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The William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson, Mississippi

Mississippi Returns Hundreds of Native Americans’ Remains to Chickasaw Nation

Decades after their bones were placed in storage, the state has repatriated the remains of 403 Indigenous ancestors

A 1932 facsimile of the first issue of the Emancipator, published on April 30, 1820

History of Now

New Project Reimagines the U.S.’ First Antislavery Newspaper, the ‘Emancipator’

A joint initiative from Boston University and the “Boston Globe” revamps a 19th-century abolitionist publication for 21st-century research about race

Alexander Calder checks some of his mobiles during a 1962 exhibition of his work at Tate London.

Education During Coronavirus

Explore the Newly Digitized Archive of Alexander Calder, Famed ‘Sculptor of Air’

A new online trove from the Calder Foundation offers fans endless avenues to learn about the artist’s life and work

The researchers virtually opened the letters with an advanced X-ray machine. They then used computers to analyze the folds and create a readable, digital model of the unfolded message.

Art Meets Science

How Researchers Are Reading Centuries-Old Letters Without Opening Them

A new technique enables scholars to unlock the secrets of long-sealed missives

Studio family portrait, 1960–1970s, by Rev. Henry Clay Anderson

How the Smithsonian Can Help African American Families Research Their Ancestors

The National Museum of African American History and Culture offers service and tips for genealogy efforts

Covid-19

The Fever That Struck New York

The front lines of a terrible epidemic, through the eyes of a young doctor profoundly touched by tragedy

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacted a heavy toll on Native American communities. In this May 2020 image, Navajo elder Emerson Gorman (R) sits with his (L-R) daughter Naiyahnikai, wife Beverly and grandchild Nizhoni near the Navajo Nation town of Steamboat in Arizona.

$1.6 Million Grant Will Support Digitization of Native American Oral Histories

The newly announced funding will help universities make decades-old interviews widely available

HBCUs have consistently enrolled more Black women than men every year since 1976. As of 2018, those women comprise 62 percent of students.

How America’s HBCUs Produced Generations of Black Women Leaders

Take a deep dive into the Smithsonian’s artifacts and archives and explore the legacy of America’s historically Black colleges and universities

A total of 380 testimonies are currently available online. The remaining 1,185 will be added later this year.

Hundreds of Holocaust Testimonies Translated, Digitized for the First Time

The Wiener Holocaust Library plans to upload its entire collection of survivor accounts by the end of the year

The Library of Congress recently completed a major digitization effort, making collections of 23 U.S. presidents' papers available online for study. From left: Calvin Coolidge, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Benjamin Harrison and Thomas Jefferson; behind: Jefferson's June 1776 draft of the Declaration of Independence

Library of Congress’ Presidential Papers, From Washington’s Geometry Notes to Wilson’s Love Letters, Are Now Online

Four newly added collections mark the conclusion of a two-decade digitization project

The portal currently features 613,458 entries documenting the people, events and places involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

Who Were America’s Enslaved? A New Database Humanizes the Names Behind the Numbers

The public website draws connections between existing datasets to piece together fragmentary narratives

Roosevelt exchanged lively correspondence with all kinds of people for much of his life.

Library of Congress Seeks Volunteers to Transcribe Letters to Theodore Roosevelt

The campaign is part of a broader crowdsourcing effort aimed at making archival materials more accessible to the public

The cold and isolation of the Svalbard archipelago helps preserve the Arctic World Archive's contents.

Norway Preserves ‘The Scream’ for Future Generations by Burying Digital Copy in Arctic Coal Mine

The Munch masterpiece joins digitized art and artifacts from more than 15 countries in the “futureproof” Arctic World Archive

Charles Darwin in 1857, photograph by Maull and Fox

Two Darwin Notebooks Quietly Went Missing 20 Years Ago. Were They Stolen?

Staff at Cambridge University Libraries previously assumed that the papers had simply been misplaced in the vast collections

To keep Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit from degrading, conservators designed a custom mannequin that allows air to circulate inside.

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the Invisible Work of the Smithsonian’s Conservators

From deep cleaning to painstaking repairs, caring for Smithsonian’s 155 million objects requires serious TLC—and steady hands

Ratified Indian Treaty 37: Eel River, Wyandot,Piankashaw, Kaskaskia, and Kickapoo—Vincennes, Indiana Territory, August 7, 1803

Hundreds of Native American Treaties Digitized for the First Time

The National Archives has scanned more than 300 agreements between the United States and Indigenous tribes

With the support of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a new archive is being established to collect the history of the Lumbee community (above from left are members of the intertribal Baltimore American Indian Center: Louis Campbell, Lumbee; Celest Swann, Powhatan; E. Keith Colston, Lumbee / Tuscarora).

A Native American Community in Baltimore Reclaims Its History

Thousands of Lumbee Indians, members of the largest tribe east of the Mississippi, once lived in the neighborhoods of Upper Fells Point and Washington Hill

Thousands of volunteers helped transcribe the Library of Congress' Lincoln letters.

Education During Coronavirus

Read Thousands of Abraham Lincoln’s Newly Transcribed Letters Online

The missives, preserved by the Library of Congress, include notes to and from the beloved president

Written in ornate cursive by a general’s aide and signed by Maj. F.W. Emery on behalf of Granger, “General Orders No. 3” had long been hidden in a book of formal orders housed at the archives.

Cool Finds

National Archives Locates Handwritten Juneteenth Order

On June 19, 1865, the decree informed the people of Texas that enslaved individuals were now free

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero displays historical objects recovered from the Arlington National Cemetery time capsule.

Arlington National Cemetery Opens Its 105-Year-Old Time Capsule

The trove of artifacts, hidden in a cornerstone in 1915, is now available to explore online

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