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Some historians and curators suspect that the empire-style gown, which Dolley Madison owned until her death in 1849, may have been made from the curtains she salvaged from the White House in 1814.

The Legend of Dolley Madison’s Red Velvet Dress

Before the burning of the White House, the First Lady saved some red draperies. Could she have made a dress from them?

The Star Spangled Banner. 1814. Manuscript by Francis Scott Key.

Document Deep Dive: The Musical History of “The Star-Spangled Banner”

Was the national anthem really set to the melody of a drinking tune? Take a closer look at the original manuscript of Francis Scott Key’s song

Dr. Leale's bloodstained cuff

Lincoln’s Assassination, From a Doctor’s Perspective

The ocean sunfish is the heaviest bony fish in the world; it can grow more than 10 feet long and pack on a whopping 5,000 pounds, and yet its flat body has no real tail to speak of.

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Ocean Sunfish

Marine biologist Tierney Thys and researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium are learning more about one of the largest jellyfish eaters in the sea

Actress Betty White holds a lemur leaf frog during her tour today at the National Zoo

UPDATE: Betty White Visits the National Zoo

It its collection, the National Museum of American History has a fallout shelter, exhumed from a yard in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

How a Fallout Shelter Ended up at the American History Museum

Curator Larry Bird tells of the adventure—from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Washington, D.C.

Betty White’s new book details her life of loving animals and working with zoos to help endangered species around the world.

Betty White on Her Love for Animals

Everyone knows the “Golden Girls” actress for her long television career, but she is just as proud of her work with zoos

In his new book, Moral Origins, evolutionary anthropologist Christopher Boehm speculates that human morality emerged along with big game hunting.

How Humans Became Moral Beings

In a new book, anthropologist Christopher Boehm traces the steps our species went through to attain a conscience

The Bureau of Air Commerce's inquiry board was tasked with investigating the cause of the accident.

Document Deep Dive: A Firsthand Account of the Hindenburg Disaster

Frank Ward was a 17-year-old crewman when he saw the infamous disaster, but his memories of that day are still strong, 75 years later

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Document Deep Dive: How the Homestead Act Transformed America

Compare documents filed by the first and last homesteaders in the United States

The Golden Record consists of 115 analog-encoded photographs, greetings in 55 languages, a 12-minute montage of sounds on Earth and 90 minutes of music.

What Is on Voyager’s Golden Record?

From a whale song to a kiss, the time capsule sent into space in 1977 had some interesting contents

"The Jellies Experience" is at the Monterey Bay Aquarium through September 2014

14 Fun Facts About Jellyfish

Number 8: One species may be immortal. It can play its lifecycle in reverse, transforming from an adult medusa back to an immature polyp

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Video Games Are More Than Just a Feast for the Eyes

One blind family’s visit to the landmark exhibition brought them closer to their goal—to impact the video game industry

In his new book, Learning From the Octopus, Rafe Sagarin argues that we ought to look to nature for how to better protect ourselves from danger.

How Plants and Animals Can Prepare Us for the Next Big Disaster

Author Rafe Sagarin looks to the natural world for tips on how to plan for national emergencies

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Document Deep Dive: What Does the Magna Carta Really Say?

A curator from the National Archives takes us through what the governing charter means

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Meet the Vochol

On an international tour, a Volkswagen Beetle makes a stop at the National Museum of American Indian

A replica model of the 45-foot-long snake thought to be of Anaconda descent

Snake Found in Grand Central Station!

Sculptor Kevin Hockley unveils his fearsome replica of Titanoboa

Elizabeth Sabin Goodwin was a scientific illustrator for Science Service in the 1920s.

Do You Know This Face? The Smithsonian Needs Help Identifying These Women Scientists

For Women’s History Month, the Smithsonian Institution Archives crowdsources the identification of unknown figures in decades-old portraits

A History Lesson is Passed Down to Another Generation

The real prize for Black History Month essay contest Kaleb Harris was meeting Joseph McNeil, one of the leaders of the 1960 Greensboro sit-in

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Is it Too Late for Sustainable Development?

Dennis Meadows thinks so. Forty years after his book The Limits to Growth, he explains why

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