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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

What did J.P. Morgan's library smell like in 1906?

Cool Finds

Nosy Researchers Are Sniffing a Vintage Library

It’s all an effort to recreate an olfactory landscape of yore

President James Buchanan thought that a binding Supreme Court decision legitimizing slavery would bring the country together.

President James Buchanan Directly Influenced the Outcome of the Dred Scott Decision

He’s remembered as a president who tried to unify a fractured nation with little success, doing damage along the way

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. This photo was taken in 1969.

Happy Birthday to the First Woman in Space

She spent almost three days in space on her first flight

One of the longships built by students at Papdale Primary School.

Primary School Students in Scotland Gave Dead Goldfish a Viking Burial

Farewell, Bubbles and Freddy

Pound cake is generally made in a loaf pan (as above) or a Bundt pan (that's the one with the hole in the middle.)

A Pound Cake Was Originally Made With Four Pounds of Ingredients

Most Americans today don’t bake using pounds and ounces, but cups and teaspoons

Saint Louis was one of just 11 post offices across the country issuing provisional stamps in the two years between the Postal Act and the introduction of federal stamps.

Why Stamps Cost the Same Anywhere in the Country

The Postal Act of 1845 was just the beginning of a process of postal standarization that took many years

The bronze mirror found in the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun.

Oldest-Known Image of Confucius Found in Tomb of Disgraced Emperor

A hand-painted mirror, decorated with a painting of the philosopher, was discovered in the tomb of short-lived ruler Liu He

The replica club will be open through the end of the month.

Cool Finds

This Short-Lived 1930s Speakeasy Was a Sanctuary for Gay Londoners

And now you can visit a recreation

Lou Reed graffiti in France is a reminder of the rock star's international infuence.

Trending Today

Lou Reed’s Papers Have Found a Home

The vicious Velvet Underground frontman will live on at the New York Public Library

Over 400 men, women and children were sold on this day in 1859. It was the largest single sale of enslaved people in U.S. history but is barely talked about today.

The Horrors of the ‘Great Slave Auction’

The largest sale of enslaved people ever to take place in the U.S. tore families apart

First page of the Kempe manuscript

New Research

Researchers Decipher Recipe Believed to Treat Medieval Mystic

The find came to light thanks to a multi-spectral analysis on the manuscript of Margery Kempe’s autobiography

Theodor Seuss Geisel and Helen Palmer Geisel, his first wife, were both children's book authors, but they never had children.

Dr. Seuss Had an Imaginary Daughter Named Chrysanthemum-Pearl

Theodor Seuss Geisel created the character with his first wife, Helen Palmer Geisel

Egon Schiele’s “Woman Hiding Her Face” (1912)

Heirs of Holocaust Victim Invoke New Law in Suit Over Two Schiele Drawings

The family of Fritz Grunbaum claims the works were stolen by Nazis

Trending Today

New Foundation is Looking to Level Up Video Game Culture

The non-profit aims to preserve game code and the magazines, marketing materials and culture surrounding video games

It looks tiny now, but no matter what you've been told, it'll get bigger. A lot bigger.

Bad News, Pet Lovers: Teacup Pigs Are a Hoax

It’s a descriptor, not the term for a breed of pig, and it’s hurting animals

This picture of Uncle Fester holding a lightbulb in his mouth is right above the "gobble hole" at the base of a pinball table.

Why Is This 25-Year-Old Pinball Machine Still the Most Popular?

You can even play a video-game version of this table

Wilmer Souder poses with a microscope—one of the newfangled tools with which he helped pioneer the field of forensic science.

Cool Finds

Why Nobody Remembers the Forefather of Forensic Science

Wilmer Souder was a hidden pioneer of a still developing field

Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were often portrayed together. Here, Davis is drawn as a Confederate general.

The Illustrator of Alice in Wonderland Also Drew Abraham Lincoln. A Lot

John Tenniel was a well-known editorial cartoonist as well as the man who gave Lewis Carroll’s books their visual charm

Workers labor in the fields in the shadow of Mt. Williamson.

Cool Finds

View Daily Life in a Japanese-American Internment Camp Through the Lens of Ansel Adams

In 1943, one of America’s best-known photographers documented one of the best-known internment camps

This Roman road is part of a newly opened McDonalds.

Cool Finds

New McDonalds Has a Cool Design Element: an Ancient Roman Road

Have a bit of history with that Happy Meal

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