigrant railroad workers who disappeared in 1832
April 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
Lewis Carroll's Shifting Reputation
Why has popular opinion of the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland undergone such a dramatic reversal?
April 2010 |
By Jenny Woolf
