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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Elmar Juchem, Managing Editor of the Kurt Weill Edition, was able to identify Kurt Weill's manuscript while doing archival work in Berlin.

Composer Kurt Weill’s Long-Forgotten “Song of the White Cheese” Discovered in Berlin Archive

Listen to the 1931 ditty, which had gone unnoticed in the collection of a little-known actress

The tenth inkblot in Rorschach's series.

Hermann Rorschach’s Artistic Obsession Led to His Famous Test

Rorschach’s high school nickname was “Kleck,” which means “inkblot” in German

Cool Finds

Masterpiece of Greek Art Found in the Griffin Warrior Tomb

The engraving on the Pylos Combat Agate is so tiny and intricate that it changes our understanding of what the ancient Greeks could produce

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Date: c. 1870 Albumen silver print

Central Park Has No Monuments Dedicated to Real Women. That’s About to Change

The future site was dedicated during the state’s centennial of women’s suffrage; the State of New York also will build two statues of suffrage leaders

Hjalmar Schacht, former president of the Reichsbank, at a meeting in the Reichsbank transfer commission in 1934.

Germany’s Central Bank Funds Investigation Into Its Nazi Ties

Researchers have already uncovered a damning letter from one of the bank’s former presidents

Ships involved in the American slave trade before the Civil War.

When Enslaved People Commandeered a Ship and Hightailed it to Freedom in the Bahamas

It’s been called the most successful slave rebellion in U.S. history

This cartoon was published on November 7, 1874, in 'Harper's Weekly.'

The Third-Term Controversy That Gave the Republican Party Its Symbol

The elephant and the donkey as symbols for America’s biggest political parties date back to the 1800s and this controversy

Marie and Pierre Curie in the laboratory.

Three Quirky Facts About Marie Curie

In honor of her 150th birthday, let’s review a few lesser-known pieces of her personal history

Sousa around 1915, about a decade after he first decried "mechanical music."

John Philip Sousa Feared ‘The Menace of Mechanical Music’

Wonder what he’d say about Spotify

Trending Today

Most Antiquities Sold Online Are Fake or Illegal

Social media and ISIS have combined to flood the web with thousands of questionable artifacts

Harriet Tubman’s Canadian Church Is Struggling to Survive

The Salem Chapel in St. Catharines, Ontario, is in desperate need of repairs

"Black Bart" robbed at least 28 stagecoaches in his lifetime. He left poems at two of them.

The Poetic Tale of Literary Outlaw Black Bart

Stagecoach robber Charles Bole took the inspiration for his pseudonym from pulp fiction

A familiar-looking image from the Uncrustables patent.

Can a Sandwich Be Intellectual Property?

This is the story of a patent war over PB&J

Storm Ophelia Unearthed an Ancient Skeleton in Ireland

Some of the skeleton’s skin was still preserved

Puerto Rico

Archaeologists Date Pre-Hispanic Puerto Rican Rock Art for the First Time

A new analysis looks at the thousands of images found in caves on Mona Island, a spiritual hub for the Taino culture

Claude Monet's "Waterloo Bridge" is one of the roughly 1,500 works in Gurlitt's collection

The Public Can Finally See Works From the Infamous Nazi-Looted Art Trove

Two exhibitions are exploring the treasures and context behind the cache of “degenerate” art uncovered in a Munich apartment in 2012

Mata Hari (Malay for “eye of the day”) captivated European audiences with her spiritual yet sexually charged performances

Revisiting the Myth of Mata Hari, From Sultry Spy to Government Scapegoat

One hundred years after her death, a new exhibit is putting the spotlight on the dancer’s life and legacy

A hasty 1900 pigeongram sent to H. Winkelmann by Charles Werner, a great Barrier Island resident. "Dear Mr Winkelmann," it reads, "Charlie Soborne has smashed his arm last night from the wrist to the elbow by a rifle bullet. His father says that the arm will have to be amputated at once so Ernest asked me to send you this... send a steamer at once to the Barrier... also if possible a lawyer."

This New Zealand Island’s Pigeon Mail Stamps Are Still Prized

Pigeons carried correspondence between Great Barrier Island and the New Zealand mainland for about a decade in the early 20th century

Holmes and Watson have had years of adventures together, but the first time they ever appeared in print was in a story Arthur Conan Doyle set in Utah.

The Creator of Sherlock Holmes Was, Like Many Victorians, Fascinated by Mormons

The first story featuring iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, ‘A Study in Scarlet,’ was published on this day in 1887—and set in Mormon Utah

American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks

Dennis Banks, Native American Civil Rights Warrior, Has Died

He rose to national attention after spearheading a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota

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