Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

History

Editor John Henson of The New Aladdin floppy disk magazine

The Magazine of the Future (on floppy disk!)

More than 20 years before the iPad, an entrepreneur saw the potential of interactive, digital magazines

In 1882, years after an Apache encampment was massacred by Mexican troops, the tribe's legendary leader Geronimo and his men came to avenge the killings on a grassy hill just north of the town of Galeana in Mexico.

Geronimo’s Decades-Long Hunt for Vengeance

Close by the Mormon colony of Colonia Dublan is an unlikely tourist attraction: the small hilltop where the legendary Apache leader exacted his revenge

Robot server at the Two Panda Deli in Pasadena, California

The Disco-Blasting Robot Waiters of 1980s Pasadena

In 1983, a Chinese fast-food restaurant hired a curious-looking pair of servers: Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2

The radio-delivered newspaper machine of 1938

Print the News, Right In Your Home!

Decades before the Internet, radio-delivered newspaper machines pioneered the business of electronic publishing.

The British pigeon known as Crisp VC brought back news of the sinking of an armed trawler by a German U boat and the heroic death of her captain, Thomas Crisp, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

World War I: 100 Years Later

Closing the Pigeon Gap

During the First World War, Allied birds outperformed their rivals and saved thousands of lives–all thanks to the efforts of one London pigeon fancier

Polly Adler and a friend

The House that Polly Adler Built

She entered the brothel business without apology and set out to become the best madam in America

The Potala Palace, Lhasa: home to nine successive Dalai Lamas, a number of them suspiciously short-lived.

Murder in Tibet’s High Places

The Dalai Lama is one of the world’s most revered religious leaders, but that didn’t prevent four holders of the office from mysteriously dying

Flying ambulance of the future (1927)

The Flying Ambulance of Tomorrow

In the 1920s, a French inventor devised an ingenious way to provide emergency medical assistance

1928 article about astrologers predicting that 1929 will be a year of prosperity

Astrologers Predict 1929 Will Be Year of Prosperity

The world without the Great Depression looks a lot rosier in hindsight

None

Infographic: The Rise and Fall of Scoring in Baseball

From the dead-ball era to the steroids era, the balance between pitchers and hitters has always been in flux

Polio patients in iron lungs in 1952

Salk, Sabin and the Race Against Polio

As polio ravaged patients worldwide, two gifted American researchers developed distinct vaccines against it. Then the question was: Which one to use?

None

Books: Teddy Roosevelt: Top Cop, Jonah Lehrer and Other Must-Read Books

TR’s rough ride as New York’s police chief shaped the man who became president just six years later

Clarke has seen the future of war and says it will be fought by hackers.

Richard Clarke on Who Was Behind the Stuxnet Attack

America’s longtime counterterrorism czar warns that the cyberwars have already begun—and that we might be losing

None

Foreseen Consequences

The art and science of looking ahead

1950 depiction of a smoldering New York after a nuclear attack

Hiroshima, U.S.A.

In 1950, a popular magazine depicted what an atomic bomb would do to New York City—in gruesome detail

A German mint hard at work producing debased coinage designed to be palmed off on the nearest neighboring state, c.1620

“Kipper und Wipper”: Rogue Traders, Rogue Princes, Rogue Bishops and the German Financial Meltdown of 1621-23

It is tempting to think of the German hyperinflation of 1923 as a uniquely awful event, but it pales in comparison to what happened in the 17th century

The milkman's robot helper of the future as imagined by illustrator Arthur Radebaugh (1961)

The Milkman’s Robot Helper

Could futuristic technology have saved the milkman from extinction?

Storyville. Seated woman wearing striped stockings, drinking "Raleigh" Rye.

The Portrait of Sensitivity: A Photographer in Storyville, New Orleans’ Forgotten Burlesque Quarter

The Big Easy’s red light district had plenty of tawdriness going on—except when Ernest J. Bellocq was taking photographs of prostitutes

None

Document Deep Dive

Document Deep Dive: What Does the Magna Carta Really Say?

A curator from the National Archives takes us through what the governing charter means

Page 240 of 302