A nurse training program at the Central State Hospital.

Cool Finds

Psychiatric Records for African American Patients Are Rare, And This Hospital Has a Century’s Worth

Researchers are attempting to digitize and preserve the tens of thousands of patient records from the Central State Hospital

Cool Finds

No One Knows Why Ancient Egyptians Built This 4,600-Year-Old Pyramid

The new pyramid joins the list of other mysterious step pyramids built before the Great Pyramid at Giza

The Grand Fleet, 1916. This sketch was made by Muirhead Bone, who, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence "became the first official war artist in 1916"

World War I: 100 Years Later

The British Employed Official War Painters in Both World Wars

Between 1939 and 1945 the War Artists Advisory Committee purchased about 6,000 pieces of art from over 400 artists

Modern humans get back to their (partial) roots at the Neanderthal Museum in Germany.

New Research

Neanderthals Went Extinct 30,000 Years Ago, But Their DNA Is Still in the Human Genome

Some of the Neanderthal genes made important contributions while others made us more susceptible to disease

A vintage postcard presents a deceptively sunny view of the school

Trending Today

Forensic Experts Have Found 55 Bodies Buried at Notorious Reform School

That’s more than twice as many as they expected to find

The USS Pueblo.

Cool Finds

The Time the U.S. Nearly Nuked North Korea Over a Highjacked Spy Ship

The Pueblo incident ended peacefully, but newly unclassified documents detail President Johnson’s contingency plans

Researchers recreated what the 7,000 year-old man likely looked like.

New Research

Just Call This Hunter-Gatherer Ol’ Blue-Eyes

DNA from an ancient human tooth found in a cave in Spain reveals one European hunter-gatherer’s complexion

Cool Finds

Look Closely at This Picture of John Glenn

The reflected faces of NASA staff appear in John Glenn’s spacesuit

No Instagram filter needed.

Cool Finds

See the First Photographs Ever Taken of Jerusalem

Since 1844, millions of photographs have probably been taken of Jerusalem. But these blurry snaps are the very first.

Cool Finds

Fresh From 1849: The First Animated Gif of the Moon

A series of exposures shows the oldest surviving photo of the Moon

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Egypt Just Unearthed a Previously Unknown Pharaoh’s Tomb

Ancient Egypt’s King Senebkay just arose after a 3,650 year slumber

Trending Today

The Extreme Dakar Rally Is Tearing Up the Inca Empire

500 drivers in an extreme off-road race, and plenty of damage to historic sites

The Franklin Papers includes 4,522 documents, including angry letters the founding father never sent.

Cool Finds

It’s Ben Franklin’s Birthday—Want to Rummage Through His Papers?

4,522 documents, letters and notes that Franklin wrote or received

Trending Today

20 Years Ago Today, the Northridge Earthquake Rocked L.A.

Sixty people died and thousands were left homeless in one of the most deadly earthquakes in American history

From an illuminated manuscript circa 1350s

Cool Finds

Not All the Knights of the Round Table Were White

The storytellers assumed we’d be sharp enough to pick up on their hints that Sir Morien was black. Turns out, we’re not

Cool Finds

What Prompts People to Eat Human Flesh?

Power, violence, revenge—and the heat of the moment

Hundreds of years before the Great Wall of China, seen here, there was another.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Chart the First Great Wall of China

Hundreds of years before the Great Wall, the Qi Dynasty built a wall of rammed earth

Did the English discover Canada's west coast hundreds of years before it was officially charted by Spanish explorer Juan Perez?

New Research

Francis Drake May Have Discovered Western Canada Hundreds of Years Earlier, Kept Quiet About It

The discovery of a 16th century coin is threatening the story of British Columbia’s history

War elephants depicted in the battle of Zama, 202 BC.

New Research

A Lesson from History: When Assembling an Army of War Elephants, Don’t Pick Inbred Ones

Even though African elephants usually trump Asian elephants for might and aggression, in 217 B.C. Ptolemy made the crucial mistake of choosing inbred ones

Rendering of map by artist John Swogger.

New Research

This Stone Age Mural Might Be the Oldest Map Ever

But before it can be crowned oldest map, archaeologists have to figure out whether it is a map at all

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