Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

American South

Enslavers pocketed the majority of the money earned by enslaved individuals hired out as part-time laborers. But in some cases, enslaved people managed to save a fraction of their earnings in hopes of purchasing freedom for themselves or their families.

This Rare Copper Badge Tells a Story of Slavery in 19th-Century Charleston

The South Carolina city used the metal tags to identify enslaved people hired out as part-time laborers by their enslavers

Custard apple trees—a freshwater version of mangroves once ringed Lake Okeechobee’s southern shore in a three-mile-wide belt. Today, barely 100 acres remain.

The Strange Beauty at the Edge of the Everglades

Chronicling the historic struggles of the Florida farming community known as Belle Glade

In 1921, Ruth Middleton embroidered this cotton sack with a powerful family story.

History of Now

A Simple Cotton Sack Tells an Intergenerational Story of Separation Under Slavery

Historian Tiya Miles’ new book traces the lives of three Black women through an embroidered family heirloom known as “Ashley’s sack”

To date, researchers have uncovered fragments of Spanish pottery, animal bones, oyster shells, jewelry beads and an array of other artifacts.

Cool Finds

Is This Florida Island Home to a Long-Lost Native American Settlement?

Excavations on Big Talbot Island may have unearthed traces of Saraby, a 16th- or 17th-century Mocama community

New displays at Arlington House center the stories of individuals enslaved by Lee and his family.

Robert E. Lee’s Former Home Reopens With Renewed Focus on the Enslaved

Built by George Washington’s adopted son, Arlington House recently underwent a three-year “rehabilitation” project

During the 1860s, Chinese laborers dug extensive tunnels through the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Eleven Endangered Historic Places That Tell Complex American Stories

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2021 list includes Mississippi hotel, Navajo trading post and California railroad tunnels

Before the highway's construction, Claiborne Avenue was known for its towering oaks.

The Highway That Sparked the Demise of an Iconic Black Street in New Orleans

Claiborne Avenue was a center of commerce and culture—until a federal interstate cut it off from the rest of the city in the 1960s

Organizer Quintavious Rhodes addresses Black Lives Matter protesters during a march in Stone Mountain Park on June 16, 2020. Activists have long called for Stone Mountain's carved relief of Confederate generals to be taken down.

History of Now

Georgia Approves Changes to Stone Mountain Park, ‘Shrine to White Supremacy’

The site’s board authorized the creation of a truth-telling exhibit, a new logo and a relocated Confederate flag plaza

Freshly gathered truffles at Burwell Farms are the fruit of a bold collaboration—and a proprietary cultivation technique.

Has the American-Grown Truffle Finally Broken Through?

These delicacies, harvested in an experiment in North Carolina, have food-lovers and farmers ravenous for more

Sanford Biggers' Oracle (2020) is now on view at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

This Monumental ‘Oracle’ Statue in NYC Subverts Traditional Sculpture

Part of an ongoing exhibition at Rockefeller Center, Sanford Biggers’ newest installation challenges the tropes of classical artwork

L to R: Ward Lee, Tucker Henderson and Romeo were three of the nearly 500 captives illegally transported on the Wanderer.

Untold Stories of American History

This Yacht Trafficked Enslaved Africans Long After the Slave Trade Was Abolished

New exhibition in Louisiana details the story of the “Wanderer,” the penultimate ship to illegally transport enslaved people into the U.S.

Roosevelt Patterson greets his grandmother, Hester Ford, during her 111th birthday party. Ford was either 115 or 116 when she died on Saturday, April 17, 2021.

Hester Ford, the U.S.’ Oldest Living Person, Dies at 115—or 116

Born in 1904 or 1905, the supercentenarian lived through two World Wars, the civil rights movement and two major pandemics

Amy Sherald's posthumous portrait of Breonna Taylor serves as the Louisville show's focal point.

How an Art Exhibition in Breonna Taylor’s Hometown Honors Her Life and Impact

The Louisville show is organized around three overarching themes proposed by Taylor’s mother: promise, witness and remembrance

Officials are unsure when the damage occurred but suspect that it took place several months ago.

Vandals Deface ‘Irreplaceable’ Native American Rock Carvings in Georgia

The unknown criminals painted the 1,000-year-old petroglyphs in bright colors and scratched their surfaces beyond recognition

Pleasant Plains School in Hertford County, North Carolina, active 1920-1950

How the Rosenwald Schools Shaped a Generation of Black Leaders

Photographer Andrew Feiler’s years-long journey through 15 Southern states rescued stories of the fading buildings and the lives they changed

Aedes scapularis are aggressive biters and frequently find ways indoors

New Research

For the First Time in 75 Years, a New Invasive Species of Mosquito Was Found in Florida

Last year, entomologists in the state found 121 Aedes scapularis mosquitoes, which can carry yellow fever

An early 20th-century photo of the building in its original location on Prince George Street in Williamsburg, Virginia

University Building Identified as One of the U.S.’ First Schools for Black Children

The Williamsburg Bray School educated around 400 free and enslaved students between 1760 and 1774

Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Ralph Abernathy are taken in for questioning by Birmingham police in 1962.

Cool Finds

Rare Birmingham Jail Logbook Pages Signed by MLK Resurface After Decades

Two sheets of paper from the Alabama prison where the activist penned a famous 1963 letter sold at auction for more than $130,000

A woman reaches for a copy of Life on a New York City newsstand in 1936.

How Magazines Helped Shape American History

Explore 300 years of the periodical in an encyclopedic exhibition opening at the Grolier Club in New York City

While her paintings eventually became entirely abstract, Bongé's earlier work included lively port scenes and Cubist-inspired still-lifes (Sunflowers and Squash, 1944).

A New Exhibition Brings Artist Dusti Bongé Into the Light

The overlooked Mississippi painter’s strong connection to the South infused her work

Page 7 of 11