Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

History

Using the encyclopedia as a guide, a group of Islay villagers worked through the night stitching together a Stars and Stripes.

A Hundred-Year-Old Handmade American Flag Flies Home… to Scotland

When WWI soldiers died off the coast of Islay Island, a group of villagers brought honor to their memory with this flag

Sarah Sokolovic as Grace Humiston, the Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, in this week's episode.

'Timeless' Recapped

An Elementary Lesson in Women’s Suffrage: “Timeless” Season 2, Episode 7, Recapped

The Time Team, aided by the real-life ‘Mrs. Sherlock Holmes,’ travels to 1919 this week to save the 19th amendment

The Day the World Changed premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last week.

Future of Art

This Virtual Reality Experience Drops You In Hiroshima Right After It’s Been Bombed

When creators tread the line between empathy and trauma carefully, immersive technology can be a powerful tool for educating the public about history

The Tsimshian people first settled American land over 6,000 years ago. This image was captured in 1890, after the fateful arrival of European settlers.

New Research

Unraveling the Genetic History of a First Nations People

By looking at the DNA of Tsimshian people before and after European contact, researchers paint a more nuanced history

Undated photo of a Jewish store in Vienna with anti-Semitic slogans daubed on walls and store windows. Austrian authorities took more than 40 years to launch serious efforts at returning Jewish property plundered by the Nazis.

A 1938 Nazi Law Forced Jews to Register Their Wealth—Making It Easier to Steal

Eighty years ago, the edict marked a turning point in the Nazi party’s efforts to push Jews out of the German economy

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

What Made Oscar Tschirky the King of Gilded Age New York

During his long tenure as maître d’ at the famed Waldorf Hotel, Oscar had the city’s elite at his fingertips

Theodore Roosevelt and his Big Stick in the Caribbean (1904)

Why Teddy Roosevelt Is Popular on Both Sides of the Political Aisle

A historian considers the forces that have shaped the Rough Rider’s presidential legacy in the decades since his death more than 100 years ago

Don the Talking Dog was a vaudeville hit.

When Don the Talking Dog Took the Nation by Storm

Although he ‘spoke’ German, the vaudevillian canine captured the heart of the nation

Robert Johnson (Kamal Naiqui) records some of his tunes that would later change rock music as we know it.

'Timeless' Recapped

Somebody’s Got a Case of the Blues: Timeless Season 2, Episode 6, Recapped

The time team’s humming a new tune after a run-in with one of the most influential men in American music history

PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - "WAVE" August 23 - November 19, 2017

Europe

This Stunning Memorial to Britain’s WWI Soldiers Makes Its Final Appearance

The wave of brilliant red flowers marks the end of a centennial of commemorations of the Great War

On Tuesday night, Cal Ripken Jr. received the Smithsonian Great Americans medal recognizing lifetime contributions that embody American ideals and ideas

Baseball Legend Cal Ripken Jr. Takes Home Another Award, This Time From the Smithsonian

The Iron Man adds the American History Museum’s Great Americans medal to his trophy wall

A massive task force—150 full-time personnel from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service—hunted the Unabomber.

When the Unabomber Was Arrested, One of the Longest Manhunts in FBI History Was Finally Over

Twenty years ago, the courts gave Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences, thereby ending more than a decade of terror.

Pauline Esther "Popo" Phillips and her twin sister Esther Pauline "Eppie" competed for influence as the hugely successful "Dear Abby" and "Ask Ann Landers" syndicated columnists.

What Makes the Advice Column Uniquely American

In a new book, author Jessica Weisberg dives into the fascinating history of the advice industry

Liu Cun Yu, the director of the Beipiao Pterosaur Museum, poses in front of a full-scale model of a Moganopterus zhuiana, a species named after his wife.

The Great Chinese Dinosaur Boom

A gold rush of fossil-finding is turning China into the new epicenter of paleontology

A U-Boat Class II submarine (this one depicted, UB-35, was the same class as UB-29) prowls the open seas.

The Hunt for the Notorious U-Boat UB-29

A wreck-diving archaeologist and his quest to discover a missing submarine

Years after she captured this tender, reflective image of the First Lady, photographer Diana Walker sent a print of the photograph to George H. W. Bush. “It does seem like so long ago, but seeing this image brings everything back into focus,” President Bush wrote in response: “The photo now hangs in my office in Maine, and I enjoy it every day.”

Smithsonian Curators Reflect on How Barbara Bush Will Be Remembered

As both the First Lady and the mother of a President, Mrs. Bush leaves a legacy of a national grandmother with an iron backbone

Panama Canal construction in 1913 showing workers drilling holes for dynamite in bedrock, as they cut through the mountains of the Isthmus. Steam shovels in the background move the rubble to railroad cars.

How the Panama Canal Took a Huge Toll On the Contract Workers Who Built It

The project was a tremendous American achievement, but the health costs to the mostly Caribbean contract workers were staggering

Albert and Elsa Einstein in Japan

When Albert Einstein Visited Japan

As he traveled through Asia, including a trip to Palestine, the brilliant scientist discovered much he didn’t understand

Page 129 of 300