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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Trending Today

Obamas Unveil Plans for Presidential Library and Museum

Located in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side, the former first couple hopes the campus will help revitalize the area

The Mausoleum of Augustus

Trending Today

Rome Is Finally Restoring the Mausoleum of Augustus

Once the tomb of emperors, a project funded by a telecom company hopes to revive the massive monument now covered in trash and weeds

Idaho Gem, the first cloned mule, only two days old in this photo but already aww-inducing.

How Mule Racing Led to Mule Cloning

It was a huge advance in cloning in the early 2000s

Rosa Parks’ Detroit House Finds a Home in Berlin

Once abandoned and decrepit, the house has been restored overseas

Tim Caza assesses the boat.

Cool Finds

Shipwreck Identified as Rare Canal Boat

Durham boats once fueled trade in the Erie Canal

“Get Your Kicks” at This Route 66 Museum

The Mill Restaurant, which once served hungry travelers, now hosts a shrine to the highway’s roadside attractions

During World War I, a critical shaving tool caused critical illness in hundreds of people.

World War I: 100 Years Later

How Shaving Brushes Gave World War I Soldiers Anthrax

A new paper looks back on an old epidemic—and raises fresh questions about antique shaving brushes

Handprint from Maltravieso Cave in Caceres, Spain.

Cool Finds

Project Is Making 3D Scans of Ancient Handprints

The Handpas Project is looking to unlock who made the prehistoric art and why

China has yet to acknowledge the Tienanmen Square massacre, but a museum in Hong Kong still keeps the incident's memory alive.

Trending Today

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square Museum Reopens

For some, the museum is the first time they confront information about the 1989 massacre

John Scott Haldane at his laboratory in Oxford.

To Protect Allied WWI Soldiers, This Researcher Tested an Early Gas Mask on Himself

John Haldane developed a rudimentary respirator that protected wearers against chlorine gas—at least for a few minutes

This copy of the first chart of the Gulf Stream was printed in 1786, ten years after Benjamin Franklin first drew it up.

Benjamin Franklin Was the First to Chart the Gulf Stream

Franklin’s cousin, Timothy Folger, knew how the then-unnamed current worked from his days as a whaler

Illustration of the cat piano from 1657.

Music or Animal Abuse? A Brief History of the Cat Piano

In the early 1800s, the katzenklavier was hailed as a treatment for distracted people

The burial chamber containing the model looms

New Research

Model Looms Are Missing Link in China’s Textile History

Four miniature pattern looms found in a burial in Chengdu show how the Han Dynasty produced cloth to trade on the Silk Road

DNA of Ancient Skeleton Linked to Modern Indigenous Peoples

A new study has established a genetic link between a 10,300-year-old man and native groups living in the Pacific Northwest today

Garment workers and union members from the Puritan Underwear Company taking part in the 1916 May Day parade in New York. While these parades were common early in the century, they began to disappear over time.

The US Declared “Loyalty Day” in the 1950s to Erase Worker Protest

Under Eisenhower during the Cold War, “Loyalty Day” was declared to paper over International Workers’ Day

A field hospital in Virginia, photographed in 1862, shows the grim conditions during the Civil War.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

A Nude Sculpture of George Washington Is Coming to New York

The work was made in preparation for a larger, clothed statue by the Italian artist Antonio Canova

By 1948, when this photo montage was made, Times Square was a riot of lights and special effects. Many of these lighted signs were the work of Douglas Leigh.

Times Square’s Glitzy Look was One Man’s Bright Idea

Douglas Leigh’s ability to imagine new kinds of advertising shaped the signs of the city

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Network of WWI Training Tunnels and Trenches Found in England

They were meant to prepare soldiers for gruelling conditions on the frontlines of Belgium and France

The Mississippi was in its high season, and the water was fast and cold.

This Civil War Boat Explosion Killed More People Than the ‘Titanic’

The ‘Sultana’ was only legally allowed to carry 376 people. When its boilers exploded, it was carrying 2,300

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