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American History Museum

"My job as an artist is to inspire and heal," he says. "Around the election, my listeners were so distraught and I was distressed, too... so I felt compelled to create a piece of music ["Marigolds"] that would heal and educate."

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Kishi Bashi on Turning Hard History Into Memorable Music

Plus, listen to an exclusive debut of ‘Marigolds’ off his new album, ‘Omoiyari’

In 1904, Joseph Kekuku, inventor of the Hawaiian steel guitar, left Hawaii to perform on the American West Coast. Newspaper critics called him the “world’s greatest guitar soloist.”

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed American Music

The season finale of Sidedoor tells the story of an indigenous Hawaiian instrument with a familiar sound and unexpected influences

An image of a lion, like the designs on Lydian coins during the Iron Age

What Was the World’s First Currency and More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got experts

Trending Today

Thank Dan Robbins for the Paint-by-Number Craze

Robbins, who died this month at 93, came up with the kits that let millions of people try their hand at painting

Ingenious Women

Meet the Female Inventor Behind Mass-Market Paper Bags

A self-taught engineer, Margaret Knight bagged a valuable patent, at a time when few women held intellectual property

Queen Liliʻuokalani (above in Honolulu in 1917) “was one of the most successful composers . . . so much so that her repertoire remains at the forefront of those performed by Hawaiian musicians today,” says the Smithsonian's John Troutman

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How the Music of Hawaiʻi’s Last Ruler Guided the Island’s People Through Crisis

A prolific composer, Queen Liliʻuokalani created some of the most popular Hawaiian tunes and compositions of all time

The museum's new display takes a look at the implied expectation that women will always take care of the housework.

Women Who Shaped History

In the Home, a Woman’s Work Is Never Done, Never Honored and Never Paid For

Two historic firsts at the American History Museum; a woman steps into the director’s seat and a new show examines the drudgery of housework

Women have graced coinage since the third century B.C.

Who Was the First Woman Depicted on Currency and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

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Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

A Smithsonian Year of Music

A special report pulling together our coverage of music within the Smithsonian collections and around the world

Young Yoshiko Hide Kishi moved with her family to the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center; "It's important to educated people about what happened," she recently told Smithsonian curators.

The Complex Role Faith Played for Incarcerated Japanese-Americans During World War II

Smithsonian curator of religion Peter Manseau weighs in on a history that must be told

Amazing Grace captivates, says the Smithsonian's Christopher Wilson from the National Museum of American History. It is 90-minutes of "living the genius of Aretha and the passion of the tradition she embraced and represented."

Aretha Franklin’s Decades-Old Documentary Finally Comes to Theaters in 2019

The 2019 nationwide release, 47 years after it was made, means audiences at last will see the Queen of Soul’s transcendent masterpiece

In 1911, demonstrators protested following the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City.

Why the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Makes for a Complicated History

Charged with manslaughter, the owners were acquitted in December 1911. A Smithsonian curator reexamines the labor and business practices of the era

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Ingenious Minds

Studying Political Pessimism in the Past Actually Makes Historian Jon Grinspan Optimistic About the Future

Columnist David Brooks interviews the political historian about what we can learn from negative political engagement in our country’s history

Featuring Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, the new adaptation centers on the next generation of the Banks family.

The Practically Perfect Political Timing of Mary Poppins

Disney warned of reading too much into the timing of his films, but just now everyone could use a little “spit spot” from America’s favorite British Nanny

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New Molina Family Latino Gallery Opens in 2021 at the National Museum of American History

New Molina Family Latino Gallery to Open at National Museum of American History in 2021

The train carrying President George H. W. Bush, following in the tradition of Lincoln, Garfield and Eisenhower, will travel along a published 70-mile route so that mourners can gather along the way to witness the journey.

The Somber History of the Presidential Funeral Train

This grand tradition has allowed Americans across the country to pay their respects to the chief executive

If Light Can’t Escape Black Holes, How Do We Get Photos of Them… and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Dear Evan Hansen comes to the Smithsonian

‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Recognized as Part of America’s Cultural Heritage

Artifacts from the Broadway musical come to the collections of Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

“I love all kinds of music and I really just want to continue to stretch my hands wide open, hold hands with other artists, and build these bridges, and just to be able to create new lanes of music,” says Steve Aoki, whose equipment recently went on view at the Smithsonian.

Why This Body-Surfing, Sound-Blasting, Cake-Throwing DJ Belongs in a Museum

Just as his new release tops the charts, Electronic Dance Music DJ Steve Aoki says he is “blown away” to have his turntable technology in the collections

Smithsonian Scholars Pick Their Favorite Books of 2018

Here are eleven titles that intrigued and thrilled Smithsonian’s knowledge seekers this year

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