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History / U.S. History

Blue jeans gained popularity in the late 19th-century American West due to their durability.

Cache of 19th-Century Blue Jeans Discovered in Abandoned Arizona Mineshaft

The seven pairs of pants open a portal into life in the Castle Dome mining district

"Sidedoor" host Lizzie Peabody creaks across museum attic floorboards and sneaks into an old house in the woods (above: What lurks inside the Sellman House at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center?) to investigate the spooky stories that only a few dare to tell.

The Ghosts Who Haunt the Smithsonian

Mysterious tales head up podcast offerings for late October and November

T.H. Matteson, Examination of a Witch, 1853

A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials

One town’s strange journey from paranoia to pardon

Emmett Lewis' ancestor Cudjo Lewis was one of the last survivors of the Clotilda.

These Descendants Never Forgot the Story of the Last American Slave Ship

A new Netflix documentary follows the families of the “Clotilda” captives as they grapple with how their past informs their future

Divers examine an iron anchor believed to come from the British antislavery patrol ship H.M.S. Nimble, which ran afoul of the Florida Keys' sharp reefs in 1827 while chasing the illegal Spanish slaver the Guerrero.

What a Spanish Shipwreck Reveals About the Final Years of the Slave Trade

Forty-one of the 561 enslaved Africans on board the “Guerrero” died when the illegal slave ship sank off the Florida Keys in 1827

Jalyn Hall (left) as Emmett Till and Danielle Deadwyler (right) as Mamie Till-Mobley in Till, a new movie directed by Chinonye Chukwu

Women Who Shaped History

How Emmett Till’s Mother Galvanized the Civil Rights Movement

A new film dramatizes the life of Mamie Till-Mobley, who forced America to confront the brutality of her son’s 1955 murder

At the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Vivekananda presented a paternal, all-inclusive vision of India that made America seem young and provincial.

The Indian Guru Who Brought Eastern Spirituality to the West

A new biography explores the life of Vivekananda, a Hindu ascetic who promoted a more inclusive vision of religion

Among the eight exhibitions opening October 14, 2022, is "The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age," featuring the museum's iconic 1903 Wright Flyer.

A New Look for the National Air and Space Museum

A New Look for the National Air and Space Museum

Follow the October reopening of America’s most-visited museum with exclusive coverage from Smithsonian magazine

Six years after Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the first airplane in 1903, the Army purchased the Wright Military Flyer for $30,000.

After the Wright Brothers Took Flight, They Built the World’s First Military Airplane

The 1909 Military Flyer is the centerpiece of the “Early Flight” exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum

Forest Lawn Memorial-Park doubled as a spectacle of art, Christianity, architecture and patriotism.

Inside the Disneyland of Graveyards

How Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, a star-studded cemetery in Los Angeles, corporatized mourning in America

Andrew Dominik's Blonde doesn't purport to be historically accurate. Instead, like the Joyce Carol Oates novel it's based on, the film seeks to be spiritually faithful to the image Monroe embodied.

Women Who Shaped History

Who Was the Real Marilyn Monroe?

“Blonde,” a heavily fictionalized film by Andrew Dominik, explores the star’s life and legend in a narrative that’s equal parts glamorous and disturbing

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Women Who Shaped History

The Little-Known Story of the Women Who Stood Up to General Motors and Demanded Equal Pay

In the 1930s, Florence St. John and her co-workers at an automotive plant won a hard-fought victory for fairness

Florence Pugh (left) stars in Don't Worry Darling as Alice, a 1950s housewife who resides in an idyllic California community with her husband, Jack (Harry Styles, right).

The Feminist Inspiration Behind ‘Don’t Worry Darling’

Director Olivia Wilde dubbed the new film “‘The Feminine Mystique’ on acid”

The signpost of hometowns for each of the characters in the sitcom "M*A*S*H" is now held in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where it will go on view December 9.

The Stars Are Aligned at the National Museum of American History

Fifty Years and TV’s ‘M*A*S*H’ Still Draws Audiences

Fans are making plans to visit the Smithsonian this December when the show’s signature signpost goes on view in the new exhibition “Entertainment Nation”

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The Noble Fury of Samuel Adams

How America’s “first politician” galvanized a colony—and helped set a revolution in motion

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The Remarkable Effort to Locate America’s Lost Patents

An 1836 blaze destroyed thousands of records that catalogued the young nation’s ingenuity, but recent discoveries indicate that originals may still exist

Paula, Sam and Sol Messinger aboard the M.S. St. Louis in May 1939. The U.S. denied the ship entry, forcing its 937 passengers to return to Europe. More than a quarter of these refugees were later killed in the Holocaust.

Untold Stories of American History

Why Was America So Reluctant to Take Action on the Holocaust?

A new Ken Burns documentary examines the U.S.’ complex, often shameful response to the rise of Nazism and the plight of Jewish refugees

Elizabeth arrives in Jamestown, Virginia, at the start of a visit to the United States in October 1957.

Why Women in 1950s America Looked to Elizabeth II as a Source of Inspiration

The British queen ascended to the throne at a time when most women were expected to conform to traditional domestic roles

Elizabeth remained staunchly tight-lipped, rarely commenting publicly on current events.

Elizabeth II Was an Enduring Emblem of the Waning British Empire

The British queen died on Thursday at age 96

In “Postage Pairings,” from the National Portrait Gallery, host Kim Sajet speaks with the Smithsonian's Daniel Piazza, curator of philately, about postage stamps (left: 29c single, july 30, 1993) reproduced from portraits (right: Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Siffred Duplessis, c. 1785).

The Revolutionary Role Mail Played in America’s Fight for Independence

Hear about the colonial period postal service in the latest “Portraits” podcast

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