When the U.S. Army massacred a Lakota village at Blue Water, dozens of plundered artifacts ended up in the Smithsonian. The unraveling of this long-buried atrocity is forging a path toward reconciliation
It fell to Belle da Costa Greene, a Black woman whose racial identity was kept secret for decades, to catalog J.P. Morgan's immense collection of books and art
The early polygraph machine was considered the most scientific way to detect deception—but that was a myth
The 2000 presidential election cemented the color-coded nature of political parties. Prior to that race, the colors were often reversed on electoral maps
The terms “snake oil” and “snake-oil salesperson” are part of the vernacular thanks to Clark Stanley, a quack doctor who marketed a product for joint pain in the late 19th century
During and after the Civil War, inventive illustrations allowed Democrats and Republicans to turn American ballots into powerful propaganda
As a child, the future president acquired a marine animal's skull, which became the first specimen in his natural history collection
The British explorer named dozens of geographical features and sites in the region, ignoring the traditions of the Indigenous peoples who’d lived there for millennia
A new film revisits the 90 minutes before the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975
The bronze wreath immortalized the moment when the members of the Honor Guard removed their hats and placed them on the president's grave during his burial
An exhibition at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens explores how Western intellectuals viewed the climate crisis between 1780 and 1930
Fifty years ago, on October 5, 1974, David Kunst completed the first verified circumnavigation of the globe on foot. Along the way, he met Princess Grace of Monaco, raised money for UNICEF and lost a brother to bandits
In 1978, Soviet geologists stumbled upon a family of five in the taiga. They had been cut off from almost all human contact since fleeing religious persecution in 1936
Cenotes in the Yucatán Peninsula are time capsules preserving remnants of Maya culture and fossils of extinct megafauna
In the early 1990s, historians and the public alike questioned how Disney's America would accurately and sensitively document the nation's thorny past
In a new biopic starring Kate Winslet, Miller's many lives—as an artist, model, muse, cook and war correspondent—need little embellishment
A new book charts the history of pet cemeteries and honors the universal experience of grieving an animal companion
Archaeologists have found the distinctive design on artifacts from India, Europe, Africa, China and the Americas. When Adolf Hitler co-opted it, its meaning changed forever
In the final weeks of World War II, a Japanese torpedo sank an American heavy cruiser. Only 316 of the 900 sailors who survived the initial attack were ultimately rescued
Many offbeat research efforts were doomed to fail, from atomic subways to a city under the ice.