Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

American History

The Maillard Reaction's best-known application is in tasty, tasty food.

Why Food Smells So Good When It’s Browning

A complex chemical reaction called the Maillard Reaction is responsible

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island with their possessions in 1907.

The Centuries-Long Squabble Over Who Owns Ellis Island

It’s actually the federal government, but don’t tell New York or New Jersey

Bill Robinson as photographed by George Hurrell in 1935.

Three Ways Bill “Bojangles” Robinson Changed Dance Forever

Robinson worked throughout his career to make life better for black performers

John F. Kennedy meeting with Soviet politician Nikita Khrushchev.

Top Hats, James Bond and a Shipwreck: Seven Fun Facts About John F. Kennedy

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of JFK’s birth, a look at his extraordinary life

Multi-generational fighting over borders between the Calvert family that founded the colony of Maryland (pictured: Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore) and the Penn family that founded Pennsylvania (pictured: Thomas Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania) led to the creation of the Mason-Dixon line.

This Long, Violent Border Dispute Between Colonial Maryland and Pennsylvania is Why We Have the Mason-Dixon Line

Cresap’s War was a conflict that didn’t get fully settled for almost 50 years

According to Mary Sawyer's account, the lamb was a female. Sarah Hale's poem says it was a male. Sawyer is probably the source with reason to know.

‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ Is Based on a True Story

As a child, Mary Sawyer rescued a lamb. Then it followed her to school one day

Can you tell which it is?

The 1870s Dairy Lobby Turned Margarine Pink So People Would Buy Butter

Margarine or butter? The question has deep roots, and you shouldn’t even ask it in Wisconsin

John Frankenheimer's classic The Manchurian Candidate built upon the idea of brainwashed GIs in Korea.

History of Now

The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America

Fears of Communism during the Cold War spurred psychological research, pop culture hits, and unethical experiments in the CIA

Night vision technology has been in use since just before World War II, although it's evolved considerably since then.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Seeing in the Dark: The History of Night Vision

In honor of Military Invention Day, a look at night vision technology throughout the years

The recently sold bit of Sylacauga meteor, worth 18 times more than gold

Trending Today

Piece of the Meteorite That Struck a Woman Sells for More Than Its Weight in Gold

About the size of a dime, the fraction of the space rock fetched $7,500 at auction

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden still loves card catalogs.

The Librarian of Congress Weighs In on Why Card Catalogs Matter

The tech is gone, but it’s not forgotten. Carla Hayden explains why

Marie Curie and President Warren Harding walk down the White House steps arm in arm in 1921.

When Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

The element was hard to get and extremely expensive but essential for Curie’s cancer research

An illustration from 'Professor Dowell's Head,' a 1925 science fiction story from Russian author Alexander Belyayev.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Good News, Everybody! Someone Once Patented Plans For Keeping A Severed Head Alive

It was what’s called a “prophetic patent”—one that isn’t real yet

The Watts Bar Dam, one of the dams that is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Here’s How FDR Explained Making Electricity Public

“My friends, my policy is as radical as the Constitution of the United States,” he said

An infantry unit with bayonets marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in May 1865. They are followed by three ambulances.

See the Civil War Through the Lens of Its First Photographer

Mathew Brady and the photographers he hired were the first to photograph a war zone

The Bath School bombing in 1927 remains the deadliest school massacre in U.S. history.

History of Now

The 1927 Bombing That Remains America’s Deadliest School Massacre

More than 90 years ago, a school in Bath, Michigan was rigged with explosives in a brutal act that stunned the town

Monument Avenue In Richmond, Virginia

What Richmond Has Gotten Right About Interpreting Its Confederate History

And why it hasn’t faced the same controversy as New Orleans or Charlottesville

The unassuming face of one of twentieth-century America's most dangerous men, even to himself

The Innovative Spirit fy17

One Man Invented Two of the Deadliest Substances of the 20th Century

Thomas Midgley Jr.’s inventions have had an outsize impact—not all of it good—on humankind

The original kindergarten concept had children playing with a series of toys that were supposed to be given to them in a specific order to help them learn.

A Little History of American Kindergartens

Songs, blocks and snack time (and don’t forget a nap)

Chocolate chips as we know and love them today.

The First “Chocolate Chip” Was a Molasses Candy

The name “chocolate chip” goes back much farther than the Toll House cookies

Page 119 of 207