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American History

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Here Are 250 Places to Visit to Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday. How Many Have You Been To?

Journey around the nation with this interactive map, divided by region or category, and discover American history in a way you’ve never seen before

Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ series "Franklin"

America's 250th Anniversary

What Are the Best TV Shows About the American Revolution? A Historian Outlines Five of His Favorites

The scholar’s picks include “Turn: Washington’s Spies,” “John Adams” and “Franklin”

People view the Declaration of Independence and other documents at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Ten of the Most Exciting Ways to Commemorate America’s 250th This Year

Our country’s birthday bash includes exhibitions, historical reenactments, a massive potluck and more

Paleontologists removed roughly 3,000 pounds of rocks and fossils from the site between mid-September and mid-October 2025.

Dinosaur National Monument Construction Work Turns Up New Fossils, Leading to the First Excavation at One Site in More Than a Century

Recent digs revealed roughly 20 feet of a long-necked dinosaur’s skeleton, and paleontologists suspect even more bones are lurking underground

Nearly 136 years after it sank, the long-buried remains of the schooner Lawrence N. McKenzie have resurfaced.

Beach Erosion Reveals Fragments of a 136-Year-Old Shipwreck That Sank in New Jersey’s ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic’

The schooner “Lawrence N. McKenzie” was transporting a load of oranges from Puerto Rico to New York City when it wrecked on March 21, 1890

A historic marker at Jackson State University, ca. 1950, from the “At the Vanguard” exhibition at the National Museum of African American History and Culture

How Historically Black Schools Create and Preserve Their Own History Through Amazing Artifacts, From Paintings to Marching Band Hats

For nearly 200 years, HBCUs have educated Black Americans. Now, a new exhibition highlights special objects from five universities

President Lyndon B. Johnson awards the Medal of Honor to Dwight Hal Johnson on November 19, 1968.

Untold Stories of American History

History Remembered This Black Medal of Honor Recipient for the Two Worst Days of His Life. A New Book Dives Into the Vietnam Vet’s Story

Dwight Hal Johnson received the nation’s highest military honor in 1968. Three years later, he was killed during an attempted robbery at age 23

A Gibson girl illustration for Life magazine by Charles Dana Gibson, circa 1906

Who Was the Inspiration Behind the ‘Gibson Girl’ Illustrations? The Artist Said She Was Every Woman

Charles Dana Gibson’s archetype became the original American “it girl” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and helped transform fashion and beauty

MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum developed Eliza in the mid-1960s. His views on artificial intelligence were often at odds with many of his fellow pioneers in the field.

Why the Computer Scientist Behind the World’s First Chatbot Dedicated His Life to Publicizing the Threat Posed by A.I.

Joseph Weizenbaum realized that programs like his Eliza chatbot could “induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people”

Claudette Colvin, photographed here in 1998, helped end segregation on public transportation.

Women Who Shaped History

Months Before Rosa Parks Made Headlines, Claudette Colvin Refused to Give Up Her Seat for a White Woman on a Segregated Bus

Colvin, a lesser-known figure who took a stand against racial discrimination as a teenager in Montgomery, Alabama, has died at age 86

The Northerner sank in 1868 and has been resting upright on the lakebed of Lake Michigan off the coast of Wisconsin ever since.

See a 157-Year-Old Great Lakes Shipwreck in Stunning Detail With This New 3D Scan

Last year, maritime archaeologists revisited the “Northerner” in Lake Michigan and captured hundreds of still images, which they stitched together to create a digital replica of the vessel

Detail of a 19th-century mural in the Library of Congress that depicts America as a successor to ancient Egypt

How White Southerners Distorted the History of Ancient Egypt to Justify Slavery in the U.S.

American writers misleadingly interpreted Egypt’s past to argue that slavery was a divinely sanctioned institution

The Hornet's Nest, Jimmy Carter, 2003

You Can Buy President Jimmy Carter’s Paintings, Furniture, Mementos and a Love Letter to His Wife

Christie’s selected the items with help from the president’s daughter, Amy, for a special sale in celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday

The company plans to offer tours of its new headquarters, giving members of the public a chance to see the sculpture.

Cool Finds

Forgotten for Decades in a Dusty Mall Basement, a Long-Lost Harry Bertoia Sculpture Is Back on Display

The untitled 26-foot-tall piece now hangs in the seven-story atrium of General Motors’ new global headquarters, in Detroit

A young learner explores an exhibit at the 2024 National Weather Festival, hosted by the National Weather Center, which is located in Norman but unaffiliated with the National Weather Museum.

This Is the Only Museum Dedicated to Weather Artifacts in America. It May Shut Down Due to Funding Shortages

The Oklahoma institution, which preserves and displays historic weather-related objects, is asking for donations from the public

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Happy Public Domain Day to All Who Celebrate! You Can Now Use Betty Boop, Nancy Drew and ‘The Maltese Falcon’ for Free

On January 1, 2026, copyrights will expire for comics, books, movies, musical compositions and other creative works from 1930, as well as sound recordings from 1925

Our most-read stories of the year spotlighted a Eugène Delacroix painting, horseshoe crabs, the Dionne quintuplets and more.

Ten Top Smithsonian Stories of 2025, From Eerie Clay Puppets With Detachable Heads to a New Look at the American Revolution

The magazine’s most-read articles of the year included a deep dive on the Scopes “monkey trial,” an interview with award-winning documentarians and a profile of quintuplets who found fame during the Great Depression

The protagonist of Louisa May Alcott's “A Christmas Dream, and How It Came True,” embarks on a journey much like Ebenzer Scrooge's in A Christmas Carol.

A Forgotten Louisa May Alcott Story Showcases the Author’s Twist on Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’

Written in 1882, “A Christmas Dream, and How It Came True,” covered many of the same themes as Dickens’ classic, albeit with a different audience in mind

Eusebio Maglinte's steamer trunk, 1920s

Recovered Steamer Trunks Reveal the Overlooked Histories of Filipino American Farm Workers in the Early 20th Century

The artifacts serve as time capsules for an entire generation of “manong” workers and they’re now displayed at the National Museum of American History

The oil portrait is one of Gilbert Stuart's Athenaeum-type paintings of Washington.

One of the George Washington Portraits That Inspired the Image on the $1 Bill Could Sell for Up to $1 Million

Artist Gilbert Stuart made numerous paintings of the first president. The copy that’s up for sale was commissioned by James Madison in 1804

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