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History

Why We Need a New Civil War Documentary

The success and brilliance of the new PBS series on Reconstruction is a reminder of the missed opportunity facing the nation

Police move in behind students blocking entrance to the Santa Barbara wharf on the first anniversary of the Santa Barbara oil spill on January 29, 1970 in Santa Barbara, California.

How an Oil Spill Inspired the First Earth Day

Before Earth Day made a name for the environmental movement, a massive oil spill put a spotlight on the dangers of pollution

Suranne Jones stars as Anne Lister in "Gentleman Jack."

Women Who Shaped History

The 19th-Century Lesbian Landowner Who Set Out to Find a Wife

A new HBO series explores the remarkable life of Anne Lister, based on her voluminous and intimate diaries

A German artillery shell hits the cathedral

History of Now

The Debate Over Rebuilding That Ensued When a Beloved French Cathedral Was Shelled During WWI

After the Notre-Dame de Reims sustained heavy damage, it took years for the country to decide how to repair the destruction

The National Museum of American History has in its collection this Autoped motor scooter from 1918.

Pop History

The Motorized Scooter Boom That Hit a Century Before Dockless Scooters

Launched in 1915, the Autoped had wide appeal, with everyone from suffragettes to postmen giving it a try

An image of a lion, like the designs on Lydian coins during the Iron Age

What Was the World’s First Currency and More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got experts

The childhood game of "cooties" has endured among schoolchildren.

A Brief History of Cooties

Why a 100-year-old game is still spreading across our playgrounds

A rendering of the lobby of the Statue of Liberty Museum, featuring the statue's original torch

A New Museum Sheds Light on the Statue of Liberty

The revamped building will open in May

Bettie Closs and Owen Kovalik anxiously await their turn on stage at the 2016 national spelling bee.

The History of the Spelling Bee

Even in the age of autofill, America is still in love with the centuries-old tradition

Hobo King Dutch, who first set out to ride the rails when he was 10 years old, meets up at the festival’s boxcar with Britt resident John Pratt.

The Last of the Great American Hobos

Hop a train to Iowa, where proud vagabonds gather every summer to crown the new king and queen of the rails

Smoke and flames rise from Notre-Dame Cathedral on April 15, 2019.

Last Night, I Watched Notre-Dame Burn

Our own travel writer, in Paris yesterday, recounts her experience witnessing the devastating fire at the cathedral

The arrestingly modern hominin at the Neanderthal Museum, near Dusseldorf, is the work of renowned paleo-artists Adrie and Alfons Kennis.

What Do We Really Know About Neanderthals?

Revolutionary discoveries in archaeology show that the species long maligned as knuckle-dragging brutes deserve a new place in the human story

A photographic plate of the 1919 total solar eclipse, taken by Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin and Charles Rundle Davidson during an expedition to Sobral, Brazil. The 1919 eclipse was used by Arthur Eddington, who observed it from the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa, to provide the first experimental evidence of Einstein's theory of relativity.

What the Obsolete Art of Mapping the Skies on Glass Plates Can Still Teach Us

The first pictures of the sky were taken on glass photographic plates, and these treasured artifacts can still help scientists make discoveries today

Detail of photograph by Eadweard Muybridge

When California Went to War Over Eggs

As the Gold Rush brought more settlers to San Francisco, battles erupted over another substance of a similar hue: the egg yolks of a remote seabird colony

Shortly after the first human space flight, the Soviet Union began planning to send a woman to space.

The First Group of Female Cosmonauts Were Trained to Conquer the Final Frontier

Two decades before the first American woman flew to space, a group of female cosmonauts trained in Star City of the Soviet Union 

In 1836, both camps in the so-called Bank War—supporters of U.S. president Andrew Jackson, and supporters of the Second Bank of the United States president Nicholas Biddle—lobbed accusations of conspiracy to sway Americans to their sides.

History of Now

Conspiracy Theories Abounded in 19th-Century American Politics

Rumors of secret alliances, bank deals, and double-crossings were rampant in early American elections

Gold tells the "story that colonialism sought to deny, of indigenous, structured, wonderful, cultured civilizations," says the Smithsonian's Gus Casely-Hayford.

Why There Is More to Gold Than Meets the Eye

The Smithsonian’s Gus Casely-Hayford says the precious metal was both a foundation for massive West African empires and a cultural touchstone

Cherokee syllabary inscription from 1.5km into Manitou Cave (average element vertical height approximately 80mm)

Cave Markings Tell of Cherokee Life in the Years Before Indian Removal

Written in the language formalized by Sequoyah, these newly translated inscriptions describe religious practices, including the sport of stickball

Margaret Dayhoff was a pioneer of using computers to tackle some of the biggest scientific questions of the day.

How Margaret Dayhoff Brought Modern Computing to Biology

The pioneer of bioinformatics modeled Earth’s primordial atmosphere with Carl Sagan and made a vast protein database still used today

In 1917 when it was highly unusual for women to protest, a suffrage procession walked the streets of Washington, D.C. towards the White House carrying purple, white and gold banners.

Women Who Shaped History

How Women Got the Vote Is a Far More Complex Story Than the History Textbooks Reveal

An immersive story about the bold and diverse women who helped secure the right to vote is on view at the National Portrait Gallery

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