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British History

John Constable, Golding Constable's Kitchen Garden, 1815

England’s ‘Constable Country’ Is Honoring the 250th Birthday of Its Namesake, Landscape Artist John Constable, With a Year of Exhibitions

Constable was born in the Suffolk village of East Bergholt on June 11, 1776. With “Constable 250,” nearby Ipswich honors the pastoral painter’s connections to his homeland, community, country and contemporary art

The entrance to the cellar was found beneath the golf course.

Cool Finds

A Groundskeeper Noticed a Sinkhole on a Golf Course. It Turned Out to Be a Wine Cellar Full of Empty Bottles, Untouched for More Than 100 Years

The cellar is located near the 13th hole of a course at the Davyhulme Park Golf Club in England. Staffers think it was previously part of a manor that was torn down in 1888

The frieze takes inspiration from the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th-century artwork depicting of the Norman conquest of England.

David Hockney Used an iPad to Create This Sprawling 295-Foot-Long Frieze Inspired by the 11th-Century Bayeux Tapestry

The artwork, which depicts the changing seasons in Normandy, is the centerpiece of “A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting,” a new exhibition in London

British soldiers met at Lydia Darragh's house in Philadelphia, presenting the perfect opportunity for the Quaker woman to eavesdrop on their battle plans.

America's 250th Anniversary

A Quaker Woman Eavesdropped on British Soldiers Plotting a Surprise Attack—and Surreptitiously Warned George Washington

Lydia Darragh defied her commitment to pacifism by spying during the American Revolution

The Swift was a Bermuda sloop, a type of single-masted wooden sailing vessel.

Archaeologists Just Uncovered a Shipwreck That Ran Aground on a Remote Island During the War of 1812

The vessel appears to be the “Swift,” a wooden sailing ship that sank off Sable Island in Canada

Kat Baxter, curator of archaeology and numismatics for Leeds Museums and Galleries, poses with the 2,000-year-old coin.

Cool Finds

Someone Used This Mysterious Coin as Bus Fare in the 1950s. It Turned Out to Be 2,000-Year-Old Currency Minted by the Phoenicians

A public transit official working for the city of Leeds found the coin while counting bus and tram fares. Now, his grandson has donated it to Leeds Museums and Galleries

These recently discovered portrait miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard are believed to depict Elizabeth Knollys, Lady Leighton, and Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton.

Cool Finds

Tudor Courtiers Exchanged Portrait Miniatures as Love Tokens. Centuries Later, New Research Is Unlocking the Secrets of These Intimate Artworks

Over the past few years, art historians have identified several previously unknown paintings by Elizabeth I’s favorite artist, Nicholas Hilliard

Caitríona Balfe as Claire Fraser (left) and Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser (right) in season one of "Outlander"

Based on a True Story

The Final Season of ‘Outlander’ Is Here. See the Most Iconic Kilts, Gowns and Other Costumes From the Time Travel Drama

An exhibition at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown showcases 26 ensembles from the Starz series’ first four seasons

The British Museum, from which Nigel Peverett stole hundreds of prints

Thirty-Four Years Ago, a British Museum Staffer Stole More Than 300 Prints in Broad Daylight. A New Book Chronicles the Thefts and Their Fallout

While seemingly unreported at the time, the pilfering was uncovered by historian Barnaby Phillips as part of his research for a new book about African treasures

Wallace and Gromit chase Feathers McGraw in this model from "The Wrong Trousers" (1993).

Here’s How Animators Make Stop-Motion Masterpieces Like ‘Wallace & Gromit’ Come Alive

Aardman’s shows, shorts and feature films require painstaking craftsmanship. An interactive exhibition at the Young V&A museum in London brings museumgoers behind the scenes

Researchers think some of the footprints were made by barefoot humans roughly 2,000 years ago.

Cool Finds

A Couple Walking Their Dogs Noticed 2,000-Year-Old Footprints on the Beach. They Were Visible for Just Days Before Waves Erased Them Forever

Archaeologists raced to document the semi-fossilized tracks in eastern Scotland. They were likely made by humans, deer and other animals during the late Iron Age

A full-scale reconstruction of the 1738 Fort Mose was built in 2025 after decades of planning and archaeological research.

The Little-Known Story of the Enslaved Africans Who Found Freedom in the European Fight Over North America

Long before the famous Underground Railroad, those seeking freedom from slavery traveled on foot, by boat and under cover of darkness to Fort Mose in Spanish-controlled Florida

Archaeologists think the cannon may date to the late 17th or 18th century.

Cool Finds

Construction Workers Digging in Northern England Stumble Upon a 2,200-Pound Cannon That May Be More Than 300 Years Old

Crews unearthed the artifact while working on a restoration project at Queen’s Gardens, a public park that was once the largest dock in the United Kingdom

Left: Bella in Her Pluto T-Shirt, 1995. Right: Solicitor’s Head, 2003

Lucian Freud Is Famous for His Unflinching Portraits. These Rarely Seen Drawings Provide an Intimate Window Into His Creative Process

A new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London showcases drawings and etchings from throughout the British artist’s 60-year career

A 19th-century painting of the siege of Yorktown, with the Marquis de Lafayette depicted to the right of George Washington (center, right). A popular story suggests that Lafayette ordered the Continental fife and drum corps to play “Yankee Doodle” as the defeated British soldiers marched out to surrender after the battle.

America's 250th Anniversary

‘Yankee Doodle’ Was One of America’s Earliest Protest Songs. But Its Origins Are Shrouded in Mystery

Historians have debunked many of the popular theories surrounding the tune’s creation. Still, its legacy as a patriotic anthem endures

The 24-carat Tudor Heart is decorated with a red and white Tudor rose, a pomegranate bush, and the initials “H” and “K.”

Cool Finds

A Metal Detectorist Unearthed This Heart-Shaped Tudor Pendant. Now, the British Museum Has Raised Millions to Put It on Public Display

The only surviving piece of jewelry associated with Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon is now in the museum’s permanent collection after a months-long fundraising campaign

Researchers found the remains of ten individuals in a burial pit near Cambridge, England.

Archaeology Students Unearth an Early Medieval Burial Pit During a Training Dig in England

Likely related to clashes between the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia, the site included the remains of a 6-foot-5 man who had undergone brain surgery

A pair of vinegar valentines poking fun at the recipients’ looks

Feeling More Hate Than Love This Valentine’s Day? Send Snarky ‘Vinegar Valentines’ to Your Enemies Like the Victorians Did

These oft-anonymous messages took aim at pretentious poets, unhelpful salespeople, suffragists and secessionists alike

London's Teddy Baldock, pictured here training in 1928, became world bantamweight champion at just 19.

Masked Thieves Steal Statue of British Boxer Teddy Baldock From a London Park, Leaving Only His Boots Behind

Baldock, a former bantamweight world champion, was the only British boxer to win a world title in the 1920s. The statue had been in Langdon Park since 2014

Infrared scans suggest that the artist reworked their composition to prominently feature Anne's hands clasping a rose. “By clearly displaying five digits on each hand, the portrait acts as a visual rebuttal to hostile rumors and as a defense of Anne Boleyn—and, by extension, of her daughter Elizabeth’s legitimacy,” says curator Owen Emmerson.

Rumors Suggested That Anne Boleyn Was a Witch With Six Fingers. Did This Elizabethan Artist Rework a Portrait of the Tudor Queen to Debunk the Gossip?

A new analysis of the Hever Rose portrait suggests that the painter deliberately modified an existing template to showcase Anne’s hands—with no extra digits—holding a delicate rose

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