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Articles

Josiah Henson as a young man at left, and at right, at age 87, photographed in Boston on June 17, 1876

The Story of Josiah Henson, the Real Inspiration for ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’

Before there was the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a formerly enslaved African-American living in Canada wrote a memoir detailing his experience

Mrs. Jane Loudon’s The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Greenhouse Plants (1848)

A Botanical Wonderland Resides in the World of Rare and Unusual Books

The Smithsonian’s librarian and antiquarian Leslie Overstreet time travels, sharing centuries of horticultural splendors

Agnesi was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian.

Women Who Shaped History

The 18th-Century Lady Mathematician Who Loved Calculus and God

After writing a groundbreaking math textbook, Maria Agnesi quit math for good

“Inverted Jennies” grew in notoriety; as one writer note, they “blossomed into the Taj Mahal of stamps."

How the Inverted Jenny, a 24-Cent Stamp, Came to Be Worth a Fortune

Mark the centennial of an epic mistake at the National Postal Museum where several of these world-famous stamps are on view

Henrietta Lacks (HeLa): The Mother of Modern Medicine by Kadir Nelson (detail, above) is on view at the National Portrait Gallery through November 4, 2018.

Women Who Shaped History

Famed for “Immortal” Cells, Henrietta Lacks is Immortalized in Portraiture

Lacks’s cells gave rise to medical miracles, but ethical questions of propriety and ownership continue to swirl

Elinor Powell (right) with a fellow nurse at POW Camp Florence in Arizona, circa 1944-1945

Women Who Shaped History

The Army’s First Black Nurses Were Relegated to Caring for Nazi Prisoners of War

Prohibited from treating white GIs, the women felt betrayed by the country they sought to serve

The woman behind the gun

Keeping Feathers Off Hats–and On Birds

A new exhibit examines the fashion that led to the passage, 100 years ago, of the Migratory Bird Act Treaty

An artist’s illustration of a black hole “eating” a star.

Big Data is Transforming How Astronomers Make Discoveries

The next game-changer is likely lurking in the data we already have—but it will take scientists years to uncover it

Can Bringing Back Mammoths Help Stop Climate Change?

Scientists say creating hybrids of the extinct beasts could fix the Arctic tundra and stop greenhouse gas emissions

“All ten of this year’s winners present a powerful design perspective and body of work that is at once inclusive and deeply personal,” says the museum's director Caroline Baumann.

Future of Art

America’s Top Designers Are Both Embracing and Breaking With Tradition

Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt announces ten National Design Award winners

What could possibly have drawn the attention of the "Time Team"?

'Timeless' Recapped

How the Writers of “Timeless” Mined History for its Riveting Second Season

In an exclusive interview, show co-creator Shawn Ryan chats about moving beyond the stories of ‘powerful white men’ to tell new stories about the past

President George H.W. Bush at the White House on January 12, 1991, the day Congress voted to authorize the Persian Gulf War.

An Unlikely Hardliner, George H. W. Bush Was Ready to Push Presidential Powers

Though he ended up seeking congressional approval for the Gulf War, Bush was unconvinced he needed it – saying he would have gone regardless of the vote

Members of the 369th [African American] Infantry

World War I: 100 Years Later

One Hundred Years Ago, the Harlem Hellfighters Bravely Led the U.S. Into WWI

Their courage made headlines across the country, hailing the African-American regiment as heroes even as they faced discrimination at home

Lucy, Rufus, Flynn and Wyatt finish off the season in San Francisco

'Timeless' Recapped

Pilot, Thinker, Soldier, Spy: The Epic “Timeless” Season Finale Twofer

The heroes help Harriet Tubman raid the Confederacy before leaving their heart in San Francisco

The magazine taught its readers to never swallow what they’re served.

In Its Heyday, Mad Magazine Was a Lot More Than Silly Jokes

The publication taught its readers how to be healthy skeptics—a lesson that media consumers need more today than ever

A lithograph from printers Currier & Ives depicted swill milk as the root of many vices

The Surprisingly Intolerant History of Milk

A new book provides an udderly fascinating chronicle of the controversial drink

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