Articles tagged as Artifacts | Smithsonian Magazine

Director Guillermo del Toro Shares the Monsters in His Closet With the Public

The filmmaker talks about artifacts from his collection that are featured in the LACMA’s new exhibition, At Home with Monsters

August 1, 2016

Commentary

How to Avoid the Pitfalls in the Politics of Graphic Messaging

The director of the National Portrait Gallery offers a few pointers on how to acquire visual intelligence

July 21, 2016

The key to the Bastille, as held in Mount Vernon's collections.

How the Key to the Bastille Ended Up in George Washington’s Possession

A gift from an old friend is one of Mount Vernon’s most fascinating objects

July 14, 2016

Ballast from the first historically documented ship carrying enslaved Africans that wrecked off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa in December 1794.

Breaking Ground

Few Artifacts of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Still Exist. These Iron Blocks Help Tell That Gut-Wrenching Story

A profound symbol of the horrific conditions aboard a slave ship is the ballast used as a counterweight for human cargo

July 14, 2016

Tankard made in Westerwald, German , found along with lots of tanning debris in a privy
associated with a small house on an alley that probably be
longed to tanner.

Cool Finds

Tens of Thousands of Artifacts Have Been Found in Colonial Philadelphia Toilets

Archaeologists excavating the site of the Museum of the American Revolution found a dozen privy pits full of pottery, printing supplies and animal bones

July 6, 2016

Almost 16,000 items were forgotten for decades

June 10, 2016

Cool Finds

Amateur Divers Find Huge Cache of Bronze Artifacts in Israel National Park

Recreational divers discover a Roman shipwreck full of rare bronze statues, coins and other artifacts in Caesarea National Park

May 18, 2016

A late night blaze guts one of India’s favorite museums, destroying valuable collections and exhibits

April 26, 2016

The NASA Robot That Failed to Do Its Job

A cautionary tale about the android who just wasn’t suited for the task at hand

May 2016

Levi Woodbury is on the $1 stamp; George M. Bibb, on the $5 stamp. Robert Walker is on the $10 stamp and James Guthrie is on the $50 stamp. George Washington is on the extremely rare $100 stamp.

Before Reefer Madness, High Times and 4/20, There Was the Marijuana Revenue Stamp

Originally designed in the 1930s to restrict access to the drug, these stamps draw a curious crowd to the Postal Museum

April 20, 2016

This gold appliqué, more than six millennia old, appears to be a bull but has buffalo-like horns.

Mystery of the Varna Gold: What Caused These Ancient Societies to Disappear?

Treasure found in prehistoric graves in Bulgaria is the first evidence of social hierarchy, but no one knows what caused the civilization’s decline

April 18, 2016

Ruins of the temple of Baalshamin destroyed by ISIS militants in Palmyra, taken after government forces retook the city.

The “Jewel of the Desert” is out of the hands of people who would see its wonders demolished

March 29, 2016

From the desk of Susan B. Anthony, this inkstand was used by the women's rights advocate to produce the articles she wrote for her newspaper The Revolution.

Women Who Shaped History

For Susan B. Anthony, Getting Support for Her ‘Revolution’ Meant Taking on an Unusual Ally

Suffragists Anthony and Cady Stanton found common cause in a wealthy man named George Francis Train who helped to fund their newspaper

March 24, 2016

Cool Finds

Visit Richard III’s Gravesite With This Bone Chilling 3D Model

The ruler’s final resting spot is now publicly available for exploration online

March 22, 2016

Cool Finds

Muggles Are Selling the Chair in Which ‘Harry Potter’ Was Created

The decorated dining room chair J.K. Rowling used to write her iconic novels is going on sale

March 14, 2016

Jefferson, Washington and Hamilton came together during Washington’s tenure as president and worked, fought, compromised—and wrote—in the struggle to establish a nation.

The Laptops That Powered the American Revolution

Always on the go, the Founding Fathers waged their war of words from the mahogany mobile devices of their time

March 3, 2016

The statue of Abu Bint Deimun, from third century B.C. Hatra, Iraq. A global network of preservationists are teaming up to protect the world’s antiquities.

Crash Courses Prepare Art Conservators for Catastrophic Disasters

Smithsonian experts train a brave band of conservators in northern Iraq to brace buildings and rescue artifacts in a hurry

March 2016

A human-headed winged bull from the eighth century B.C. Assyrian royal palace in Khorsabad. ISIS razed the city’s ruins last year.

The Race to Save Syria’s Archaeological Treasures

The deliberate destruction of antiquities by ISIS and others in the birthplace of human civilization is cultural genocide

March 2016

The archway of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra will be recreated in New York City and London.

A surviving archway from Palmyra will be recreated as a symbol of defiance

December 30, 2015

This mysterious object was discovered buried in a Jerusalem cemetery.

Cool Finds

It Took Israeli Authorities Months to Identify This Strange, Gold Object

Ancient artifact or back massager?

December 23, 2015