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The Shakers, who reached the peak of their popularity in America between 1820 and 1860, loathed the institutions of marriage and family for the sinful “natural affections” that accompanied them.

The Sects That Rejected Sex in 19th-Century America

Why three religious groups traded monogamy for celibacy, polygamy and “complex marriage”

Inventor Jean-Yves Blondeau demonstrates his roller suit in 2007 in Beijing.

Seven Fitness Inventions That Were Dropped Like New Year’s Resolutions

From roller armor to a weight helmet, these patented pieces of exercise equipment came and went

The President with the First Lady in a freight elevator heading to an inaugural ball in 2009.

How Pete Souza Fits Into the Storied History of Presidential Photography

In his new book, the former White House photographer frames a clear picture of the Obama years

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the National Park Service and the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation will mark the annual Day of Remembrance, with virtual programming from February 18 to 20, 2022, to explore the Japanese American community's struggle for recognition and redress.

Eighty Years After the U.S. Incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans, Trauma and Scars Still Remain

Families were stripped of their rights and freedoms in February 1942, when FDR signed Executive Order 9066

Top row (L to R): Bill Clinton's cat Socks (pictured twice), Amy Carter's cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang and George W. Bush's cat India. Bottom row (L to R): India, Calvin Coolidge's cats Blackie and Tiger, and the Bidens' cat Willow

History of Now

A Colorful History of Cats in the White House

Willow Biden isn’t the first feline to grace the presidential residence’s halls

Christie accompanied her second husband, Max Mallowan, on digs in Egypt and Syria. During these expeditions, she helped catalog, illustrate and restore artifacts, in addition to managing everyday operations.

Based on a True Story

How Agatha Christie’s Love of Archaeology Influenced ‘Death on the Nile’

In the 1930s, the mystery writer accompanied her archaeologist husband on annual digs in the Middle East

On July 21, 1963, Gloria Richardson was walking from a meeting when her would-be attacker ran at her with his brandished weapon leveled at her neck. She flat-palmed the blade of the bayonet, shoving it away from her body. 

Women Who Shaped History

How Gloria Richardson’s Look of Righteous Indignation Became a Symbol of No Retreat

In 1963, the civil rights leader shoved aside a guardsman’s bayonet with disgust and defiance; photography preserved the charged moment

Pancho Villa supposedly came to Columbus because he was enraged at the author's paternal grandfather, Sam Ravel, over an arms deal gone wrong. This photo album helped the author better understand Sam.

The Photo Album That Succeeded Where Pancho Villa Failed

The revolutionary may have tried to find the author’s grandfather by raiding a New Mexico village—but a friend’s camera truly captured her family patriarch

Seasonal influxes of fishermen fed roaring local economies and attracted herring girls—women who came from across Iceland to take jobs gutting, cleaning and salting barrels of freshly caught fish.

How Iceland’s Herring Girls Helped Bring Equality to the Island Nation

Between the 1910s and 1960s, thousands of young women formed the backbone of the country’s thriving fishing industry

A mob of white students and locals tarred and feathered brothers Samuel and Roger Courtney in April 1919. Newspaper coverage of the attack was limited.

In 1919, a Mob in Maine Tarred and Feathered Two Black College Students

The brutal attack took place during the Red Summer, a nationwide wave of violence against Black Americans

Fireworks fill the sky over the "Bird's Nest" arena in Beijing on January 30, 2022

The Beijing Winter Olympics

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

As you watch the Beijing Winter Olympics, enjoy this guide to the history, science and thrills of the worldwide athletic competition

In the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver, the USA's Hannah Teter (above: in action during the women's snowboard halfpipe competition) took home silver. Her boots are now in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The Beijing Winter Olympics

Meet the Trailblazers in Women’s Olympic Snowboarding

The careers of Shannon Dunn-Downing, Kelly Clark, Amy Purdy and Hannah Teter are recognized in the Smithsonian collections; learn their stories

Protesters led by Bad River Anishinaabe activist Mike Forcia toppled this statue of Christopher Columbus on June 10, 2020.

Meet the Indigenous Activist Who Toppled Minnesota’s Christopher Columbus Statue

The unauthorized removal of the monument took place during the racial justice protests of summer 2020

Activists in London hold signs urging the BBC to boycott the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Beijing Winter Olympics

Is China Committing Genocide Against the Uyghurs?

The Muslim minority group faces mass detention and sterilization—human rights abuses that sparked the U.S.’ diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics

Melisende of Jerusalem (pictured at her coronation) and Zumurrud of Damascus represent two of the most powerful, best-documented ruling women of the medieval Middle East. 

The Women Rulers Whose Reigns Reshaped the Medieval Middle East

A new book details the lives of Melisende of Jerusalem, Zumurrud of Damascus and their powerful peers

"American Girl (above: the new doll Evette Peters) was seeking to emphasize to its young audience the importance of being able to envision themselves as part of the larger American story," writes the Smithsonian's Katrina Lashley. "And that vision requires more accessible histories, as well as role models in civic engagement."

Why This American Girl Doll Inspires Environmental Activism

The story of Evette Peters is bolstered by the Anacostia Community Museum’s research into Washington D.C.’s local neighborhoods and urban waterways

Mel Mermelstein sits in his California home

History of Now

Mel Mermelstein Who Survived Auschwitz, Then Sued Holocaust Deniers in Court, Dies at 95

Fed up with the lies and anti-Semitism, a California businessman partnered with a lawyer to prove that the murder of 6 million Jews was established fact

Johannes Adam Simon Oertel's 1852–53 depiction of the George III's statue toppling features several ahistorical elements, including the presence of Alexander Hamilton and a fictionalized Native American family.

A Toppled Statue of George III Illuminates the Ongoing Debate Over America’s Monuments

In July 1776, colonists destroyed a sculpture of the English king. A new exhibit explores this iconoclasm’s legacy—and its implications for today

Ancient meets ultramodern in “Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs,” now on view in Houston.

An Immersive Celebration of Ramses II Transports Visitors to Ancient Egypt

Historic artifacts meet 21st-century technology in a blockbuster touring exhibition centered on the 19th-Dynasty pharaoh

The International African American Museum is slated to open in late 2022 in Charleston's Gadsden's Wharf.

The Most Anticipated Museum Openings of 2022

Scheduled to open this year are new institutions dedicated to African American history, electronic music and Nordic art

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