Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

History

None

Who Really Invented the Smiley Face?

It’s supposedly the 50th anniversary of the original design of the iconic image, but its history since then is surprisingly complex with millions of dollars at stake

Since the mid to late 19th century, isinglass, a fish by-product has been used as a clarification agent in Guinness beer.

Hey Vegans! There May Be Fish Bladder in Your Guinness

Isinglass, a gelatine collected from the air-bladders of freshwater fish like the sturgeon, is used in the clarification process of some stouts

None

The Most Audacious Australian Prison Break of 1876

An American whaling ship brought together an oddball crew with a dangerous mission: freeing six Irishmen from a jail in western Australia

Ben Franklin, inventor of all things sky related

Did Benjamin Franklin Invent Daylight Saving Time?

The creation of DST is usually credited to George Vernon Hudson, but 100 years earlier, Benjamin Franklin pondered a similar question

None

The Secret Plot to Rescue Napoleon by Submarine

In 1820, one of Britain’s most notorious criminals hatched a plan to rescue the emperor from exile on the Atlantic isle of St Helena — but did he try it?

None

Top Ten Afterlife Journeys of Notable People

Why Beethoven, Galileo, Napoleon and others never truly rested in peace

None

The Aughts: When People Wore Their Causes on Their Sleeves, Literally

It was a decade of Uggs and excess but also styles meant to further the greater good

A colored print of La Minerve

Hot Air Balloon Travel for the Luxury Traveler of the 1800s

Visionary designers of the 19th century believed that the future of air travel depended on elaborate airships

The titular draughtsman looks through his perspective machine in this still from Peter Greenaway’s 1982 film The Draughtsman’s Contract

Digital Files and 3D Printing—in the Renaissance?

3D printing is a new technology that seems poised to change the world, but its origins date back all the way to the 15th century

An illustration of Moby Dick attacking a whaling ship.

The True-Life Horror That Inspired ‘Moby-Dick’

The whaler Essex was indeed sunk by a whale—and that’s only the beginning

None

The Fishy History of the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish Sandwich

How a struggling entrepreneur in Ohio saved his burger business during Lent and changed the McDonald’s menu for good.

The ”peaceful” Pilgrims massacred the Pequots and destroyed their fort near Stonington, Connecticut, in 1637. A 19th-century wood engraving (above) depicts the slaughter.

The Shocking Savagery of America’s Early History

Bernard Bailyn, one of our greatest historians, shines his light on the nation’s Dark Ages

The official program for the March 3, 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C..

Document Deep Dive

Document Deep Dive: A Historic Moment in the Fight for Women’s Voting Rights

A cartoonist diagrammed the parade—5,000 suffragists strong—that defiantly marched in Washington more than a century ago

Portion of the cover of the February 1989 issue of Life magazine

In 1989, ‘Life’ Magazine Said Goodbye To Video Stores, Mailmen and Pennies…

In 1989, “Life” magazine predicted that, by the year 2000, many staples of modern American life might find themselves on the scrapheap of history

None

The American Plan to Build Nuclear Power Plants in the Ocean

This ill-advised scheme would have put gigantic barges just off the Atlantic coast? Where would it have started? New Jersey, of course

Actress Louise Brooks with bob and bee-stung lips, 1920s

The History of the Flapper, Part 4: Emboldened by the Bob

New short haircuts announced the wearers’ break from tradition and boosted the hairdressing industry

From a chain of Los Angeles drive-ins in the 1940s, “good food is good health.”

10 Vintage Menus That Are a Feast for the Eyes, If Not the Stomach

From the late-19th century to the 1970s, restaurants had one surefire way of standing out

None

The Dead Woman Who Brought Down the Mayor

Vivian Gordon was a reputed prostitute and blackmailer—but her murder led to the downfall of New York Mayor Jimmy Walker

George crawls into a pneumatic tube which will transport him to Mr. Spacely’s office (1963)

George Jetson Navigates a Series of Tubes

Travel by pneumatic tubes? The idea was seriously considered in the 1960s

None

VIDEO: The Show, Lincoln’s Washington at War, Depicts the Transformation of Washington

A new documentary from Smithsonian Channel looks at how the Civil War helped transform the city of Washington, D.C.

Page 226 of 300