Colonialism

Mohammed (seated at left) with Franklin D. Roosevelt (center) and Winston Churchill (right) at a 1943 war conference near Casablanca

The Moroccan Sultan Who Protected His Country's Jews During World War II

Mohammed V defied the collaborationist Vichy regime, saving Morocco's 250,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps

The shield has been withdrawn from an auction at Anderson & Garland, where it was expected to fetch between £800 and £1,200 (roughly $1,000 to $1,500). 

Auction House Cancels Sale of Looted Ethiopian Shield

Heritage officials have called for the return of the artifact, which British forces seized in 1868

The Return of the Buffalo Herd, painted by Edward and Charles Detmold, hangs at Bateman's in East Sussex in honor of the book's 130th anniversary.

Rare 'Jungle Book' Watercolor Goes on Display at Rudyard Kipling's Home in England

"The Return of the Buffalo Herd" is one of only four surviving illustrations from the book

The metal slab is called a tasset, a piece of armor worn over the upper thigh.

Why Did Colonists Trash This Piece of Armor After Settling in Maryland 300 Years Ago?

The metal plate was unearthed in the cellar of a storehouse dating to the mid-1600s

John Smith claimed Pocahontas saved him from execution when she was just 11 or 12 years old. Whether the story happened the way Smith tells it—or even at all—is up for debate, a 2017 Smithsonian Channel documentary explains.

The True Story of Pocahontas Is More Complicated Than You Might Think

Historian Camilla Townsend separates fact from fiction in the life of the Powhatan "princess"

Today, the rongorongo script survives on less than 30 objects.

Did the People of Easter Island Invent a Writing System From Scratch?

Radiocarbon dating has found that a tablet inscribed with the mysterious rongorongo script predates European contact

In 18th-century Venice, Carnival masks created a temporary feeling of equality between the ruling class and the lower classes.

A Brief History of How Carnival Is Celebrated Around the World

Here’s how Venice, Rio de Janeiro, Trinidad and Tobago, New Orleans, and Quebec City mark the pre-Lenten season

The First Supper (Galaxy Black), Tavares Strachan, 2023

Monumental Sculpture Reimagines 'The Last Supper' With Black Historical Figures

Tavares Strachan's "The First Supper" took four years to sculpt and is now on display at an exhibition in London

A gold Asante necklace was among the items turned over to British forces in 1874.

Los Angeles Museum Returns Artifacts to Ghana That Were Taken by British Forces in 1874

Museum officials traveled to the city of Kumasi to return the objects on the 150th anniversary of their seizure

Verdun, Félix Edouard Vallotton, 1917

As Empires Clashed During World War I, a Global Media Industry Brought the Conflict's Horrors to the Public

An exhibition at LACMA traces the roots of modern media to the Great War, when propaganda mobilized the masses, and questions whether the brutal truths of the battlefield can ever really be communicated

Accents center on the pronunciation of words, while dialects encompass pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Here, the subjects of Grant Wood's American Gothic channel speaking styles popular in California and New York.

A Brief History of the United States' Accents and Dialects

Migration patterns, cultural ties, geographic regions and class differences all shape speaking patterns

The 160-year-old pelt of the woolly dog Mutton in the Smithsonian’s collection

What Happened to the Extinct Woolly Dog?

Researchers studying the 160-year-old fur of a dog named Mutton in the Smithsonian collections found that the Indigenous breed existed for at least 5,000 years before European colonizers eradicated it

An illustration of Lucayan divers spearfishing for parrotfish, turtles and conch

How Archaeologists Are Unearthing the Secrets of the Bahamas' First Inhabitants

Spanish colonizers enslaved the Lucayans, putting an end to their lineage by 1530

The Bostonians’ “preferred outcome” was for the tea to be “peacefully sent back to London,” says historian Benjamin L. Carp. “It’s only when they find out … the governor is not going to let [that happen] that they say, ‘Well, we have no choice [but] to destroy [the tea].”

The Many Myths of the Boston Tea Party

Contrary to popular belief, the 1773 protest opposed a tax break, not a tax hike. And it didn't immediately unify the colonies against the British

Lionel Licorish, a 23-year-old sailor from Barbados, spent 14 hours keeping a lifeboat afloat in stormy conditions and swimming through shark-infested waters to rescue survivors of the Vestris disaster.

The Black Sailor Whose Heroic Actions During a Shipwreck Made Him an Instant Celebrity of the Roaring Twenties

Lionel Licorish earned accolades for rescuing as many as 20 passengers from the wreckage of the S.S. "Vestris"

Icaria was guided by a single principle: “to each following his needs, from each following his strengths,” as Cabet put it.

The 19th-Century Novel That Inspired a Communist Utopia on the American Frontier

The Icarians thought they could build a paradise, but their project was marked by failure almost from the start

“The World Made Wondrous: The Dutch Collector’s Cabinet and the Politics of Possession” takes a 17th-century Dutch cabinet as its starting point, tracing the threads of Dutch colonization through each object on view.

How Cabinets of Curiosities Laid the Foundation for Modern Museums

An exhibition at LACMA examines the legacy of Dutch colonization through a fictive 17th-century collector's room of wonders

Green tea's enduring popularity is reflected in the "teacup without handle" emoji (left). The "hot beverage" emoji (right) takes its cue from another tea tradition: black tea.

What Emoji Tell Us About the History of Tea

From ancient China to 20th-century America, the aromatic beverage has undergone a dramatic evolution

An original copy of a 15th-century Christopher Columbus letter translated from Spanish into Latin

Christopher Columbus Letter Describing Journey to the Americas Sells for $3.9 Million

Copies of the letter have long been the target of thefts and forgeries, but Christie's says this one is the real deal

Signs calling for the abolition of Columbus Day formed the backdrop for a protest in front of city hall in Flagstaff, Arizona.

The Evolution of Columbus Day Celebrations, From Italian Immigrant Pride to Indigenous Recognition

The holiday has been controversial practically since its inception

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