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History / U.S. History

A professor of the future gives a lecture via television (1935)

Predictions for Educational TV in the 1930s

Before it became known as the “idiot box,” television was seen as the best hope for bringing enlightenment to the American people

Four-person helicopter of the future (1944)

Big Things Ahead… But Keep Your Shirt On

Americans in the 1940s had wondrous expectations about the post-war world. Meet one author who advised them to curb their enthusiasm

Indian soldiers in the service of the East India Company-who outnumbered British troops in India five to one–loading cartridges.

Pass it on: The Secret that Preceded the Indian Rebellion of 1857

British officials were alarmed at the rapid distribution of mysterious Indian breads across much of the Raj

A woman is made to smell her partner's body odors to see if they're suitable for marriage

Mechanical Matchmaking: The Science of Love in the 1920s

Four “scientific” tests to determine whether your marriage will succeed or fail

A lithograph of the Battle of New Orleans, circa 1890

The 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the War of 1812

Why did the country really go to war against the British? Which American icon came out of the forgotten war?

1981 vision of future chemical warfare, causing soldiers to hallucinate

Tripping Through the Cold War: Drug Warfare in the Retrofuture

Was LSD the Soviet Union’s secret weapon?

Captain Lawrence "Titus" Oates with ponies

Sacrifice Amid the Ice: Facing Facts on the Scott Expedition

Captain Lawrence Oates wrote that if Robert Scott’s team didn’t win the race to the South Pole, “we shall come home with our tails between our legs”

Careers of the future as illustrated by Cy DeCosse for the 1982 book, The Kids Whole Future Catalog

Jobs of the Future: How Accurate Were the Soothsayers of 1982 At Predicting Today’s Top Careers?

College graduates take note: Your dream career as a robot psychologist or nasal technologist is just around the corner

Carl Mays, pitcher for the 1920 New York Yankees

A Death at Home Plate

Khrushchev and Mao meet in Beijing, July 1958. Khrushchev would find himself less formally dressed at their swimming-pool talks a week later.

Khrushchev in Water Wings: On Mao, Humiliation and the Sino-Soviet Split

Hugo Gernsback's vision for a monument devoted to electricity (1922)

The Monument to Electricity That Never Was

The Bureau of Air Commerce's inquiry board was tasked with investigating the cause of the accident.

Document Deep Dive

Document Deep Dive: A Firsthand Account of the Hindenburg Disaster

Frank Ward was a 17-year-old crewman when he saw the infamous disaster, but his memories of that day are still strong, 75 years later

Few aspects of American life have been documented for as long and as precisely as Major League Baseball, which began playing games in 1876.

This Baseball Fan Digs the Small Ball

Last year major-leaguers scored the fewest runs per game in 19 seasons. A top statistician says that’s something to root, root, root for

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Going Places

Travel pushes us. Home pulls

On May 6, 1937, the hydrogen-filled zeppelin burst into flames, shown here in a colorized photo, above a New Jersey field, killing 35 of 97 riders.

Found: Letters from the Hindenburg

A new addition to the Smithsonian collections tells a new story about the legendary disaster

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A By-The-Numbers Look at American Real Estate

An index to houses great and small over the centuries

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The Civil War

Document Deep Dive: How the Homestead Act Transformed America

Compare documents filed by the first and last homesteaders in the United States

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What Are America’s Most Iconic Homes?

According to the National Building Museum, these houses, more than most, have impacted the way we live

Cover to the April 1938 issue of Popular Science magazine

Rocket to the Stars at the 1939 New York World’s Fair

A trip into space without leaving Earth—or even going outdoors

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Theodore Roosevelt’s Life-Saving Speech

When a would-be assassin shot, the 50-page manuscript and metal eyeglasses case tucked against Roosevelt’s chest absorbed the blow

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