Smart News: History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

Skip to main content

Balloon prints like this one, of the Great Nassau “enable us to share some sense of the excitement that gripped those watching their fellow beings rise into the sky for the first time,” writes Tom D. Crouch of the National Air and Space Museum.

A Picture History of One of the World’s Greatest Hot Air Balloons

Designed by Charles Green, the Great Nassau was big enough to capture the imaginations of an entire country

January 31, 2017

Brunhilde Pomsel in 2016.

One of the Last Links to the Inner Nazi Circle Dies at 106

Brunhilde Pomsel worked with Joseph Goebbels until the final days of the Third Reich

January 30, 2017

Douglas Engelbart rehearsing for his 1968 computer demo.

In One 1968 Presentation, This Inventor Shaped Modern Computing

Douglas Engelbart’s career was about seeing the possibilities of what computing could do for humanity

January 30, 2017

There are few images of the top-secret map room. This one, taken at the end of WWII, shows Army Chief Warrant Officer Albert Cornelius standing before a map of Europe.

Take a Rare Look Inside FDR’s WWII Information Center: The Map Room

Long before Google Earth, this was how the president saw the world

January 30, 2017

Monument declaring Rugby, North Dakota, the city claiming geographic center—until now.

New Calculations Reposition the Geographical Center of North America

After an 90-year-reign, the title moves from Rugby, North Dakota, to the city of Center, in Oliver County

January 30, 2017

Thousands of Jews were murdered by Croatian Nazi collaborators at Jasenovac.

Why Croatian Jews Boycotted This Year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day

As neo-fascism grows in Croatia, the country is at a crossroads between denial and reality

January 27, 2017

German-Jewish refugees are shown at the rail of the German Liner St. Louis in Havana Cuba on June 1, 1939.

Haunting Twitter Account Shares the Fates of the Refugees of the St. Louis

In 1939, Cuba and the United States turned back a ship full of German Jews, 254 of whom were later killed during the Holocaust

January 27, 2017

Weapons from the Falkland War are melted down for the project, which brings together British and Argentinian families affected by the conflict.

This Artist Creates Roses From Weapons Left Behind By War

“Two Roses for Peace” brings together people on both sides of a 1982 conflict

January 27, 2017

Hyman G. Rickover created the U.S. Navy's nuclear program, but remained ambivalent about it throughout his life

Happy(?) Birthday to the Father of the Nuclear Navy

Hyman G. Rickover pushed to nuclearize the Navy’s submarines, but admitted he’d rather ‘sink them all’ to protect humanity

January 27, 2017

Anger is no match for Patience—no matter how large her sword.

Here’s What Happens in a “Comic Book” Drawn by Medieval Monks

Psychomachia pits vice against virtue in a battle for human souls

January 26, 2017

Fred Marriott in his modified Stanley Steamer, the Rocket, shortly before he broke the land-speed record.

Why Did People Think Steam-Powered Cars Were a Good Idea?

In the early days, steam cars were as common as gas ones. Why aren’t we driving them today?

January 26, 2017

An illustration from "Bessie, Queen of the Sky," a forthcoming children's book about Bessie Coleman.

The ‘Queen of the Sky’ Is Finally Getting Her Due

On her birthday, we’re remembering Bessie Coleman’s incredible achievements

January 26, 2017

Millions of immigrants passed through Castle Garden on as they entered the United States.

America’s First Immigration Center Was Also an Amusement Park

Castle Garden went from fort to pleasure grounds to precursor of Ellis Island

January 26, 2017

The site of the new museum in Gdansk

Historians, Government Officials Clash Over Polish History at New Museum

Trapped between nationalism and documentation, a Polish museum grapples with how to tell its story

January 25, 2017

A portrait of Dan Rice circa 1840.

This Famous American Clown Was (Probably) a Model for Uncle Sam

Dan Rice was the John Oliver of the mid-nineteenth century

January 25, 2017

"Gung Haggis Fat Choy" may be the only celebration that combines both traditional Robert Burns Night festivities, including bagpiping, with a celebration of the Chinese New Year.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy: This Canadian Celebration Combines Robert Burns Night and Chinese New Year

Started by “Toddish McWong” in 1998, the annual dinner has grown and grown

January 25, 2017

The final title card for Guiding Light.

TV’s Longest-Running Soap Opera Was First Broadcast 80 Years Ago

Guiding Light had over 15,700 episodes between radio and television

January 25, 2017

Samuel Clemens often told stories to his children, but only one has survived.

New Mark Twain Fairy Tale Unearthed

The previously unknown—and unfinished—story was hiding in plain sight

January 25, 2017

A piece of gold, believed to be a small ring, found in the Hoard

Researchers Finish Separating World’s Largest Celtic Coin Hoard

It took nearly three years to separate the more than 68,000 coins

January 24, 2017

This Map Shows Over a Century of Documented Lynchings in the United States

Mapping the history of racial terror

January 24, 2017

Page 274 of 349