Alice Constance Austin showing model of house to Llano del Rio colonists, May 1, 1917.

Women Who Shaped History

New Website Explores the Women in Architecture Your History Books Didn’t Teach You About

‘Pioneering Women of American Architecture’ features in-depth profiles of unsung architects who made significant contributions to the field

Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of China, may not have discovered an elixir to life but he did achieve his own form of immortality through his teracotta army

2,000-Year-Old Texts Reveal the First Emperor of China’s Quest for Eternal Life

Qin Shihuang issued an executive order demanding that his subjects search for an immortality elixir

Emerald Bay and Mount Tallac, Lake Tahoe, 1935.

Cool Finds

Cache of Newly Digitized Travel Photographs Will Transport You to 1900s California

Travelers William and Grace McCarthy really got around, and in nearly 3,000 photos, they captured a unique view of San Francisco, Tahoe and Yosemite

A YMCA gym in 1910.

The YMCA First Opened Gyms to Train Stronger Christians

Physical fitness was a secondary goal for the movement

Madame Pompadour, by Francois Boucher

Madame de Pompadour Was Far More Than a ‘Mistress’

Even though she was a keen politicker and influential patron, she’s been historically overlooked

The triforium undergoing renovations

Cool Finds

30,000 Shards of Historic Stained Glass Found in Westminster Abbey’s Attic

The glass and other trash was excavated from depressions in the vaulted ceiling and are being made into new windows for the Abbey

Excavations at Legio

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Find Gate to Headquarters of Famed “Ironclad” Sixth Legion in Northern Israel

Inscriptions on the find imply the gate could be part of a dedication or it could list the names of the legion’s commanders or war heroes

Tomb Door Engraved with Menorah Discovered in Israel

The artifact tells the story of the three major religious groups that have occupied Tiberias over the centuries

A 2013 Romanian stamp features Cochran and her dishwasher.

This Time-Saving Patent Paved the Way for the Modern Dishwasher

Josephine Cochran just wanted to stop having broken dishes

Women dynamite workers at one of Alfred Nobel's factories in the 1880s.

The True Story of Mrs. Alford’s Nitroglycerin Factory

Mary Alford remains the only woman known to own a dynamite and nitroglycerin factory

The Magnolia tree, left, was planted on the south grounds of the White House by President Andrew Jackson in 1835.

White House Magnolia Tree Planted by Andrew Jackson Will Be Cut Down

Despite multiple attempts to save it, the tree is in bad shape

Limited Number of Critically Ill Evacuated from Besieged Syrian Region

29 people have been approved for evacuation from eastern Ghouta, but hundreds more are in desperate need of medical care

Before the 1840s, women had no choice but to deliver children without anesthetic.

It Didn’t Take Very Long For Anesthesia to Change Childbirth

The unprecedented idea of a painless delivery changed women’s lives

Carry A. Nation with her bible and her hatchet not long before she died in 1911.

Three Things to Know About Radical Prohibitionist Carry A. Nation

Nation was convinced she was on a mission from God

Mami Johnson photographed on February 14, 1998, at the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore.

Remembering Mamie ‘Peanut’ Johnson, the First Woman to Take the Mound as a Major-League Pitcher

The Negro Leagues trailblazer has died at 82. Barred from trying out for a segregated female league, she made her mark playing alongside men

Frederick II was the first "modern" ornithologist, studying birds in detail in the 13th century to fuel his passion for falconry.

The Modern History of Ornithology Starts With This Inquisitive Medieval Emperor

Frederick II got up to a lot in his lifetime

Cheers, mate!

Found: The Site of One of Australia’s Oldest Pubs

Nearby, archaeologists discovered the remains of a 19th-century hut once occupied by convicts

Wreck of the AE1

Cool Finds

After Mysteriously Disappearing in WWI, Australia’s First Submarine Finally Found

The craft disappeared during in heavy haze early in the war

The finds from Clapham’s Coffee House, some of which are pictured here, included teapots, wine glasses, and clay pipes.

Archaeologists Discover 500 Artifacts from 18th-Century British Coffeehouse

Among the finds were cups, saucers, sugar bowls, coffee tins and an impressive collection of teapots

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer stands with the taxidermied remains of her groundbreaking discovery.

In the 1930s, This Natural History Curator Discovered a Living Fossil–Well, Sort of

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was convinced she’d found something special in a pile of fish, but it took some time for her discovery to be recognized

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