Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

History

Ideal Bookshelf 651: Coming of Age

How “Young Adult” Fiction Blossomed With Teenage Culture in America

In the ‘60s and ‘70s, books like The Outsiders and The Chocolate War told stories that dealt with complex emotions and social realities

John Adams didn't literally call the Philadelphia Aurora (also known as the Aurora General Adviser) "fake news," but he was not pleased by the way he was often depicted in it.

History of Now

The Age-Old Problem of “Fake News”

It’s been part of the conversation as far back as the birth of the free press

A 1933 statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis is removed from University of Texas' South Mall after UT President Gregory Fenves cleared it to be placed in a campus museum.

Are Museums the Right Home for Confederate Monuments?

The idea that once they are taken down, these statues “belong in a museum” doesn’t take into account that museums may not want them. Should they?

(Left to Right): Karen David as Young Denise Christopher, Claudia Doumit as Jiya, Abigail Spencer as Lucy Preston

'Timeless' Recapped

Who Shot the Sheriff? ‘Timeless’ Season 2, Episode 8, Recapped

The Time Team travels to D.C. to prevent a presidential assassination, but instead runs into a new old friend

One of the last few reminders of Shermantown is this scene in Stone Mountain Village

In the Shadow of Stone Mountain

The past, present, and future of the African-American community are nestled beneath the country’s largest Confederate monument

Trade union workers participate in a mass demonstration at the Place de la Republique, Paris, May. 24, 1968

Fifty Years Later, France Is Still Debating the Legacy of Its 1968 Protests

In an activist era, millions of French students and workers demanded radical change

William Sloane Coffin Jr., followed by his sister, arrives at federal building in Boston on May 20, 1968.

How Vietnam War Protests Accelerated the Rise of the Christian Right

The anti-war efforts of Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr. and other church leaders alienated many Protestant Americans—with lasting repercussions

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Barracoon’ Tells the Story of the Slave Trade’s Last Survivor

Published eight decades after it was written, the new book offers a first-hand account of a Middle Passage journey

RUBE GOLDBERG ® is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg Inc. All materials used with permission. rubegoldberg.com. The Art of Rube Goldberg on view March 15–July 8, 2018 at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

The Story Behind Rube Goldberg’s Complicated Contraptions

In his time he was a world-famous cartoonist, but today he’s best known for these wacky inventions

Court scene: Trial Ziang Sung Wan

The Triple Homicide in D.C. That Laid the Groundwork for Americans’ Right to Remain Silent

Decades before the Supreme Court’s Miranda decision, a 1919 murder trial presented a precedent for protecting criminal suspects from police overreach

Using the encyclopedia as a guide, a group of Islay villagers worked through the night stitching together a Stars and Stripes.

A Hundred-Year-Old Handmade American Flag Flies Home… to Scotland

When WWI soldiers died off the coast of Islay Island, a group of villagers brought honor to their memory with this flag

Sarah Sokolovic as Grace Humiston, the Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, in this week's episode.

'Timeless' Recapped

An Elementary Lesson in Women’s Suffrage: “Timeless” Season 2, Episode 7, Recapped

The Time Team, aided by the real-life ‘Mrs. Sherlock Holmes,’ travels to 1919 this week to save the 19th amendment

The Day the World Changed premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last week.

Future of Art

This Virtual Reality Experience Drops You In Hiroshima Right After It’s Been Bombed

When creators tread the line between empathy and trauma carefully, immersive technology can be a powerful tool for educating the public about history

The Tsimshian people first settled American land over 6,000 years ago. This image was captured in 1890, after the fateful arrival of European settlers.

New Research

Unraveling the Genetic History of a First Nations People

By looking at the DNA of Tsimshian people before and after European contact, researchers paint a more nuanced history

Undated photo of a Jewish store in Vienna with anti-Semitic slogans daubed on walls and store windows. Austrian authorities took more than 40 years to launch serious efforts at returning Jewish property plundered by the Nazis.

A 1938 Nazi Law Forced Jews to Register Their Wealth—Making It Easier to Steal

Eighty years ago, the edict marked a turning point in the Nazi party’s efforts to push Jews out of the German economy

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

What Made Oscar Tschirky the King of Gilded Age New York

During his long tenure as maître d’ at the famed Waldorf Hotel, Oscar had the city’s elite at his fingertips

Theodore Roosevelt and his Big Stick in the Caribbean (1904)

Why Teddy Roosevelt Is Popular on Both Sides of the Political Aisle

A historian considers the forces that have shaped the Rough Rider’s presidential legacy in the decades since his death more than 100 years ago

Don the Talking Dog was a vaudeville hit.

When Don the Talking Dog Took the Nation by Storm

Although he ‘spoke’ German, the vaudevillian canine captured the heart of the nation

Page 128 of 300