When a Historian Saw This Haunting Photograph of a Nameless Native Girl, She Decided She Had to Identify Her
In 1868, Sophie Mousseau was photographed at Fort Laramie alongside six white Army officers. But her identity—and her life story—remained unknown for more than a century
Why Skiers Are Ending the Season With a Splash—and Keeping the Raucous Tradition of Pond Skimming Alive
For nearly 100 years, die-hards have been saying goodbye to winter by speeding down the slopes and water skiing over massive puddles
Paul Revere Wasn’t the Only Midnight Rider Who Dashed Through the Darkness to Warn the Patriots That the British Were Coming
Revere, who was later immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, was one of many riders who rode through the countryside, spreading the alarm on April 18, 1775
Dive Into the Deeper Story of the American Revolution on How New England and Virginia United Against the British
Inside the steeple of Old North Church and among the Southern Colonies, less familiar stories of the events from 250 years ago emerge
Eight Historic Moments That Took Place at the Waldorf Astoria New York
The famous hotel reopens this spring after an extensive renovation that began in 2017
How Dreams of Buried Pirate Treasure Enticed Americans to Flock to Florida During the Roaring Twenties
1925 marked the peak of the Florida land boom. But false advertising and natural disasters thwarted many settlers’ visions of striking it rich in the land of sunshine
The Long, Strange Trip of the Titanic Victims Whose Remains Surfaced Hundreds of Miles Away, Weeks After the Ship Sank
Rescuers only recovered the bodies of 337 of the 1,500-plus passengers and crew who died in the disaster. Around one-third of these corpses were buried at sea
Two Centuries Ago, Batteaumen on Virginia’s James River Ended Long Work Days With a Taste of Freedom
The James River Batteau Company, an outdoor recreation-meets-historical tour business, has designed a dinner cruise that honors the resilience and culinary ingenuity of enslaved boatmen
We Rediscovered Robert Caro’s Abandoned Novel About an Intrepid Journalist Buried in His Archives
A deep dive into the legendary biographer’s papers leads to the surprising revelation of a work he has all but forgotten
A Field of Dreams Built in an Unlikely Place: A Japanese American Internment Camp
A baseball diamond buried long ago at Manzanar has been rebuilt to honor the Americans who once played the sport there
How an American Merchant, a French Official and a Pioneering Chemist Smuggled Much-Needed Gunpowder to the Continental Army
The trio’s scheming became a crucial element of the fledgling nation’s success in the Revolutionary War
Through Good Teams and Bad, Wrigley Field Remains the Coziest Park in Baseball
The Chicago landmark represents the purest form of the American pastime
What Spurred the South to Join the American Revolution?
How a disagreement with a Scottish lord over westward expansion, a cache of gunpowder, and the future of enslaved labor helped kick-start the southern colonies’ embrace of the radical cause
![Senator Joseph McCarthy “comes along really chronologically halfway through the story [in the early 1950s], and there’s a lot that happened before he was even on the scene,” says author Clay Risen.](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/ee-zkNhyyeZSehRcxDnYUB-QAj4=/450x300/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/dd/f0/ddf0fc8a-56de-40d6-ae40-efcb46ac804b/gettyimages-515261284.jpg)
Newly Declassified Documents Reveal the Untold Stories of the Red Scare, a Hunt for Communists in Postwar America
In his latest book, journalist and historian Clay Risen explores how the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy upended the nation
The Nation’s First Black Female Doctor Blazed a Path for Women in Medicine. But She Was Left Out of the Story for Decades
After earning a medical degree in 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler died in obscurity and was buried without a headstone
These Dramatic Photos Reveal How It’s Always High Noon in Tombstone
Saddle up for a visit to the most notorious town in the West, where a certain infamous showdown happens day after day
How Do Space Programs Get Their Names? And More Questions From Our Readers
You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts
The Moving Story of Bringing Baseball Back to Manzanar, Where Thousands of Japanese Americans Were Incarcerated During World War II
In honor of his mother and others imprisoned at the internment camp, baseball player Dan Kwong has restored a diamond in the California desert
![“As the first national women’s reform organization, [the American Female Moral Reform Society] showed that there was power in women organizing to address societal problems,” says rhetorician Lisa J. Shaver.](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/m4Hxjpo4QedMhxQhApdcZazQOw4=/450x300/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/6c/8d/6c8ddf41-d605-4dc6-86cd-5f77e85ae822/interior-of-a-concert-saloon.jpg)
The Daring 19th-Century Reformers Who Sought to End Prostitution by Offering Financial and Emotional Support to Urban Sex Workers
Led entirely by women, the American Female Moral Reform Society gave material aid to those in need and pushed for men to be held accountable for frequenting brothels
Flannery O’Connor Wanted to Shake Her Readers Awake. Her Family Wanted Her to Write the Next ‘Gone With the Wind’
This year marks the writer’s 100th birthday. Through fiction anchored in her Southern background and Catholic faith, O’Connor revealed how candid confrontations with darkness lead to moments of reckoning
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