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History

Malcolm X by Copain, c. 1967

Is It Time for a Reassessment of Malcolm X?

A Smithsonian Channel film, “The Lost Tapes,” challenges misconceptions about the charismatic leader

Norman Rockwell (above in a 1968 photograph by Garry Camp Burdick), who created more than 300 original covers for the Saturday Evening Post over the course of his long career, was already widely known for his rich visualizations of the American dream when he set about the challenging task of animating FDR's Four Freedoms.

Norman Rockwell’s ‘Four Freedoms’ Brought the Ideals of America to Life

This wartime painting series reminded Americans what they were fighting for

The 1868 treaty is "not just a historical relic," says Navajo Nation president Russell Begaye, "it’s a living document. . . It’s a contractual agreement with the U.S. government and the Navajo nation.”

The Navajo Nation Treaty of 1868 Lives On at the American Indian Museum

Marking a 150-year anniversary and a promise kept to return the people to their ancestral home

Joe Leahy at his Kilima coffee plantation at the height of his wealth and power.

The Reckoning

Thirty years ago, an acclaimed series of documentaries introduced the world to an isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea. What happened when the cameras left?

After Audubon's health began to fail, his family completed the project, producing the color plates in installments for about 300 subscribers.

The Fantastic Beasts of John James Audubon’s Little-Known Book on Mammals

The American naturalist spent the last years of his life cataloguing America’s four-legged creatures

Billy Graham, Jr. by James Pease Blair, 1958

Smithsonian’s Curator of Religion on Billy Graham’s Legacy

He was among the most influential religious leaders in U.S. history, says Peter Manseau

The Archaeology of Wealth Inequality

Researchers trace the income gap back more than 11,000 years

In Search of the Real Grant Wood

The denim-clad artist who painted American Gothic wasn’t the hayseed he’d have you believe

When news of Tennessee’s ratification reached Alice Paul on August 18, she sewed the thirty-sixth star onto her ratification banner and unfurled it from the balcony of Woman’s Party headquarters in Washington.

How Tennessee Became the Final Battleground in the Fight for Suffrage

One hundred years later, the campaign for the women’s vote has many potent similarities to the politics of today

How One Amateur Historian Brought Us the Stories of African-Americans Who Knew Abraham Lincoln

Once John E. Washington started to dig, he found an incredible wealth of untapped knowledge about the 16th president

Eisenhower National Historic Site

Take a Look Inside These Six Presidential Homes

The White House isn’t the only address worth visiting this Presidents’ Day

Parson Weems’ Fable by Grant Wood, depicting Parson Weems and his famous story of George Washington and the cherry tree.

Some Stories About George Washington Are Just Too Good to Be True

But there’s a kernel of truth to many of them because Washington was a legend in his own time

Johnson pressed his ear to this humble cup to hear the tap code messages of his friend Bob Shumaker in the next cell over.

The Indomitable Spirit of American POWs Lives On in These Vietnam Prison Keepsakes

For seven years an internee at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton,” Congressman Sam Johnson entrusts his story to the Smithsonian

Greek Orthodox priests taking part in a procession inside the Katholikon, or Catholicon Chapel, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

A Crusader-Era High Altar Resurfaces in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher

This reminder of centuries-old history was sitting in plain sight all along

Peter Hurd's famous portrait of Lyndon Baines Johnson

The Presidential Portrait That Was the ‘Ugliest Thing’ L.B.J. Ever Saw

Lyndon Johnson’s cantankerous nature carried over to even the more engaging parts of being Commander in Chief

The Axeman preyed on Italian-American families such as these who ran grocery stores in the New Orleans region.

The Axeman of New Orleans Preyed on Italian Immigrants

A mysterious serial killer prowled in a city rife with xenophobia and racism

The author Brett McNish and Fred Hay perch in a live oak on Sapelo island.

A Smithsonian Horticulturist Goes on a Quest for an Historic Seedling

A live oak tree from a South Georgia island community will one day enhance the grounds of the African American History Museum

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