Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

England

Roughly 230 film reels have been found in storage.

Cool Finds

London Zoo Discovers Hundreds of Old Film Reels Featuring ‘Zoo Oddities’ and Animal Celebrities

Zoo officials are looking for experts to help preserve and digitize the decaying film canisters, which date to between the 1960s and 1990s

Their Royal Highnesses on North Seymour Island, Richard Foster, 2009

Official Paintings From Charles III’s World Tours Are Going on Public Display for the First Time

Over 40 years, artists have accompanied Charles on his travels to 95 countries with only one directive: Paint whatever interests them

The S.S. Almond Branch was torpedoed by a German submarine during World War I.

Man Who ‘Always Fancied’ Owning a Shipwreck Buys One on Facebook Marketplace for $400

Hobbyist diver Dom Robinson jumped at the chance to purchase the S.S. “Almond Branch,” a cargo ship that’s been resting 190 feet beneath the surface of the English Channel since World War I

Castle Howard's restored tapestry drawing room 

See the Newly Renovated Castle Howard, Made Famous by ‘Bridgerton’ and ‘Brideshead Revisited’

After the house suffered extensive fire damage in 1940, generations of the Howard family have faithfully restored parts of the mansion to its 18th-century glory

Researchers analyzed indentations in the skeleton's pelvis.

New Research

Bite Marks on Ancient Skeleton Reveal First Physical Evidence of Roman Gladiators Fighting Lions

Researchers compared the markings found on an ancient skeleton in England to bones that had been chewed on by cheetahs, lions, tigers and leopards in present-day zoos

Cassandra Austen's 1795 hand-drawn copy of a plate from a 1786 drawing instruction manual

See the Forgotten Paintings Made by Jane Austen’s Older Sister, Cassandra

A new exhibition at the Jane Austen House in England includes six artworks that are going on public display for the first time

In England’s Lake District, a wooden footbridge connects two rocky sides of a riverbank as mountains peek out from the fog in the distance.

Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries

See 15 Serene Scenes of the English Countryside

Quaint centuries-old villages dot the rural landscapes of the United Kingdom

A book bound in Corder's skin has been in the museum's collections since the 1930s. The second copy was given to the museum several decades ago.

Recently Rediscovered Book Bound in Human Skin Goes on Display in England

Curators think the volume’s corners and spine are bound in the skin of William Corder, an infamous criminal who was convicted of murder in the late 1820s

Trevelyan is a former puppet maker, so making the curlew costume was relatively easy for him.

A U.K. Man Just Walked 53 Miles Wearing a Giant, Handmade Bird Costume. Here’s Why He Did It

As he trekked across the English countryside, 46-year-old Matt Trevelyan caused quite a stir with his attention-grabbing outfit

Even broken in two pieces, the rare pot shattered presale estimates.

Cool Finds

Why Did This Broken Ceramic Pot Sell for More Than $60,000 at Auction?

Discovered in pieces in a backyard garden in London, the vessel turned out to be the work of Hans Coper, one of Britain’s most influential potters

The North Wind, Emily Brontë, 1842

Rare Watercolor by ‘Wuthering Heights’ Author Emily Brontë Will Go on Public Display for the First Time

“The North Wind,” painted while Emily and her sister Charlotte were studying in Belgium, is now heading to the Brontë family home in Yorkshire

One of the wall paintings discovered at the Ashes, a Tudor-era guest house in northeastern England, depicts a dog's head.

Cool Finds

See the ‘Fantastical Beasts and Foliage’ Featured in These Rare, Newly Discovered Tudor Wall Paintings

Created in the Grotesque style, the 16th-century images—revealed by renovations at a lodge in England—mimic historic textile designs

The crew of the Mackay-Bennett discovers a Titanic lifeboat adrift while searching for the bodies of those who died in the disaster.

The Long, Strange Trip of the Titanic Victims Whose Remains Surfaced Hundreds of Miles Away, Weeks After the Ship Sank

Rescuers only recovered the bodies of 337 of the 1,500-plus passengers and crew who died in the disaster. Around one-third of these corpses were buried at sea

One winner will get to sleep in a bed placed between the newly refurbished Sainsbury Wing and the rest of the museum.

You Can Enter to Win a Night Inside London’s National Gallery

The museum is celebrating the reopening of its Sainsbury Wing, as well as a major refresh of its collection, with an overnight experience for one lucky visitor

Tarot deck designed by Austin Osman Spare in 1906

Discover the Renaissance Origins and Mystical Evolution of Tarot Cards

An exhibition at London’s Warburg Institute traces tarot decks’ evolution from the 1450s through the present

In 2022, Just Stop Oil protesters threw tomato soup onto the glass protecting Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Climate Activists Say They Will Stop Throwing Soup and Halt Disruptive Protest Tactics

Members of Just Stop Oil made headlines for their controversial demonstrations involving valuable artworks and artifacts. Now, they say they’ve achieved their initial goal

Błażej Mikuła (left) and Amélie Deblauwe (right), of the Cambridge University Library, 3D scan the manuscript

New Research

High-Tech Imaging Allows Researchers to Read Handwritten Medieval Arthurian Tales Hidden in the Binding of a Property Record

The stories are part of a French sequel to Arthurian legend, and its binding was repurposed in the 16th century

Peter Pentz, a curator at the National Museum of Denmark, sees many similarites between the stamp and the Sutton Hoo helmet.

Britain’s Famous Sutton Hoo Helmet May Have Come From Denmark, Not Sweden, New Discovery Suggests

A small metal stamp discovered on a Danish island bears many similarities to the iconic seventh-century helmet

Researchers found evidence of a ceremonial platform next to the Farley Moor standing stone, which measures roughly 6.5 feet tall.

Cool Finds

3,700-Year-Old Bronze Age Stone Circle Discovered in an English Forest

An amateur archaeologist recently encouraged researchers to take another look at the Farley Moor standing stone, which was once part of a bigger ceremonial site

Researchers spent three months excavating the site.

Cool Finds

Treasure Trove of 800 ‘Exceptional’ Iron Age Artifacts Discovered in England

The collection, which dates to the first century C.E., includes items ranging from elaborately decorated horse harnesses to ornate cauldrons

Page 9 of 46