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This, the first passenger elevator, was installed in a New York department store in 1857. The elevator is not round, though the first passenger elevator shaft, installed a mile north of this store, was.

This Innovator Thought Elevators Should Be Round

Peter Cooper thought that round would be the most efficient shape for elevators, and requested an elevator shaft designed accordingly

President Herbert Hoover (center right) plays a rousing game of Hooverball on the South Lawn of the White House.

Cool Finds

Newly Discovered Color Movies Show Herbert Hoover’s Softer Side

From Hooverball to White House frolics, you’ve never seen the staid president quite like this

Trending Today

Wildfires Have Already Charred Over 2 Million Acres This Year

The fire season has gotten off to its fastest start in over a decade, with massive grass fires charring the southwest and plains states

Emmy Noether, mathematical genius

Mathematician Emmy Noether Should Be Your Hero

She revolutionized mathematics, and then was forgotten because she was a woman

The ancient damselfly's courtship ritual was caught in amber 100 million years ago.

New Research

Flirtatious 100-Million-Year-Old Damselflies Found Frozen in Amber

Scientists are learning about how insects evolved from their ancient come-hither dance

Cool Finds

Watch Declassified Nuclear Bomb Tests Online

Weapons physicist Greg Sprigg has spent five years declassifying, digitizing and reanalyzing film of the U.S.’s 210 open air nuclear detonations

Marcel Marceau in 1955

The Mime Who Saved Kids From the Holocaust

Marcel Marceau is history’s most famous mime, but before that, he was a member of the French Resistance

Adolphe Sax made this alto saxophone in 1857, long after he had switched to brass. The sax is still a woodwind instrument, though.

The First Saxophone Was Made of Wood

The instrument was invented by–you guessed it–Adolphe Sax

The bow of the shipwrecked Titanic.

Tour Company Offers (Very Expensive) Dives to ‘Titanic’ Wreckage

For a mere $105,129 per person, thrill-seekers can explore the ruins of the ill-fated ship

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre's Edicule, a shrine that encloses Jesus’ purported resting place

One of Christianity’s Holiest Sites Gets Its Grand Unveiling

A team of 50 experts spent nine months cleaning and reinforcing the shrine that is believed to be above Jesus’ tomb

Norway: The happiest place on earth

Trending Today

Norwegians Are Named 2017’s Happiest People

Scandanavian countries take the top spots in the annual World Happiness Report

ISIS destroyed the Temple of Baalshamin in Syria in 2015.

Trending Today

New Fund Pledges to Protect Cultural Heritage from War and Terror

Nations and philanthropists join together to safeguard one another’s priceless treasures

This new map shows Earth's magnetic field from space.

New Research

This Magnetic Map Shows Earth as You’ve Never Seen It Before

Behold a new, super high-res view of Earth’s magnetic field

What a ring around Mars may have looked like

New Research

Mars May Have Had a Ring in the Past and Could Have One in the Future

The red planet’s moon may have broken apart into a ring of debris and reformed several times over the planet’s history

"The Siege of Acre," Dominique Papety, c. 1840

Cool Finds

Crusader Shipwreck, Likely From the Siege of Acre, Discovered

The boat in the Bay of Haifa included ceramics and a stash of gold coins

Omsin ingested the coins during years in a public turtle pond.

Trending Today

The Sea Turtle That Ate 915 Coins Has Died

Her death comes two weeks after vets tried to save her life with a seven-hour surgery

The back of this postcard calls the Fisher Building a "cathedral of business."

This Art Deco Office Tower Was the Master Work of ‘The Architect of Detroit’

Although Kahn designed numerous buildings and factories, this is the one that’s come to define his work

A new VR game puts you inside a James Joyce novel.

Cool Finds

This Game Turns James Joyce’s Most Notorious Novel Into Virtual Reality

But will it make you want to finish Ulysses?

'The Morning Walk" by Thomas Gainsborough

Man Charged After Slashing Gainsborough Painting at the National Gallery

Fortunately, preliminary reports suggest that “The Morning Walk” can be repaired

These early Jim Henson puppets (you might recognize the frog on the right) appeared in a local Washington, D.C. television show “Sam and Friends” that ran from 1955 to 1961. Headed by Kermit, Henson’s muppets went on to wider fame.

Why Puppets (and Puppeteers) Are Still Important

Puppets aren’t just children’s toys, as this look into the Smithsonian’s collection shows

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