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History

When news of Tennessee’s ratification reached Alice Paul on August 18, she sewed the thirty-sixth star onto her ratification banner and unfurled it from the balcony of Woman’s Party headquarters in Washington.

How Tennessee Became the Final Battleground in the Fight for Suffrage

One hundred years later, the campaign for the women’s vote has many potent similarities to the politics of today

How One Amateur Historian Brought Us the Stories of African-Americans Who Knew Abraham Lincoln

Once John E. Washington started to dig, he found an incredible wealth of untapped knowledge about the 16th president

Eisenhower National Historic Site

Take a Look Inside These Six Presidential Homes

The White House isn’t the only address worth visiting this Presidents’ Day

Parson Weems’ Fable by Grant Wood, depicting Parson Weems and his famous story of George Washington and the cherry tree.

Some Stories About George Washington Are Just Too Good to Be True

But there’s a kernel of truth to many of them because Washington was a legend in his own time

Johnson pressed his ear to this humble cup to hear the tap code messages of his friend Bob Shumaker in the next cell over.

The Indomitable Spirit of American POWs Lives On in These Vietnam Prison Keepsakes

For seven years an internee at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton,” Congressman Sam Johnson entrusts his story to the Smithsonian

Greek Orthodox priests taking part in a procession inside the Katholikon, or Catholicon Chapel, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

A Crusader-Era High Altar Resurfaces in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher

This reminder of centuries-old history was sitting in plain sight all along

Peter Hurd's famous portrait of Lyndon Baines Johnson

The Presidential Portrait That Was the ‘Ugliest Thing’ L.B.J. Ever Saw

Lyndon Johnson’s cantankerous nature carried over to even the more engaging parts of being Commander in Chief

The Axeman preyed on Italian-American families such as these who ran grocery stores in the New Orleans region.

The Axeman of New Orleans Preyed on Italian Immigrants

A mysterious serial killer prowled in a city rife with xenophobia and racism

The author Brett McNish and Fred Hay perch in a live oak on Sapelo island.

A Smithsonian Horticulturist Goes on a Quest for an Historic Seedling

A live oak tree from a South Georgia island community will one day enhance the grounds of the African American History Museum

Relics of St. Valentine of Terni at the basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin

The Gory Origins of Valentine’s Day

The holiday began as a feast to celebrate the decapitation of a third-century Christian martyr, or perhaps two. So how did it become all about love?

The wife and daughters of Mark Twain

For Mark Twain, It Was Love At First Sight

The aspiring author knew Olivia Langdon was the one when he first laid eyes on a photograph of her

The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah), Sunday, Apr 28, 1935

How the “Heart Balm Racket” Convinced America That Women Were Up to No Good

Being engaged carried some legal consequences until the news media got a hold of a sensational story

Both Kehinde Wiley and Obama said they were struck by parallels in their life stories. “Both of us had American mothers who raised us, with extraordinary love and support,” Obama said.

Artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald Capture the Unflinching Gaze of the President and First Lady

The nation’s first African-American presidency is marked by two prominent African-American portraitists

Bulgogi is a classic Korean dish of thinly sliced, marinated beef.

A Brief History of Bulgogi, Korea’s Most Delicious Export (Recipe)

And how you can get some of the tender, marinated beef stateside

Figure skater Adam Rippon will be one of two openly gay Americans competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics, a first for the U.S.

Winter Olympics

A Brief History of Openly Gay Olympians

Americans Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy are the latest LGBTQ athletes to go for the gold

The Olympic Flame was lit from the sun's rays using a parabolic mirror, during the final dress rehearsal for the lighting ceremony at Ancient Olympia, in southwestern Greece, on Monday, Oct. 23, 2017.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Your Burning Questions About the Olympic Torch, Answered

Curious minds will want to know that the blaze is lit not with matches or a lighter, but using a method that dates to Ancient Greece

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