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History

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is seen gliding back to Earth after its first test flight in 2010.

Past Transit Tragedies Point to a Way Forward for Virgin Galactic

From a fatal Apollo fire to the sinking of the Titanic, history has a few lessons following last week’s spaceflight disasters

Ten-year-old Noah Cordle visited the National Museum of Natural History on November 3 to donate a Clovis point he found in New Jersey. He and his parents (right) met with the museum's Dennis Stanford (left).

This Fifth Grader Found a 14,000-Year-Old Clovis Point, Likely Unearthed From Hurricane Sandy

Noah Cordle was boogie boarding in New Jersey when he came upon an ancient hunting tool

Wide Awake Republican political club from 1860, comprised of young men who dressed in uniforms and marched at night by torchlight for Lincoln.

Whigs Swigged Cider and Other Voter Indicators of the Past

Throughout most of American history, what someone wore indicated their political affiliations as loudly as a Prius or a Hummer might today

The installation, "A Room of Her Own: An Altar for My Mother," is on view through January 2015.

Halloween

An Awe-Inspiring Altar Remembers One Latino Artist’s Guiding Spirit

At the American History Museum, an installation reimagines the life story of a Latina artist and writer

Halloween party in Bristol.

Halloween

How Halloween Has Taken Over England

The British have long celebrated Guy Fawkes Day on November 5, but now the October 31 holiday is a lot more appealing.

The image of a witch brewing her cauldron reigns in Halloween celebrations today. But, what actually went into witches cauldrons?

Halloween

How Witches’ Brews Helped Bring Modern Drugs to Market

Got nausea, headaches or heart trouble? You can thank medieval witches’ potions for helping to cure what ails you

Turn of the century thespians play their roles wearing Roman togas.

Halloween

No Costume? Grab A Sheet And Rock a Toga

Costume designer Mariah Hale explains how to wrap the perfect last-minute toga

A yellow fever epidemic may have planted the seeds of inspiration for Washington Irving's iconic tale of the a headless horseman.

Halloween

What “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Tells Us About Contagion, Fear and Epidemics

Washington Irving fled New York because of a yellow fever epidemic. Twenty-two years later, his classic story spoke to the chaos of his youth

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Halloween

This Grave Atlas Shows Where to Find the Distinguished Deceased

We know where the bodies are buried … take a virtual tour of world cemeteries that host famous artists and rogues

Dr. Linda Hazzard’s Washington State Penitentiary mug shots.

The Doctor Who Starved Her Patients to Death

Linda Hazzard killed as many as a dozen people in the early 20th century, and they paid willingly for it

A "Sea Devil" as depicted by Conrad Gessner in Historia Animalium, 2nd ed, 1604.

Halloween

Five “Real” Sea Monsters Brought to Life by Early Naturalists

From kraken to mermaids, some monsters are real—if you know how to look for them

The trope of the beautiful witch was popular between 1905 and 1915.

Halloween

Women of the Early 1900s Rallied Behind Beautiful, Wartless Witches

Women looking to work, vote and marry whomever they wanted turned the Halloween icon into a powerful symbol

One of the greatest inland waterways disasters in the history of the United States took place in the Chicago River, Chicago, Ill., July 24, 1915, when the steamship Eastland capsized with a loss of near 850 lives. The photo shows the ill-fated ship after it had turned "turtle."

The Eastland Disaster Killed More Passengers Than the Titanic and the Lusitania. Why Has It Been Forgotten?

Chicago’s working poor were expecting a day in luxury. They instead faced a horrific calamity on Lake Michigan

To be or not to be human? That's a question some scholars still feel is up for debate when it comes to Homo floresiensis.

Ten Years On, the Flores “Hobbit” Remains an Evolutionary Puzzle

Why was the 2004 unveiling of a small hominin dubbed Homo floresiensis such a big deal?

A shrine marking London's Cross Bones Graveyard.

Halloween

The London Graveyard That’s Become a Memorial for the City’s Seedier Past

Thousands of bodies from London’s first red light district are buried beneath a lot in the South Bank, an area under massive redevelopment

Some argue that the recent civil war in Syria was caused, at least in part, by droughts in the area, which led to greater social instability.

Anthropocene

Five Conflicts and Collapses That May Have Been Spurred by Climate Change

Earth’s changing climate has been a spectre in centuries of civil conflict and, at times, the collapse of whole civilizations

America's answer to Lawrence of Arabia, Wendell Phillips explored the east and uncovered ancient treasures. An exhibition at the Sackler Gallery looks at his life and work.

Unearthing America’s Lawrence of Arabia, Wendell Phillips

Phillips uncovered millennia-old treasures beneath Arabian sand, got rich from oil and died relatively unknown

2014 Ingenuity Awards

Coming to Terms With One of America’s Greatest Natural Disasters

Documentary filmmaker Bill Morrison plunges us into the Great Flood of 1927

The History of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, 50 Years After Its Construction

Built in 1964, the span still stands as Americas’ largest suspension bridge

Igorrotes on show at Coney Island, in the summer of 1905.

The Igorrote Tribe Traveled the World for Show And Made These Two Men Rich

Truman Hunt and Richard Schneidewind were locked in a fierce competition, but by the end, the tribespeople were left poor, hungry and yearning for home

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