About Carleton Watkins
On the life and career of the 19th-century American landscape photographer who captured Yosemite in stereo
July 2008 |
By Bruce Hathaway
The Brink of War
One hundred fifty years ago, the U.S. Army marched into Utah prepared to battle Brigham Young and his Mormon militia
June 2008 |
By David Roberts
On the Origin of a Theory
Charles Darwin's bid for enduring fame was sparked 150 years ago by word of a rival's research
June 2008 |
By Richard Conniff
Where Dinosaurs Roamed
Footprints at one of the nation's oldest—and most fought over—fossil beds offer new clues to how the behemoths lived
May 2008 |
By Genevieve Rajewski
End of the Road
In the 1800s, travelers along the perilous forest trail known as the Natchez Trace called it the "Devil's Backbone"
May 2008 |
By David Devoss
Hidden Depths
Winslow Homer took watercolors to new levels. A Chicago exhibition charts the elusive New Englander's mastery
May 2008 |
By Robert M. Poole
A Brief History of Pierre L’Enfant and Washington, D.C.
How one Frenchman’s vision became our capital city
May 01, 2008 |
By Kenneth R. Fletcher
Spirals of History
Hand-carved elephant tusks tell the story of life in the Congolese colonies of the late 1800s
April 2008 |
By Owen Edwards
Larger than Life
Whether denouncing France's art establishment or challenging Napoleon III, Gustave Courbet never held back
April 2008 |
By Avis Berman
Big News
In matters of sheer magnitude, Robert Howlett got the picture
January 2008 |
By Victoria Olsen
Letters from Vincent
Never-before-exhibited correspondence from van Gogh to a protégé displays a thoughtful exacting side of the artist
January 2008 |
By Arthur Lubow
Sky King
Pan Am founder Juan Trippe turned Americans into frequent fliers
November 2007 |
By Owen Edwards
Abandoned Ship: the Mary Celeste
What really happened aboard the Mary Celeste? More than a century after her crew went missing, a scenario is emerging
November 2007 |
By Jess Blumberg
Digitizing the Hanging Court
Cutpurses! Blackguards! Fallen women! The Proceedings of the Old Bailey is an epic chronicle of crime and vice in early London. Now anyone with a computer can search all 52 million words
April 2007 |
By Guy Gugliotta
A Brief History of the Orient Express
Spies used it as a secret weapon. A president tumbled from it. Hitler wanted it destroyed. Just what made this train so intriguing?
March 01, 2007 |
By David Zax
Incurably Romantic
For much of the 20th century, Britain's Pre-Raphaelite were dismissed as overly sentimental. A new exhibition shows why they're back in favor
February 01, 2007 |
By Doug Stewart
Famous Once Again
Longfellow reaches his bicentennial; here's why his poems became perennial
February 2007 |
By Nicholas A. Basbanes
Americans in Paris
In the late 19th century, the City of Light beckoned Whistler, Sargent, Cassatt and other young artists. As a new exhibition makes clear, what they experienced would transform American art
January 2007 |
By Arthur Lubow
Pay Dirt
When self-taught archaeologists dug up an 1850s steamboat, they brought to light a slice of American life
December 2006 |
By Fergus M. Bordewich
