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History

A free-standing, double-hulled steel shelter was installed beneath the front yard of Mr. and Mrs. Murland E. Anderson of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Dig Into the Nuclear Era’s Homegrown Fallout Shelters

In 1955, the head of Civil Defense urged everyone to build an underground shelter “right now”

Comb Through This Framed Collection of Presidential Hair

The Smithsonian keeps a most unusual artifact of hair clipped straight from the heads of presidents

Prayer flags in North Sikkim, where the author traveled in search of clues about his grandfather

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: India

One Man’s Epic Rail Journey to the Darjeeling Himalaya

A grandson retraces adventurer Francis K.I. Baird’s mysterious trek to a remote village near the India-Tibet border

A spread in LIFE magazine highlights these women football players.

The Forgotten History of Women’s Football

Several women’s football leagues formed during the 20th century—one from the 1930s even became a national sensation—but they’re barely remembered today

The embellished cave temples of Badami are among the earliest examples of rock-cut caves in southern India. The Chalukyas, who ruled over Deccan between the sixth and eighth centuries, oversaw the transition from rock-cut to freestanding, structural architecture.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: India

The Remarkable Cave Temples of Southern India

Deccan’s intricate monuments, many of which are carved into cliffs, date back to the sixth century

This cuneiform tablet may re-write the history of math and astronomy.

New Research

Babylonians Were Using Geometry Centuries Earlier Than Thought

Ancient astronomers were tracking planets using math believed to have first appeared in 14th-century Europe

At 122 feet long, The Titanosaur has to poke its tiny head out of the entryway to fit in the exhibit hall.

Here’s How You Squeeze the Biggest Dinosaur Into a New York City Museum

A team of specialists had to get creative to mount a towering Titanosaur inside the American Museum of Natural History

12 Secrets of New York’s Central Park

Learn some little-known facts about this NYC landmark

Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter by Alexander Gardner

Poetry Matters

Can the Civil War Still Inspire Today’s Poets?

As epic verse about the American past falls victim to modernism, a poet who is also a historian calls for a revival

Christa McAuliffe received a preview of microgravity during a special flight aboard NASA's KC-135 "zero gravity" aircraft. She was to be the first in a series of civilians in space

The Challenger Disaster Put an End to NASA’s Plan to Send Civilians Into Space

On the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle tragedy, a look back at an ambitious plan to put the rest of us into orbit

An arch made from a bowhead whale jaw stands over traditional whaling boats in Barrow, Alaska.

As the Arctic Erodes, Archaeologists Are Racing to Protect Ancient Treasures

Once locked in frozen Alaskan dirt, Iñupiat artifacts are being lost to the sea, sometimes faster than scientists can find them

Henry Ford is at the wheel with John Burroughs and Thomas Edison seated in the back of a Model T.

When America’s Titans of Industry and Innovation Went Road-Tripping Together

Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and their friends traveled the country in Model Ts, creating the Great American road trip in the process

Jesse J. Holland's book, "The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House" offers new insight into lives of these men and women who lived in bondage in the White House.

The Slaves of the White House Finally Get to Have Their Stories Told

Long ignored by historians, the enslaved people of the White House are coming into focus through a new book by Jesse J. Holland

Cows graze near a huge replica of a dinosaur at the Balasinor fossil park. The area is littered with hundreds of dinosaur bones, teeth, skulls and eggs tens of millions of years old.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: India

Meet India’s Dinosaur Princess

Aaliya Sultana Babi is doing everything in her power to protect and promote India’s most significant fossil park

The city of Jodhpur spills out below Mehrangarh Fort, once the residence of the royal family.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: India

The Fall and Rise of a Modern Maharaja

Born to a palace but stripped of his livelihood in the 1970s, Gaj Singh II created a new life dedicated to preserving royal Rajasthan

This ancient skull has a terrible tale to tell.

New Research

An Ancient, Brutal Massacre May Be the Earliest Evidence of War

Even nomadic hunter-gatherers engaged in deliberate mass killings 10,000 years ago

In 2003, Air France donated Concorde F-BVFA to the Smithsonian. The aircraft was the first Air France Concorde to open service to Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D.C., and New York and had flown 17,824 hours.

When Concorde First Flew, It Was a Supersonic Sight to Behold

The aircraft was a technological masterpiece, but at one ton of fuel per passenger, it had a devastating ecological footprint

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