Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Walt Whitman in 1869, as photographed by William Kurtz

Rare Walt Whitman Artifacts Go on View at Library of Congress for Poet’s 200th Birthday

The library holds the world’s largest collection of Whitman-related items

All four chicks are growing quickly, quadrupling in size from around 8 centimeters tall at birth to more than 30 centimeters last week

Tower of London Welcomes Baby Ravens for the First Time in 30 Years

The four chicks eat at least once every two hours, feasting on a diet of quail, mice and rats

The former Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg

Nuremberg Decides to Conserve Nazi Rally Grounds

Some argued that the site should be left to decay into ruins, but officials have decided to maintain it as a testament to the city’s dark history

A spread from one of the casebooks volumes.

Read Hundreds of Medical Case Files by Two 17th-Century Quacks

Cambridge historians have digitized 500 case notes by the notorious astrologer-physicians Simon Forman and Richard Napier

Monterrey A stem post

Virtual Travel

Virtual Reality Museum Allows Users to Explore Five Shipwrecked Vessels

The online portal features 3-D models, video footage and mosaic maps of five 19th- and 20th-century shipwrecks

Found: Stolen Alexander Hamilton Letter

In the letter, Hamilton warns the Marquis de Lafayette about the ‘menace’ of a British fleet

New Research

Pompeii Fixed Potholes With Molten Iron

A new study suggests the Romans knew how to melt iron and used it to fill in wheel ruts and cavities on their stone streets

Constance Wu's character, Rachel Chu, wears the gown to a wedding

Constance Wu’s ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Dress Is Coming to the Smithsonian

Curator Theo Gonzalves says he hopes the gown will enable Asian American visitors “to see themselves in the museum, … see themselves in American history”

Structures unearthed at Achtriochtan may be linked with the bloody massacre

Archaeologists Are Excavating Site of Scottish Massacre That Inspired the ‘Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding

In 1692, members of the Campbell clan turned on their MacDonald hosts, killing at least 38 men and sending women and children fleeing into the hills

The Louvre Pyramid is arguably the architect's best-known work.

Trending Today

I.M. Pei Dies at 102 Years Old. Here Are Some of His Essential Buildings

The architect changed the way the world sees itself

The indecipherable text carved in a rock found in the Brittany village of Plougastel-Daoulas.

Cool Finds

A French Town Is Offering $2,250 Reward to Anyone Who Can Decipher This Mysterious Inscription

The inscription was probably made during the 18th century

Granville Coggs

Granville Coggs Fought Racism in the Military as a Tuskegee Airman

Coggs, who died on May 7, at the age of 93, was among the first black aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps

Illustration from woodblock-printed text on the life of Gautama Buddha

Library of Congress Digitizes Taiwanese Watercolors, Rare Chinese Texts

The library’s rare Chinese book collection includes 5,300 titles, 2,000 of which will ultimately be included in the online portal

Trending Today

One of the Biggest Locomotives of All Time Rides Again

After five years of restoration, 1.2 million pound Big Boy 4014 is visiting Utah to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike

Raising a trilithon

A Missing Piece of Stonehenge Has Been Returned to the U.K.

The ‘core’ may shed light on the mysterious origins of the monument’s huge stones

Cool Finds

1,000-Year-Old Pouch From Bolivia Contains Traces of Five Mind-Altering Drugs

The ingredients include coca leaves and two compounds used in modern ayahuasca rituals

The board was likely used in the bath house at Vindolanda, one of 14 forts along Hadrian's Wall, but was repurposed as a floor stone in the adjacent building after it was broken.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Uncover an Ancient Roman Game Board at Hadrian’s Wall

The cracked stone board was likely used to play ludus latrunculorum, Rome’s favorite game

Archeologist Rhonda Kimbrough (left) discusses the survey strategy at Prospect Bluff with author and historian Dale Cox and SEAF Treasurer Janet Bard

Relics of Rebel Slave Fort Unearthed by Hurricane Michael

The site was recently listed as part of the NPS’ Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

Celine Dion arrives for the 2019 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

How Well Did This Year’s Met Gala Exemplify ‘Camp’?

The concept of camp goes far beyond what Susan Sontag wrote in her seminal essay

Left: Albrecht Dürer, "St. Thomas," 1514 / Right: Johann Ladenspelder, "St. Thomas," circa 1535 – 1561

What Differentiates Renaissance Copies, Fakes and Reproductions?

An Austin exhbition argues that copies, despite the negative connotations associated with the word, are not inferior to so-called “originals”

Page 202 of 351