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History

With the support of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a new archive is being established to collect the history of the Lumbee community (above from left are members of the intertribal Baltimore American Indian Center: Louis Campbell, Lumbee; Celest Swann, Powhatan; E. Keith Colston, Lumbee / Tuscarora).

A Native American Community in Baltimore Reclaims Its History

Thousands of Lumbee Indians, members of the largest tribe east of the Mississippi, once lived in the neighborhoods of Upper Fells Point and Washington Hill

Eleanor Roosevelt talks to a child at the ceremonies inaugurating the slum clearance in Detroit, Michigan.

Women Who Shaped History

Why Eleanor Roosevelt’s Example Matters More Than Ever

A new biography shows how decency, determination and generosity of heart can change the world

Native American veterans of the Vietnam War stand in honor as part of the color guard at the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial. November 11, 1990, Washington, D.C.

Smithsonian Voices

Native Americans Have Always Answered the Call to Serve

National Veterans of Foreign Wars Day, September 29, recognizes the men and women who have served honorably in the U.S. military overseas

Operation Fantasia aimed to destroy Japanese morale by exposing soldiers and civilians to a Shinto portent of doom: kitsune, or fox-shaped spirits with magical abilities.

The Unsuccessful WWII Plot to Fight the Japanese With Radioactive Foxes

An outlandish idea codenamed ‘Operation Fantasia’ aimed to demoralize the Axis power by mimicking legendary spirits

The Sun-n-Sand Motor Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi, is included on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's new list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Eleven Historic Places in America That Desperately Need Saving

The National Trust for Historic Preservation names these sites as the most endangered cultural treasures in our country

Old Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol

History of Now

The History of ‘Stolen’ Supreme Court Seats

As the Trump administration seeks to fill a vacancy on the Court, a look back at the forgotten mid-19th century battles over the judiciary

The United Daughters of the Confederacy presented the granite monument to the city of Charlotte in 1948.

Charlotte’s Monument to a Jewish Confederate Was Hated Even Before It Was Built

For more than seven decades, the North Carolina memorial has courted controversy in unexpected forms

Halahtookit, a Nez Perce man, widely believed to be the son of William Clark.

Ask Smithsonian

Are There Native Descendants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

A mid-1970s painting by illustrator Rick Guidice depicts an extraterrestrial colony designed by Princeton University physicist Gerard O'Neill.

How NASA Marketed Its Space Program With Fantastical Depictions of the Future

When it came to exploring the stars, Americans had to see it to believe in it

Towers of the Stadtkirsche rise above Wittenberg, Germany. Much of the church was demolished and replaced in 1522, but the “Judensau” has remained despite controversy.

Germany May Have Banished Nazism, but Its Medieval Anti-Semitism Is Still in Plain Sight

In the city where Martin Luther revolutionized Christianity, a vile, 700-year-old sculpture openly denigrates Jews. Why is it still there?

Ed Bearss on a Smithsonian Associates tour of the Antietam battlefield.

What Made Ed Bearss a Rock Star of Civil War History

On any battlefield, he struck the mystic chords of memory

A portrait in marble of the emperor, circa A.D. 60.

Nero, History’s Most Despised Emperor, Gets a Makeover

For nearly 2,000 years, the Roman ruler has been depicted as an egotistical monster who fiddled while Rome burned. But is this image accurate?

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, left, and Cuban President Fidel Castro, center, are seen outside the Hotel Theresa in the Harlem neighborhood of New York.

Fidel Castro Stayed in Harlem 60 Years Ago to Highlight Racial Injustice in the U.S.

The Cuban revolutionary shined a light on the stark economic disparities in America, much to the chagrin of the U.S. government

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Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt: The Man History Forgot

Rediscover the 19th-century naturalist who traveled on four continents, wrote 2,500 letters, 36 books and hugely influenced early America

When Alexander von Humboldt (right) traveled to England in 1790, he met a young chemist named James Smithson, the founder of the Smithsonian. Humboldt's influence still resonates throughout the massive museum and research complex.

Alexander von Humboldt

How the Revolutionary Thinker Alexander von Humboldt Helped to Create the Smithsonian

The 19th-century polymath continues to influence the Institution’s research; a major Smithsonian exhibition explains how and why

This marks the first time the fossil has been back in America since 1847, when it made its way through Europe and ultimately ended up at The Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt in Germany.

Alexander von Humboldt

This Mastodon Is a Centerpiece of an Art Exhibition. Why?

Meet the hugely influential Alexander von Humboldt, who foretold of climate change and inspired artists, writers and presidents

In Boston's Mattapan on August 15, 2020, protesters march from Jubilee Christian Church to protest police brutality, systemic racism and other oppressive systems unfavorable to Black and Brown people.

Why Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color Experience Greater Harm During the Pandemic

Scholars take a deep dive into how structural racism intersects with public health

Denzel Washington won an Oscar for his role as one of the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts.

Based on a True Story

Why ‘Glory’ Still Resonates More Than Three Decades Later

Newly added to Netflix, the Civil War movie reminds the nation that black Americans fought for their own emancipation

Remains of the archaeological crypt of Ile de la Cité

The Notre-Dame Crypt Reopens for the First Time Since the Fire

To mark the occasion, a new exhibition in the area under the cathedral’s courtyard honors novelist Victor Hugo and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

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