Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

History / U.S. History

Adulation for Lincoln (a Philadelphia lithographer’s viewpoint, 1865) did not become widespread until years after he was killed.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

What the Newspapers Said When Lincoln Was Killed

The initial reaction to the president’s death was a wild mixture of grief, exultation, vengefulness and fear

New York saw 4,500 annual cases by 1907. Mallon was linked to 47, and 3 deaths.

The Frightening Legacy of Typhoid Mary

With concerns about infectious disease in the news, a look back at history’s most famous carrier

The Spiritualist Who Warned Lincoln Was Also Booth’s Drinking Buddy

What did Charles Colchester know and when did he know it?

Aerial view of flooded area. Oregon Historical Society, Neg. 67585.

How Oregon’s Second Largest City Vanished in a Day

A 1948 flood washed away the WWII housing project Vanport—but its history still informs Portland’s diversity

Benjamin Franklin reading letters, which may or may not have been written by his female friends.

The Founding Fathers and the Women, Not Their Wives, Whom They Wrote To

These words today would raise suspicion if written between married men and their female friends

President and First Lady Edith Wilson.

Five Spots for a Romantic Presidents’ Day (or a Presidential Valentine’s Day)

These locations combine presidential history and romance

An aerial view of the city of Washington, D.C, in 1861 as seen from a balloon.

How the Backwater Town of Washington, D.C. Became the Beacon of a Nation

As the Anacostia Community Museum delves into daily life in a city at war, author Ernest B. Furgurson recalls the nascence of a city on the verge

James and Dolley Madison portraits, painted by Gilbert Stuar

The Surprising Raucous Home Life of the Madisons

One of America’s founding families kept their true selves for the friends and family

David Douglas Duncan, American. Marine Capt. Ike Fenton, Naktong River Permieter, No-Name Ridge, South Korea.

Getting up Close and Personal with American Soldiers

A new photography exhibit takes a multi-decade look

Aboard the Coast Guard Cutter USS Seneca, Prohibition agents stand amidst cases of scotch whiskey confiscated from a "rum runner" boat.

The Coast Guard’s Most Potent Weapon During Prohibition? Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman

A pioneer of her time, Friedman was a crucial part of the fight to enforce the ban on booze

A stack of faux fur "pelts."

The History of Faux Fur

For more than 100 years, the fine line between finks and minks has been blurred

An 1862 Alexander Gardner photograph shows the bodies of dead Confederate artillerymen at Antietam.

Vivid Images of Civil War Casualties Inspire a Scholar’s Inner Muse

Alexander Gardner’s photography, a record of sacrifice and devastating loss, prompts a new creativity from the show’s curator

From the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Why Malcolm X Still Speaks Truth to Power

More than 50 years after his death, Malcolm X remains a towering figure whose passionate writings have enduring resonance

The Clermont traveled the Hudson at an astonishing five miles per hour.

The Unbelievable Success of the American Steamship

How “Fulton’s Folly” transformed the nation’s landscape

Cyrus Gates House, in Broome County, New York, was once an important stop along the Underground Railroad.

The Little-Known History of the Underground Railroad in New York

Pultizer-Prize winning historian Eric Foner uncovers the hidden story behind this passage to freedom

On January 14, museum staff lowered the historic "Spirit of St. Louis" to the ground floor.

Wheels Down. Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis” Has Landed

The historic aircraft—first to fly nonstop from New York to Paris—is lowered to the ground inside the Air and Space Museum

Bearing witness to the historic march and the freedom songs sung along the way, Carl Benkert carried a large tape recorder hidden from the police and angry whites.

Listen to the Freedom Songs Recorded During the March From Selma to Montgomery

When MLK called for people to come to Selma, Detroit’s Carl Benkert arrived with his tape recorder, making the indelible album “Freedom Songs”

Captain Loebl of the US Coast Guard, Sector New York cuts the birthday cake for Alexander Hamilton at the Museum of American Finance

Crashing Alexander Hamilton’s Birthday Weekend

Each year, admirers of the oft-neglected Founding Father gather for a multi-day birthday celebration ranging across Manhattan.

A group of young people, joyful at the success of the march, sing while walking through the St. Jude complex in Montgomery.

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

These Rare Photos of the Selma March Place You in the Thick of History

James Barker, a photographer from Alaska, shares his memories of documenting the famed event

The Montanas arrested under the state's sedition law.

World War I: 100 Years Later

The Year Montana Rounded Up Citizens for Shooting Off Their Mouths

During World War I, the powers that ran Montana sought any excuse to silence dissent

Page 122 of 171