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
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
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
Sky King
Pan Am founder Juan Trippe turned Americans into frequent fliers
November 2007 |
By Owen Edwards
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
Time Capsule
A riverboat's telltale contents included 133-year-old pickles. Want one?
December 2006 |
By Fergus M. Bordewich
Inventive Abe
In 1849, a future president patented an ingenious addition to transportation technology.
October 2006 |
By Owen Edwards
Encore! Encore!
Lorenzo Da Ponte was a hit in Europe: a courtier, a cad, the librettist for Mozart's finest operas. But the New World truly tested his creative powers.
September 2006 |
By Christopher Porterfield
Saving New Orleans
In a new book, "Patriot Fire," the author of "Forrest Gump" paints an uncommonly vivid picture of an overlooked chapter in American history -- and its unlikely hero.
August 2006 |
By Winston Groom
Airmail Letter
Stale Mail: The nation's first hot-air balloon postal deliveries barely got off the ground.
August 2006 |
By Owen Edwards
Camelot
In the mid-1800's, "ships of the desert" reported for duty in the Southwest.
July 2006 |
By Owen Edwards
Tocqueville's America
The French author's piquant observations on American gumption and political hypocrisy sound remarkably contemporary 200 years after his birth
July 2005 |
By Clell Bryant
Chief Lobbyist
He made little headway with President Grant, but Red Cloud won over the 19th century's greatest photographers.
June 2005 |
By Anne Broache
Tribal Fever
Twenty-five years ago this month, smallpox was officially eradicated. For the Indians of the high plains, it came a century and a half too late
May 2005 |
By Landon Y. Jones
