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American History

Kasimu Harris, "War on the Benighted #1," 2015. Digital photography.

American South

Seven Artists Explore New Orleans’ Forgotten Histories

A new exhibit timed to the city’s tricentennial explores The Big Easy’s diverse and sometimes troubled past

Rendering of the Tower of Voices

Building the Flight 93 Memorial’s Massive Chime Tower

The Tower of Voices, being erected in Pennsylvania this summer, will feature chimes on a scale unseen anywhere else in the world

Trending Today

How a “Sultry” Statue of Liberty Cost the U.S. Post Office More Than $3.5 Million

A sculptor was awarded millions in royalties after the USPS accidentally used an image of his Las Vegas replica on a 2010 postage stamp

Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam

What Did the Founding Fathers Eat and Drink as They Started a Revolution?

They may not have been hosting a cookout, but they did know how to imbibe and celebrate

The Pickup Truck’s Transformation From Humble Workhorse to Fancy Toy

From ‘rusty rattletraps’ to ‘big black jacked-up’ rides, the vehicles symbolize blue-collar identity while flaunting bourgeois prosperity

A U.S. Marine carries an American flag on his rifle during a recovery operation in summer 1968

1968: The Year That Shattered America

How the Fourth of July Was Celebrated (and Protested) in 1968

Headlines from The New York Times reveal how the nation and the world commemorated Independence Day in what had already been a tumultuous year

American soccer fans watch the 2014 World Cup.

What the 2026 World Cup Could Do for America’s 250th Birthday Celebration

In eight years, the soccer tournament will come to the U.S. just as we mark a major anniversary, providing an opportunity that can’t be missed

John Wesley Powell by Edmund Clarence Messer, 1889

The Visionary John Wesley Powell Had a Plan for Developing the West, But Nobody Listened

Powell’s foresight might have prevented the 1930s dust bowl and perhaps, today’s water scarcities

Members of Revitalization Corps marching in Old Saybrook

Racism Kept Connecticut’s Beaches White Up Through the 1970s

By bussing black kids from Hartford to the shore, Ned Coll took a stand against the bigotry of “armchair liberals”

So gooey, so good.

Let Us Tell You S’more About America’s Favorite Campfire Treat

The gooey snack became popular thanks to technological advances of the Industrial Revolution, which brought cheap sweets to the masses

This painting by Louis-Nicolas Van Blarenberghe, court painter of battles to France’s King Louis XVI, depicts the 1781 formal surrender of the British army at Yorktown, Virginia. The original is at the Palace of Versailles. This secondary version was created in 1786 for French General Comte de Rochambeau, the commander of the French forces at Yorktown

The American Revolution Was Just One Battlefront in a Huge World War

A new Smithsonian exhibition examines the global context that bolstered the colonists’ fight for independence

Images of Vickie Jones for the March 1969 Jet profile.

The Counterfeit Queen of Soul

A strange and bittersweet ballad of kidnapping, stolen identity and unlikely stardom

Interior Views Light through windows in Main Concourse, Grand Central Terminal, 1929.

The Preservation Battle of Grand Central

Forty years ago, preservationists—including a former First Lady—fought to maintain the integrity of New York City’s historic railway station

An artist's rendering of the Capitol dome as seen through Harvey Pratt's proposed "Warriors' Circle of Honor"

This Innovative Memorial Will Soon Honor Native American Veterans

The National Museum of the American Indian has reached a final decision on which design to implement

A metal obelisk marked the international border in Ambos Nogales circa 1913. American (left) and Mexican (right) sentries patrolled the line.

History of Now

The Raging Controversy at the Border Began With This Incident 100 Years Ago

In Nogales, Arizona, the United States and Mexico agreed to build walls separating their countries

The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus suffered one of the worst train wrecks in history in 1918, with more than 100 people injured and 86 killed.

The Hammond Train Wreck of 1918 Killed Scores of Circus Performers

One hundred years ago, a horrific railway disaster decimated the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus—but the show still went on

Future of Art

Take a 3D Tour Through Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West

New state-of-the-art scans allow virtual visits to the architect’s winter home and gives conservators detailed blueprints

Wealthy Bostonian John Freake who, a new caption reveals, owned a slave.

Cool Finds

Museum Ties Portraits of the Wealthy to Their Slaveholding Pasts

New signs at the Worcester Art Museum illuminate how wealthy New Englanders benefitted from the slave trade

Charleston's City Hall, where Tuesday's vote was held, was built by enslaved people.

Charleston, South Carolina, Formally Apologizes for Its Role in the Slave Trade

Some 40 percent of enslaved Africans entered the country through Charleston

The bones were discovered at a very shallow depth, indicating that they had been disposed of in a hurry, and with little ceremony.

Newly Unearthed Civil War Bones Speak Silently to the Grim Aftermath of Battle

What the amputated limbs and full skeletons of a Manassas burial pit tell us about wartime surgical practices

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