Modern Historic Eras
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Galileo's Instruments of Discovery
With these various instruments, Galileo Galilei was able to look into space and change our view of the universe.
July 20, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Ben Franklin: Patriot, Foodie
American patriot Benjamin Franklin was a fan of food and helped France change their opinion on potatoes
July 02, 2009 |
By Smithsonian.com
Robot Babies
Can scientists build a machine that learns as it goes and plays well with others?
July 2009 |
By Abigail Tucker
In Damascus, Restoring Beit Farhi and the City’s Jewish Past
An architect works to restore the grand palace of Raphael Farhi, one of the most powerful men in the Ottoman world
June 11, 2009 |
By Stephen Glain
1934: The Art of the New Deal
An exhibition of Depression-era paintings by federally-funded artists provides a hopeful view of life during economic travails
June 2009 |
By Jerry Adler
A Tour of France’s Cave Homes
In France’s Loire Valley, domesticated cave dwellings, known as troglodyte homes, offer a history as rich as the region’s chateaus
May 19, 2009 |
By Kristin Ohlson
What’s the Deal about New Deal Art?
As the first of the New Deal acts that funded public art projects with federal money, the PWAP produced more than 15,000 works of art in just six months
May 19, 2009 |
By David A. Taylor
Dancing for Mao
A photograph of a 5-year-old girl made her famous in China—and haunted the man who took it
May 2009 |
By Jennifer Lin
The Measure of Genius: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel at 500
Half a millennium later, the story of the painting of the Sistine Chapel is as fascinating as Michelangelo’s masterpiece itself
April 10, 2009 |
By Jamie Katz
Carving Out the West at the Great Smoke Conference
In 1851, American Indian tribes gathered to seek protection of their western lands from frontiersman on the Oregon Trail
April 02, 2009 |
By Paul VanDevelder
Booting Up a Computer Pioneer’s 200-Year-Old Design
Charles Babbage, the grandfather of the computer, envisioned a calculating machine that was never built, until now
April 02, 2009 |
By Aleta George
Eudora Welty as Photographer
Photographs by Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Eudora Welty display the empathy that would later infuse her fiction
April 2009 |
By T.A. Frail
Solving a 17th-Century Crime
Forensic anthropologists at the National Museum of Natural History find answers to a colonial cold case
March 2009 |
By Joseph Caputo
Endangered Site: Fenestrelle Fortress, Italy
The "Great Wall of the Alps" covers 320 acres and is one of the largest fortified structures in Europe
March 2009 |
By T. A. Frail
Endangered Site: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
The basilica believed to mark the birthplace of Jesus Christ has survived invasions, rebellions and earthquakes
March 2009 |
By Abigail Tucker
Endangered Site: Xumishan Grottoes, China
This collection of ancient Buddhist cave temples date back to the fifth and tenth centuries, A.D.
March 2009 |
By Lyn Garrity
Endangered Site: Historic Route 66, U.S.A.
The 2,400 mile highway was eclipsed by interstate highways that bypassed neon signs of roadside diners
March 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Endangered Site: Visoki Decani Monastery, Kosovo
The fate of the 14th-century abbey has been darkened by ethnic violence in the Balkans
March 2009 |
By Kathleen Burke
Jan Lievens: Out of Rembrandt's Shadow
A new exhibition re-establishes Lievens' reputation as an old master, after centuries of being eclipsed by his friend and rival
March 2009 |
By Matthew Gurewitsch
Endangered Site: Chinguetti, Mauritania
The rapidly expanding Sahara Desert threatens a medieval trading center that also carries importance for Sunni Muslims
March 2009 |
By Jeanne Maglaty
