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History

Detail from a 4th-century B.C. Persian sarcophagus, thought to depict a Greek-Anatolian battle scene, found in a tomb near Troy.

In Search of Troy

It wasn’t just a legend. Archaeologists are getting to the bottom of the city celebrated by Homer nearly 3,000 years ago

Every wall, table and shelf in Elizabeth Meaders' three-story Staten Island home is crammed with pictures, posters, signs, statues, medals, sports memorabilia and military gear.

Women Who Shaped History

Why a Schoolteacher Spent 70 Years Collecting Thousands of Black History Artifacts

Elizabeth Meaders’ acquisitions include sports memorabilia, civil rights posters, military paraphernalia and art

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Women Who Shaped History

Constance Baker Motley Taught the Nation How to Win Justice

The pathbreaking lawyer and “Civil Rights Queen” was the first Black woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court

It’s been 70 years of instant photography, thanks to Edwin Land, on the left.

Polaroid Inventor Edwin Land Gave Us More Than Just Instant Photos

Seventy-five years after the game-changing camera was unveiled to the public, a scientist calls attention to Land’s other technological breakthroughs

Toshio Mori's Yokohama, California was slated for publication in fall 1942. Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor—and Mori's incarceration under Executive Order 9066—delayed the short story collection's release until 1949.

The Fascinating—and Harrowing—Tale of the First Japanese American to Publish a Book of Fiction

After his incarceration during WWII, Toshio Mori released a collection of short stories based on his experiences as a second generation Asian immigrant

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin houses some 5,500 skulls collected by Austrian anthropologist Felix von Luschan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On Friday, February 11, the German museum returned 32 skulls from the collection to a Hawaiian delegation.

Germany, Austria Repatriate Dozens of Human Skulls to Hawaii

Earlier this month, a Hawaiian delegation retrieved 58 sets of ancestral remains from five European museums

The Shakers, who reached the peak of their popularity in America between 1820 and 1860, loathed the institutions of marriage and family for the sinful “natural affections” that accompanied them.

The Sects That Rejected Sex in 19th-Century America

Why three religious groups traded monogamy for celibacy, polygamy and “complex marriage”

Inventor Jean-Yves Blondeau demonstrates his roller suit in 2007 in Beijing.

Seven Fitness Inventions That Were Dropped Like New Year’s Resolutions

From roller armor to a weight helmet, these patented pieces of exercise equipment came and went

The President with the First Lady in a freight elevator heading to an inaugural ball in 2009.

How Pete Souza Fits Into the Storied History of Presidential Photography

In his new book, the former White House photographer frames a clear picture of the Obama years

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the National Park Service and the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation will mark the annual Day of Remembrance, with virtual programming from February 18 to 20, 2022, to explore the Japanese American community's struggle for recognition and redress.

Eighty Years After the U.S. Incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans, Trauma and Scars Still Remain

Families were stripped of their rights and freedoms in February 1942, when FDR signed Executive Order 9066

Top row (L to R): Bill Clinton's cat Socks (pictured twice), Amy Carter's cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang and George W. Bush's cat India. Bottom row (L to R): India, Calvin Coolidge's cats Blackie and Tiger, and the Bidens' cat Willow

History of Now

A Colorful History of Cats in the White House

Willow Biden isn’t the first feline to grace the presidential residence’s halls

Christie accompanied her second husband, Max Mallowan, on digs in Egypt and Syria. During these expeditions, she helped catalog, illustrate and restore artifacts, in addition to managing everyday operations.

Based on a True Story

How Agatha Christie’s Love of Archaeology Influenced ‘Death on the Nile’

In the 1930s, the mystery writer accompanied her archaeologist husband on annual digs in the Middle East

On July 21, 1963, Gloria Richardson was walking from a meeting when her would-be attacker ran at her with his brandished weapon leveled at her neck. She flat-palmed the blade of the bayonet, shoving it away from her body. 

Women Who Shaped History

How Gloria Richardson’s Look of Righteous Indignation Became a Symbol of No Retreat

In 1963, the civil rights leader shoved aside a guardsman’s bayonet with disgust and defiance; photography preserved the charged moment

Pancho Villa supposedly came to Columbus because he was enraged at the author's paternal grandfather, Sam Ravel, over an arms deal gone wrong. This photo album helped the author better understand Sam.

The Photo Album That Succeeded Where Pancho Villa Failed

The revolutionary may have tried to find the author’s grandfather by raiding a New Mexico village—but a friend’s camera truly captured her family patriarch

Seasonal influxes of fishermen fed roaring local economies and attracted herring girls—women who came from across Iceland to take jobs gutting, cleaning and salting barrels of freshly caught fish.

How Iceland’s Herring Girls Helped Bring Equality to the Island Nation

Between the 1910s and 1960s, thousands of young women formed the backbone of the country’s thriving fishing industry

A mob of white students and locals tarred and feathered brothers Samuel and Roger Courtney in April 1919. Newspaper coverage of the attack was limited.

In 1919, a Mob in Maine Tarred and Feathered Two Black College Students

The brutal attack took place during the Red Summer, a nationwide wave of violence against Black Americans

Fireworks fill the sky over the "Bird's Nest" arena in Beijing on January 30, 2022

The Beijing Winter Olympics

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

As you watch the Beijing Winter Olympics, enjoy this guide to the history, science and thrills of the worldwide athletic competition

In the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver, the USA's Hannah Teter (above: in action during the women's snowboard halfpipe competition) took home silver. Her boots are now in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The Beijing Winter Olympics

Meet the Trailblazers in Women’s Olympic Snowboarding

The careers of Shannon Dunn-Downing, Kelly Clark, Amy Purdy and Hannah Teter are recognized in the Smithsonian collections; learn their stories

Protesters led by Bad River Anishinaabe activist Mike Forcia toppled this statue of Christopher Columbus on June 10, 2020.

Meet the Indigenous Activist Who Toppled Minnesota’s Christopher Columbus Statue

The unauthorized removal of the monument took place during the racial justice protests of summer 2020

Activists in London hold signs urging the BBC to boycott the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Beijing Winter Olympics

Is China Committing Genocide Against the Uyghurs?

The Muslim minority group faces mass detention and sterilization—human rights abuses that sparked the U.S.’ diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics

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