Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

England

The timbers and hull planks emerged on a beach in Studland Bay after Storm Chandra.

Shipwreck Timbers Appeared on a Beach After a Storm. They Had Been Buried Beneath the Sand Since the 17th Century

Experts think the newly unearthed timbers may have come from the “Fame,” an armed Dutch merchant vessel that sank off the Dorset coast in 1631

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

"David Bowie: You're Not Alone," an immersive exhibition about the world-famous artist, will premiere in London in April.

Watch Never-Before-Seen Footage of David Bowie Performing ‘Heroes’ at This New Immersive Exhibition

When it opens in London, “David Bowie: You’re Not Alone” will tell the story of the man behind the many personas with newly discovered footage and other archival recordings

The camera, a Zeiss Ikon Baby Ikonta from the 1930s, and the newly developed images, which were likely taken in the 1950s

Cool Finds

A Man Bought a $13 Camera at a Thrift Shop—and Found 70-Year-Old Film Still Inside. Do You Recognize the Faces in the Photos?

Staffers at a photography shop in England carefully developed the negatives, which depict a ski trip in the Swiss Alps. Now, they’re searching for clues to help identify the people pictured

She was known as Vicky With Three Kisses— a German radio star whose singing and sweet talk comforted weary Nazi soldiers. She was actually a secret weapon in a little-known Allied propaganda effort.

One of the Allies’ Secret Weapons Against the Nazis Was a 21-Year-Old Woman Armed With a Microphone and a Script of Lies

As “Vicky With Three Kisses,” she strategically sweet-talked and sang to German troops over the airwaves of Europe. But Agnes Bernauer didn’t mean anything she was saying

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 paperback copy of Wuthering Heights

Five Things to Know About ‘Wuthering Heights,’ Author Emily Brontë’s Only Novel

The famed 1847 book inspired numerous adaptations, including a new version directed by Emerald Fennell in theaters this week

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

The bedroom is a reconstruction of the set of Fennell's film.

You Can Stay in Catherine Earnshaw’s Bright Pink Bedroom, Straight Out of the New ‘Wuthering Heights’ Movie

Airbnb is offering free three-night stays in the bedroom to three couples, who will also get lavish meals and a tour of England’s moors on horseback

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

A small underwater lens made a coral in Indonesia look like another common lifeform.

See the Beauty of Corals, Beehives, Mushrooms and More in These 11 Images From the Close-Up Photographer of the Year Awards

Now in its seventh year, the competition honors macro, micro and close-up images snapped around the world

Volunteers repairing the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England, in 2019

This Massive Hillside Figure Has Mystified Historians for Centuries. Now, Donations Have Secured the Surrounding Landscape

The National Trust has purchased the land around England’s Cerne Abbas Giant, which will help protect the mysterious chalk figure and nearby wildlife for future generations

Archaeologists discovered a fragment of a reusable slate tablet with letters scratched into the surface.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth a Reusable School Slate Still Covered in the Scribbles of Victorian Children

The slate was found alongside other evidence of young students’ schoolwork and play at the site of a new development in London

The exhibition features the last letter that Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, sent to Elizabeth I in 1588.

Read Love Letters From Royals and Romantics Across 500 Years of British History

A new exhibition at Britain’s National Archives features a letter to Elizabeth I, Jane Austen’s will and a plea to free Oscar Wilde from prison

The item probably once adorned a Roman-era carriage that belonged to a high-status individual.

This Rare Roman Figurine of a Cat With Its Paws Atop a Severed Head Is One of Britain’s Newest Treasures

The artifact was discovered by a metal detectorist in 2024

Researchers used an electron microscope to take a closer look at the bone fragment.

New Research

This Hammer Created From an Elephant Bone 480,000 Years Ago May Be the Oldest Known Tool of Its Kind Ever Found in Europe

Discovered in southern England in the mid-1990s, the artifact may have been made by Neanderthals or Homo heidelbergensis, according to a new study

This late 16th-century portrait of Anne Boleyn (left) closely resembles a circa 1590 portrait of Elizabeth I (right), as well as two separate likenesses of Mary I and Edward IV. The paintings appear to share the same established “face pattern” of the then-queen, Elizabeth.

Why Do These Tudor-Era Portraits of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I Look So Strikingly Similar?

The artist behind the works may have used Elizabeth’s likeness as a template in other royal portraits to visually emphasize her resemblance to previous monarchs and reinforce her status as the legitimate Tudor heir

In 1823, 17 enslaved people were sold at an auction in Barbados in the name of Britain's then-king, George IV.

The British Crown Enslaved Thousands at the Height of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. New Research Reveals Their Stories

A leading historian examines how the monarchy not only tolerated slavery but also administered it, profited from it and sanctioned its cruelties

Page 5 of 47