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American History

The creative output of Fats Domino, who died October 25, 2017 at the age of 89, was consistently compelling, and fans were delighted to eat it all up.

Fats Domino’s Infectious Rhythms Set a Nation in Motion

This Rock ’n’ Roll maverick was a true New Orleans original

In July 1955, black children wait to register for school in Lawrence County, Arkansas, as schools desegregate in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education.

How a Psychologist’s Work on Race Identity Helped Overturn School Segregation in 1950s America

Mamie Phipps Clark came up with the oft-cited “doll test” and provided expert testimony in Brown v. Board of Education

Confederate Prisoners Being Conducted from Jonesborough to Atlanta by Kara Walker, 2005, from the portfolio Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

How Kara Walker Boldly Rewrote Civil War History

The artist gives 150-year-old illustrations a provocative update at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Anti-Nazi protest outside Deutsches Haus, Aug. 1938

History of Now

The Nazis’ Plan to Infiltrate Los Angeles And the Man Who Kept Them at Bay

A new book explores the deadly and nefarious plots designed by Hitler and his supporters

The front of Mar-a-Lago in April 1967

History of Now

The Ironic History of Mar-a-Lago

A deep dive into an obscure archive reveals that the Palm Beach property had once been envisioned as a “Winter White House”

An emergency hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, 1918. “Of the 12 men who slept in my squad room, 7 were ill at one time,” a soldier recalled.

The Next Pandemic

How the Horrific 1918 Flu Spread Across America

The toll of history’s worst epidemic surpasses all the military deaths in World War I and World War II combined. And it may have begun in the United States

BBC's "Downton Abbey" is one of the rare aspects of popular culture to show the grim costs of the 1918 flu pandemic.

The Next Pandemic

Why Did So Few Novels Tackle the 1918 Pandemic?

Surprisingly few U.S. writers touched by the 1918 pandemic wrote about it. But flu lit appears more popular today than ever

U.S. government officials met with multiple tribes of the Great Plains to negotiate the Medicine Lodge Treaty in 1867.

How the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty Changed the Plains Indian Tribes Forever

The peace agreement set up reservations for the tribe—only to break that agreement in the following decades

NMAH director John Gray, designer Hervé Pierre, First Lady Melania Trump and Smithsonian secretary David Skorton pose with the silk crepe gown.

Melania Trump Donates Her Inaugural Ball Gown to the Smithsonian

Mrs. Trump, who confesses a passion for design, had a precise idea of what she wanted to wear on that historic evening

The October 21, 1967 March on the Pentagon is remembered as one of the most significant political demonstrations of the era.

Fifty Years Ago, a Rag-Tag Group of Acid-Dropping Activists Tried to “Levitate” the Pentagon

The March on the Pentagon to end the Vietnam War began a turning point in public opinion, but some in the crowd were hoping for a miracle

A Hybrid III model crash test dummy.

These Dummies Gave Us a Crash Course on Auto Safety

Many of your car’s safety features owe a lot to these inanimate people

President Kennedy meets with Gen. Curtis LeMay and the pilots who discovered the Cuban missiles.

JFK Faked a Cold to Get Back to Washington During the Cuban Missile Crisis

The president was in Chicago when he got the news that he needed to make a decision

Reaching the summit of the Matterhorn made Annie Smith Peck well-known.

Three Things to Know About Pants-Wearing Mountaineer Annie Smith Peck

Peck wasn’t wealthy and her family, who did have money, didn’t approve of her globe-trotting, mountain-climbing, pants-wearing lifestyle

None

John Z. DeLorean Thought He Was Designing the Car of the Future

Instead its almost-instantly out-of-date styling made it a legend

Virginia Tech, whose Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) was instrumental in bringing the festival to fruition, exhibited on Day 1 a cutting-edge robotic fabrication system.

These Collegiate Innovators Are at the Vanguard of Technology and Art

A massive three-day festival spotlights the achievements of the Atlantic Coast Conference

Whaling captured the popular imagination.

The Real-Life Whale That Gave Moby Dick His Name

Mocha Dick had encounters with around 100 ships before he was finally killed

Nicholas Culpeper fought against the medical establishment of the time by taking the radical action of writing in English, not Latin.

How Nicholas Culpeper Brought Medicine to the People

His 17th-century text is still in print today

The Old House Chamber has been used as National Statuary Hall since July 1864.

History of Now

A Senator Speaks Out Against Confederate Monuments… in 1910

Alone in his stand, Weldon Heyburn despised that Robert E. Lee would be memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol

C.O.R.E Demonstration for Fair Housing, August 21, 1963. Before the Fair Housing Act of 1968, a practice known as redlining limited loans to owners in minority neighborhoods which contributed to housing decay. Discrimination also prevented minorities from moving into better neighborhoods. A Department of Buildings survey in August 1963 revealed over 16,000 housing violations in a single month. Over 379 cases were turned over to the criminal court for prosecution.

The “Unlikely Historians” Who Documented America in Protest

A new exhibit showcases photos and films that have long been stowed away in a basement at New York Police Department’s headquarters

"The Rush" lampooned in an 1870 issue of Harper's Magazine

The Minister Who Invented Camping in America

How William H.H. Murray accidental bestseller launched the country’s first outdoor craze

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