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History / U.S. History

Theodore Roosevelt and his Big Stick in the Caribbean (1904)

Why Teddy Roosevelt Is Popular on Both Sides of the Political Aisle

A historian considers the forces that have shaped the Rough Rider’s presidential legacy in the decades since his death more than 100 years ago

Don the Talking Dog was a vaudeville hit.

When Don the Talking Dog Took the Nation by Storm

Although he ‘spoke’ German, the vaudevillian canine captured the heart of the nation

Robert Johnson (Kamal Naiqui) records some of his tunes that would later change rock music as we know it.

'Timeless' Recapped

Somebody’s Got a Case of the Blues: Timeless Season 2, Episode 6, Recapped

The time team’s humming a new tune after a run-in with one of the most influential men in American music history

On Tuesday night, Cal Ripken Jr. received the Smithsonian Great Americans medal recognizing lifetime contributions that embody American ideals and ideas

Baseball Legend Cal Ripken Jr. Takes Home Another Award, This Time From the Smithsonian

The Iron Man adds the American History Museum’s Great Americans medal to his trophy wall

A massive task force—150 full-time personnel from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service—hunted the Unabomber.

When the Unabomber Was Arrested, One of the Longest Manhunts in FBI History Was Finally Over

Twenty years ago, the courts gave Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences, thereby ending more than a decade of terror.

Years after she captured this tender, reflective image of the First Lady, photographer Diana Walker sent a print of the photograph to George H. W. Bush. “It does seem like so long ago, but seeing this image brings everything back into focus,” President Bush wrote in response: “The photo now hangs in my office in Maine, and I enjoy it every day.”

Smithsonian Curators Reflect on How Barbara Bush Will Be Remembered

As both the First Lady and the mother of a President, Mrs. Bush leaves a legacy of a national grandmother with an iron backbone

Panama Canal construction in 1913 showing workers drilling holes for dynamite in bedrock, as they cut through the mountains of the Isthmus. Steam shovels in the background move the rubble to railroad cars.

How the Panama Canal Took a Huge Toll On the Contract Workers Who Built It

The project was a tremendous American achievement, but the health costs to the mostly Caribbean contract workers were staggering

Civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Abernathy, in short sleeves, leads the Poor People's March to the edge of the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, June 24, 1968. Abernathy and his followers from Resurrection City marched to the Agriculture Department and then to the Capitol.

Remembering Resurrection City and the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968

Lenneal Henderson and thousands of other protesters occupied the National Mall for 42 days during the landmark civil rights protest

Statue of James Marion Sims in front of the Alabama State Capitol.

A Statue of a Doctor Who Experimented on Enslaved People Was Removed From Central Park

The discussion over the memorialization of James Marion Sims offers the opportunity to remember his victims

A young JFK is all, like, "Whoa" when he gets taken from 1934 Connecticut to 2018 Palo Alto.

'Timeless' Recapped

JFK’s Excellent Adventure: “Timeless,” Season 2, Episode 5 Recapped

We learn a lot about the once and future President, and he learns way too much about himself, in a tense twist with the past coming to the present

Bill Kennedy placed second in France’s Chateau-Thierry-to-Paris relay race, in 1919.

When “Bricklayer Bill” Won the 1917 Boston Marathon, It Was a Victory For All Irish Americans

William J. Kennedy crossed the finish line wrapped in the American flag

In the late 19th century, the Democratic Party (represented here by Grover Cleveland and his running mate Adlai Stevenson) was the party of free trade, while the GOP was the faction of harsh tariffs. By the late 20th century, these roles had completely reversed.

A History of America’s Ever-Shifting Stance on Tariffs

Unpacking a debate as old as the United States itself

This advertisement from San Francisco-based electronic cigarette company JUUL calls back the tobacco advertisements from the mid-20th century.

Ads for E-Cigarettes Today Hearken Back to the Banned Tricks of Big Tobacco

A new ‘Joe Camel’-esque phenomenon may be igniting as the new fad takes a 21st-century page out of an old playbook

To demonstrate Tupperware's patented seal, Brownie Wise tosses a bowl filled with water at a party.

Women Who Shaped History

The Story of Brownie Wise, the Ingenious Marketer Behind the Tupperware Party

Earl Tupper invented the container’s seal, but it was a savvy, convention-defying entrepreneur who got the product line into the homes of housewives

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify Tuesday before a joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election.

History of Now

Before Zuckerberg, These Six Corporate Titans Testified Before Congress

The CEO of Facebook has some ignominious company from J.P. Morgan to Kenneth Lay

Junius Brutus Stearns, "Hannah Duston Killing the Indians" (1847). Oil on canvas.

The Gruesome Story of Hannah Duston, Whose Slaying of Indians Made Her an American Folk “Hero”

A century after killing and scalping ten Native Americans, she was memorialized in what might well be the first public statue of a female in America

View of two farmers checking the corpses of dead sheep on a farm ranch near the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

How the Death of 6,000 Sheep Spurred the American Debate on Chemical Weapons

The Dugway sheep incident of March 1968 made visible the military’s covert attempts to test and stockpile millions of dollars worth of chemical weapons

Dorothy Parker at a typewriter in 1941

Women Who Shaped History

Writing in the Public Eye, These Women Brought the 20th Century Into Focus

Michelle Dean’s new book looks at the intellects who cut through the male-dominated public conversation

Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested for "loitering" in Montgomery, Alabama, in September 1958.

Even Though He Is Revered Today, MLK Was Widely Disliked by the American Public When He Was Killed

Seventy-five percent of Americans disapproved of the civil rights leader as he spoke out against the Vietnam War and economic disparity

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