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History

Tien Fuh Wu (standing in the back, on the left) and Donaldina Cameron (seated, center) with a group of women who may have been Mission Home staffers.

The Women Who Waged War Against Sex Trafficking in San Francisco

“The White Devil’s Daughters” examines the enslavement of Chinese women in the late-19th century and how it was defeated

The Red Caboose Motel.

Celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad by Sleeping in a Train Car

These authentic cabooses, mail cars and train cars from U.S. railways have been converted to sleeping quarters for train fanatics

Francis Rogallo (above, in 1959 in a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia) along with his wife Gertrude, originally conceived of their paraglider in the mid-1940s to make aviation more practical and economically available to more aviators.

The Paraglider That NASA Could Have Used, but Didn’t, to Bring Astronauts Back to Earth

Francis Rogallo’s invention would have brought returning space vehicles in for a runway landing, instead of an ocean splashdown

Chinese laborers at work with pick and shovel wheelbarrows and one horse dump carts filling in under the long secret town trestle which was originally built in 1865 on the Present Souther Pacific Railroad lines of Sacramento.

The Transcontinental Railroad Wouldn’t Have Been Built Without the Hard Work of Chinese Laborers

A new exhibit at the National Museum of American History details this underexamined history

Pioneers' Flatboat, originally published in black and white in The Century Magazine (volume 92, May to October, 1916).

Recounting the Untold History of the Early Midwestern Pioneers

In his new book, historian David McCullough reveals how the New England settlers made their mark on the U.S.

The Awakening, February 20, 1915 Chromolithograph

Nine Women’s History Exhibits to See This Year

Museums around the country are celebrating how the contributions of remarkable women changed everything from human rights to mariachi music

Colorized photographs bring a 21st-century approach to the 19th-century technology that changed how Americans understood war.

A New Civil War Museum Speaks Truths in the Former Capital of the Confederacy

Against the odds, historian Christy Coleman merged two Richmond institutions, forging a new approach to reconciling with the nation’s bloody past

Simcha and Leah Fogelman both endured World War II and took two different paths of surviving the Holocaust.

How the Definition of Holocaust Survivor Has Changed Since the End of World War II

For decades, Jews who were forced east into the uneasy confines of the Soviet Union were excluded from the conversation about the trauma of genocide

The fossil Eremotherium was from south Georgia. And it was an important one, since it firmly establish the presence of the giant ground sloth, which had previously been unknown in the United States.

A Giant Sloth Mystery Brought Me Home to Georgia

A new book from former Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough describes his journey into the collections in search of connections to his heritage

The Impossible Whopper signals the growing market for meatless meat

Pop History

We’re Entering a New Age of Meatless Meat Today. But We’ve Been Here Before

At the turn of the 20th century, the first mock meat craze swept the nation

Observers in the galleries of a legislative hearing about a marijuana bill in May 1973

History of Now

Why the 1970s Effort to Decriminalize Marijuana Failed

The explosion of kid-friendly paraphernalia led the federal government to crack down on pot

In 1904, Joseph Kekuku, inventor of the Hawaiian steel guitar, left Hawaii to perform on the American West Coast. Newspaper critics called him the “world’s greatest guitar soloist.”

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed American Music

The season finale of Sidedoor tells the story of an indigenous Hawaiian instrument with a familiar sound and unexpected influences

Human burials exposed and recovered during the archaeological excavations at the forest island of La Chacra during excavations.

Archaeologists Discover Some of the Amazon’s Oldest Human Burials

As early as 10,000 years ago, humans created settlements on elevated forest mounds in parts of southwestern Amazonia

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Smithsonian Voices

The Treaty That Forced the Cherokee From Their Homelands Goes on View

Negotiated in 1835 by a few, disavowed by a majority and challenged by a legally elected government, the Treaty of New Echota began the Trail of Tears

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

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