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Civil War

A set of Civil War-era cannonballs were uncovered on a South Carolina beach after Hurricane Matthew.

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Civil War-Era Cannonballs Unearthed by Hurricane Matthew

The destructive storm dug up some old history

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Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Colombian President Who Got Guerillas to Come to the Table

As Colombia faces an uncertain future, the Nobel Committee recognizes its president who has worked to broker peace

Why Do We Still Have Morse Code and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answer

The Williams Dreamland Theatre, Tulsa, OK, c. 1921

Your Questions About African-American History, Answered

A special edition of Ask Smithsonian on the occasion of the opening of a new Smithsonian museum

Once 2,000 square miles in Virginia and North Carolina, the swamp today is perhaps one-tenth that size.

Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists Are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom

The Great Dismal Swamp was once a thriving refuge for runaways

From Slavery to Mass Incarceration will be a museum dedicated to the history of racial injustice in America, and will be located just steps from a site where slaves were auctioned off.

Cool Finds

Inside the Upcoming Memorial and Museum Dedicated to Lynching Victims

Spanning slavery to segregation to mass incarceration

Vanderbilt University's newly renamed "Memorial Hall."

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Five Places Where Confederate Monuments Have Recently Disappeared (or Soon Will)

Vanderbilt University’s decision to rename a building to “Memorial Hall” is just one of many ongoing efforts

Children salute the American flag in 1915.

Cool Finds

The Rules About How to Address the U.S. Flag Came About Because No One Wanted to Look Like a Nazi

During the National Anthem, Americans are asked to put their right hands over their hearts. But why?

How the American Civil War Built Egypt’s Vaunted Cotton Industry and Changed the Country Forever

The battle between the U.S. and the Confederacy affected global trade in astonishing ways

Sojourner Truth, tech pioneer.

Cool Finds

How Sojourner Truth Used Photography to Help End Slavery

The groundbreaking orator embraced newfangled technology to make her message heard

W.E.B. Du Bois at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Cool Finds

The Revolutionary Infographics of W.E.B. Du Bois And Booker T. Washington

Data visualizations shed light on the living conditions of black people decades after the end of slavery

USMT workers set up telegraph lines during the Civil War.

Cool Finds

You Can Help Decode Thousands of Top Secret Civil War Telegrams

Volunteers will transcribe and tease out the messages of of nearly 16,000 communiques

A map shows the distribution of the slave population in the Southern states of the United States, based on the 1860 census.

History of Now

The Surprising History of the Infographic

Early iterations saved soldiers’ lives, debunked myths about slavery and helped Americans settle the frontier

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UN Report Shows Refugee Numbers Have Hit a Historic High

More than 65 million people are now displaced from their homes due to extended wars and a lack of new solutions

A close-up of Abraham Lincoln's signature on the Emancipation Proclamation.

Cool Finds

Dozens of Rare Documents From American History Just Sold at Auction

Original copies of the 13th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation just sold for millions

Archaeologists look for pieces of metal in their search for the remains of a massacre of Native Americans in 1863 in Idaho.

The Search Is On for the Site of the Worst Indian Massacre in U.S. History

At least 250 Shoshone were killed by the Army in the 1863 incident, but their remains have yet to be found

Whitney Plantation, Big House

Inside America’s Auschwitz

A new museum offers a rebuke — and an antidote — to our sanitized history of slavery

A New Addition to #MyDaguerreotypeBoyfriend Is the Civil War’s Most Daring Naval Officer

Who is this cool cat, posing for an unusually casual photo for famed photographer Alexander Gardner?

Peter Strien was 21 years old when he was wounded at the battle of Fort Steadman.

Cool Finds

These Eerie Civil War Photos Changed How the U.S. Saw Veterans

Reed Bontecou’s groundbreaking photography used a new medium to bring attention to the wounds of war

The suspected Confederate blockade runner found near the mouth of the Cape Fear River

Cool Finds

Civil War Blockade Runner Found in North Carolina Waters

Sonar scan finds possible remains of a Confederate steamship used to outrun the Union Navy

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