Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

History / U.S. History

Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr in "Hamilton"

Before There Was “Hamilton,” There Was “Burr”

Although Gore Vidal’s book never became a hit on Broadway, the novel helped create the public personae of Alexander Hamilton’s nemesis

Front and back of the letter written by Charles Darwin to Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden on May 2, 1875

A Letter Written by Charles Darwin, Twice Stolen, Returns to the Smithsonian

After being snatched by an intern in the mid 1970s, the missive written by the scientist returns to Washington

To celebrate the company's 80th anniversary, Radio Flyer created the world's largest wagon, which weighs in at 15,000 pounds.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How an Italian Immigrant Rolled Out the Radio Flyer Wagon Across America

Three generations and more than 100 years later, the company is still flying high

Studying Bacon Has Led One Smithsonian Scholar to New Insights on the Daily Life of Enslaved African-Americans

At Camp Bacon, a thinking person’s antidote to excess, historians, filmmakers and chefs gather to pay homage to the hog and its culinary renown

Merchant Mariners aboard a training ship working in the boiler room.

The Merchant Marine Were the Unsung Heroes of World War II

These daring seamen kept the Allied troops armed and fed while at the mercy of German U-boats

This first-person account by B.C. Franklin is titled "The Tulsa Race Riot and Three of Its Victims." It was recovered from a storage area in 2015 and donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Breaking Ground

A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

An Oklahoma lawyer details the attack by hundreds of whites on the thriving black neighborhood where hundreds died 95 years ago

Kurt Riley, governor of the Acoma Pueblo people, spoke on the ever-present specter of theft of cultural objects.

Native Americans Decry the Auctioning-Off of Their Heritage in Paris

Community leaders convene at the National Museum of the American Indian to push for change

Today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing.

History of Now

Experts Have Been Studying Income Inequality for Decades. Has Anything Changed?

The author of the blockbuster book Evicted talks about those who came before him

Meet the First and Only Foreign-Born First Lady: Louisa Catherine Adams

Almost 200 years ago, the wife of John Quincy Adams set a precedent

The Dueling Oaks in New Orleans' City Park

Discover America’s Bloody History at Five Famous Dueling Grounds

Men defended their delicate honor at these bloody sites across the U.S.

Sanora Babb with unidentified migrant workers

The Forgotten Dust Bowl Novel That Rivaled “The Grapes of Wrath”

Sanora Babb wrote about a family devastated by the Dust Bowl, but she lost her shot at stardom when John Steinbeck beat her to the punch

Blair's Snow White Hair Beautifier

Old Cosmetics Made New Again Through the Art of Digitization

Arsenic Complexion Wafers? A whole new world of yesteryear cosmetics just got a refresh

The Liberty Tree in colonial-era Boston

The Story Behind a Forgotten Symbol of the American Revolution: The Liberty Tree

While Boston landmarks like the Old North Church still stand, the Liberty Tree, gone for nearly 250 years, has been lost to history

Why Do Humans Have Canine Teeth and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

This Powerful Stokely Carmichael Portrait Never Made It to the Cover of Time Magazine

The artwork, by famed artist Jacob Lawrence, captured the turning point in the Civil Rights Movement

Watkins photographed vistas like the valley’s Half Dome.

How an Obscure Photographer Saved Yosemite

The beauty of the national park became clear long before Ansel Adams

Archaeologists look for pieces of metal in their search for the remains of a massacre of Native Americans in 1863 in Idaho.

The Search Is On for the Site of the Worst Indian Massacre in U.S. History

At least 250 Shoshone were killed by the Army in the 1863 incident, but their remains have yet to be found

Page 111 of 171