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History

The titular draughtsman looks through his perspective machine in this still from Peter Greenaway’s 1982 film The Draughtsman’s Contract

Digital Files and 3D Printing—in the Renaissance?

3D printing is a new technology that seems poised to change the world, but its origins date back all the way to the 15th century

An illustration of Moby Dick attacking a whaling ship.

The True-Life Horror That Inspired ‘Moby-Dick’

The whaler Essex was indeed sunk by a whale—and that’s only the beginning

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The Fishy History of the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish Sandwich

How a struggling entrepreneur in Ohio saved his burger business during Lent and changed the McDonald’s menu for good.

The ”peaceful” Pilgrims massacred the Pequots and destroyed their fort near Stonington, Connecticut, in 1637. A 19th-century wood engraving (above) depicts the slaughter.

The Shocking Savagery of America’s Early History

Bernard Bailyn, one of our greatest historians, shines his light on the nation’s Dark Ages

The official program for the March 3, 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C..

Document Deep Dive

Document Deep Dive: A Historic Moment in the Fight for Women’s Voting Rights

A cartoonist diagrammed the parade—5,000 suffragists strong—that defiantly marched in Washington more than a century ago

Portion of the cover of the February 1989 issue of Life magazine

In 1989, ‘Life’ Magazine Said Goodbye To Video Stores, Mailmen and Pennies…

In 1989, “Life” magazine predicted that, by the year 2000, many staples of modern American life might find themselves on the scrapheap of history

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The American Plan to Build Nuclear Power Plants in the Ocean

This ill-advised scheme would have put gigantic barges just off the Atlantic coast? Where would it have started? New Jersey, of course

Actress Louise Brooks with bob and bee-stung lips, 1920s

The History of the Flapper, Part 4: Emboldened by the Bob

New short haircuts announced the wearers’ break from tradition and boosted the hairdressing industry

From a chain of Los Angeles drive-ins in the 1940s, “good food is good health.”

10 Vintage Menus That Are a Feast for the Eyes, If Not the Stomach

From the late-19th century to the 1970s, restaurants had one surefire way of standing out

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The Dead Woman Who Brought Down the Mayor

Vivian Gordon was a reputed prostitute and blackmailer—but her murder led to the downfall of New York Mayor Jimmy Walker

George crawls into a pneumatic tube which will transport him to Mr. Spacely’s office (1963)

George Jetson Navigates a Series of Tubes

Travel by pneumatic tubes? The idea was seriously considered in the 1960s

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VIDEO: The Show, Lincoln’s Washington at War, Depicts the Transformation of Washington

A new documentary from Smithsonian Channel looks at how the Civil War helped transform the city of Washington, D.C.

The Civil War

Photo Interactive: The Civil War, Now in Living Color

How one author adds actual blues and grays to historic photographs

Justice Robert Jackson, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Soviet Sniper

Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper credited with 309 kills—and an advocate for women’s rights. On a U.S. tour in 1942, she found a friend in the first lady

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Robot Vanna, Trashy Presidents and Steak as Health Food: Samsung Sells Tomorrow

Advertisers love to use futurism as a way to position their products as forward-thinking

A military robot washes dishes in “The Jetsons” (1963)

Automating Hard or Hardly Automating? George Jetson and the Manual Labor of Tomorrow

And you think you’re having a bad work week, just think about the robots

Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences, 1925-1926

The History of the Flapper, Part 3: The Rectangular Silhouette

Finally, women could breathe deeply when the waist-nipping corset went out of style

A photo sometimes said to depict members of Chiloé’s murderous society of warlocks—founded, so they claimed, in 1786 and destroyed by the great trial of 1880-81.

Into the Cave of Chile’s Witches

Did members of a powerful society of warlocks actually murder their enemies and kidnap children?

Title slate from the 1978 short film “Libra” by World Research Inc

Libra: The 21st Century (Libertarian) Space Colony

The government can’t get their hands on you when you’re floating above Earth

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The Last Massive Exploding Meteor Hit Earth in 1908, Leveling 800 Square Miles of Forest

In 1908, a meteor exploding in mid-air released the energy equivalent to “185 Hiroshima bombs”

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