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American History

American girl Samantha Smith (center) visited the U.S.S.R. on the invitation of General Secretary Yuri Andropov in July 1983. Here, she's visiting the Artek pioneer camp.

The Surprising Story of the American Girl Who Broke Through the Iron Curtain

Samantha Smith was only 10 when she wrote to Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov about the Cold War. In response, he invited her for a visit

Louise Brooks

Cool Finds

Rare Technicolor Snippets of Lost Films Discovered

The fragments from the 1920s films were found taped to the beginnings and ends of other movies

The long-barreled pistols will be on view at the Postal Museum from May 25 through June 24.

Hamilton and Burr’s Dueling Pistols Are Coming to Washington, D.C.

Don’t throw away your shot to see these infamous flintlocks, and an incredible assortment of other Hamilton memorabilia, at the National Postal Museum

Archaeologists in Alexandria, Virginia, have unearthed three 18th-century ships that were buried to extend the city's land.

Three 18th-Century Ships Found in Old Town Alexandria Tell a Story of Colonial-Era Virginia

Another intentionally buried ship was found just a block away from the newly discovered finds in 2015

A photo taken outside of "Hamilton: An American Musical" in Chicago. The new exhibition will join the musical in the Windy City in the fall of 2018.

Future of Art

Hamilfans, Rejoice: Exhibition on the Revolutionary Musical Is Slated to Open This Fall

‘Hamilton: The Exhibition’ is coming to Chicago in November

John Adams didn't literally call the Philadelphia Aurora (also known as the Aurora General Adviser) "fake news," but he was not pleased by the way he was often depicted in it.

History of Now

The Age-Old Problem of “Fake News”

It’s been part of the conversation as far back as the birth of the free press

A 1933 statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis is removed from University of Texas' South Mall after UT President Gregory Fenves cleared it to be placed in a campus museum.

Are Museums the Right Home for Confederate Monuments?

The idea that once they are taken down, these statues “belong in a museum” doesn’t take into account that museums may not want them. Should they?

(Left to Right): Karen David as Young Denise Christopher, Claudia Doumit as Jiya, Abigail Spencer as Lucy Preston

'Timeless' Recapped

Who Shot the Sheriff? ‘Timeless’ Season 2, Episode 8, Recapped

The Time Team travels to D.C. to prevent a presidential assassination, but instead runs into a new old friend

One of the last few reminders of Shermantown is this scene in Stone Mountain Village

In the Shadow of Stone Mountain

The past, present, and future of the African-American community are nestled beneath the country’s largest Confederate monument

An example from a collection of drawings made by Sioux artists living in Fort Yates, North Dakota, in 1913.

Newberry Library Digitizes Trove of Lakota Drawings

The art is part of a larger digitization project of early American history by the Chicago-based research library

William Sloane Coffin Jr., followed by his sister, arrives at federal building in Boston on May 20, 1968.

How Vietnam War Protests Accelerated the Rise of the Christian Right

The anti-war efforts of Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr. and other church leaders alienated many Protestant Americans—with lasting repercussions

Court scene: Trial Ziang Sung Wan

The Triple Homicide in D.C. That Laid the Groundwork for Americans’ Right to Remain Silent

Decades before the Supreme Court’s Miranda decision, a 1919 murder trial presented a precedent for protecting criminal suspects from police overreach

Using the encyclopedia as a guide, a group of Islay villagers worked through the night stitching together a Stars and Stripes.

A Hundred-Year-Old Handmade American Flag Flies Home… to Scotland

When WWI soldiers died off the coast of Islay Island, a group of villagers brought honor to their memory with this flag

The Day the World Changed premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last week.

Future of Art

This Virtual Reality Experience Drops You In Hiroshima Right After It’s Been Bombed

When creators tread the line between empathy and trauma carefully, immersive technology can be a powerful tool for educating the public about history

The Tsimshian people first settled American land over 6,000 years ago. This image was captured in 1890, after the fateful arrival of European settlers.

New Research

Unraveling the Genetic History of a First Nations People

By looking at the DNA of Tsimshian people before and after European contact, researchers paint a more nuanced history

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

What Made Oscar Tschirky the King of Gilded Age New York

During his long tenure as maître d’ at the famed Waldorf Hotel, Oscar had the city’s elite at his fingertips

Theodore Roosevelt and his Big Stick in the Caribbean (1904)

Why Teddy Roosevelt Is Popular on Both Sides of the Political Aisle

A historian considers the forces that have shaped the Rough Rider’s presidential legacy in the decades since his death more than 100 years ago

Once-Abandoned ‘Wizard of Oz’ Theme Park Is Opening for the Summer

Here’s how to get tickets

A model of the planned artwork for downtown Albuquerque memorializing the landmark case that expanded the rights of Asian Americans.

Monument Marks Little-Remembered Case That Set Precedent for Asian Americans to Testify in Court

The history around the ‘Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun’ will be memorialized in the upcoming public work ‘View from Gold Mountain’

Robert Johnson (Kamal Naiqui) records some of his tunes that would later change rock music as we know it.

'Timeless' Recapped

Somebody’s Got a Case of the Blues: Timeless Season 2, Episode 6, Recapped

The time team’s humming a new tune after a run-in with one of the most influential men in American music history

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