Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

European History

At left, Tatiana, Anastasia and Olga Romanov pose for a photo with their father, Nicholas II, and two members of their retinue. At right, Anastasia kneels at the bottom of a human pyramid topped by the czar.

Thousands of Intimate Photographs Reveal the Everyday Lives of the Romanovs, Russia’s Last Imperial Family

The Bolsheviks executed the last czar, Nicholas II, and the rest of his family, including his famous daughter Anastasia, 108 years ago. Surviving snapshots open a portal into the royals’ private world

The 1611 oil painting Air

Scientists Just Learned That This Bat Eats Birds Midflight. A Renaissance Painter May Have Known About It Hundreds of Years Ago

Last fall, scientists reported the first known recordings of greater noctule bats hunting and feasting on songbirds during night flights. But a 17th-century artwork by Jan Brueghel the Elder seems to depict the species flying with feathered prey in its mouth

Left: a burial mound in Kazakhstan. Right: the Golden Man's head ornaments.

Kazakhstan’s Iron Age ‘Golden Man’ and Other Elite Scythians of Eurasia Inherited Their High Social Status, Ancient DNA Suggests

Researchers have long wondered whether upper-class members of the ancient nomadic warriors earned their social status through individual achievements or birthright

Individuals and objects associated with Irish contributions to the American Revolution (clockwise from top left): Surgeon and statesman James McHenry, Quaker spy Lydia Barrington Darragh, Commodore John Barry, a letter written by Irish-born printer John Dunlap, Continental Army officer Stephen Moylan, Pennsylvania politician James Smith, Delaware politician Thomas McKean, and Charles Thomson's proposal for the Great Seal

America's 250th Anniversary

How Tens of Thousands of Irish Immigrants Led the Patriots to Victory During the American Revolution

Soldiers of Irish heritage accounted for up to 50 percent of the Continental Army’s ranks. Driven from their homeland by British oppression, Irish-born rebels also served as spies, politicians and more

A nomad on his horse, from the sixth to seventh century 

Genghis Khan Is Remembered for His Vast Empire and Fearsome Warriors. This Exhibition Explores His Cultural Legacy

The Royal Armouries Museum will show nearly 250 rare artifacts—from saddles to early paper money—that reveal a side of the Mongol Empire that’s often neglected

Researchers have virtually unwrapped a nearly five-foot-long segment of PHerc. 1667.

Scientists Have Deciphered the Surviving Fragments of a 2,000-Year-Old Philosophical Treatise Frozen in Time by Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption

The papyrus manuscript was part of a vast library preserved by volcanic ash. Now, the remaining passages—which examine ethics, knowledge and human nature—are accessible for the first time since 79 C.E.

Archaeologists found 82 pit houses, where they suspect people lived and worked.

Were Vikings Really ‘Uncivilized’ Barbarians? Large Textile-Production Site Discovered in Denmark Challenges That Stereotype

The massive settlement, which spans more than a million square feet, likely dates to the late Iron Age or early Viking Age between 600 and 950 C.E.

The Heerlen curse tablet has an ancient Greek inscription.

Cool Finds

This Magical Curse Written in Greek on a Small Lead Tablet Was Meant to Punish Enemies Nearly 2,000 Years Ago

The lead curse tablet was discovered in a city square in the Netherlands and recently deciphered by researchers in Germany

A 6-year-old boy found this single-edged sword in a field in southern Norway in April.

Cool Finds

A 6-Year-Old Boy Spotted Something Sticking Out of the Ground in a Field. It Turned Out to Be a Viking Sword

Henrik Refsnes Mørtvedt was on a school field trip when he found the roughly 1,200-year-old weapon. The single-edged blade will now be preserved at an Oslo museum

The two-wheeled wagon found in the grave is a particularly rare find.

Cool Finds

Construction in Germany Revealed the ‘Princely Grave’ of a Celtic Warrior Who Was Buried With Weapons and a Two-Wheeled Wagon

Archaeologists say the find proves “the previously only assumed presence of a local Celtic elite.” Grave goods also included gold jewelry and a jug imported from modern-day Tuscany

Many of the delicate ceramics are still intact.

Cool Finds

A Shipwreck ‘Almost Beyond Belief’ Stunned Archaeologists in Norway With Its Cargo of Intact Porcelain Dishes and Luxury Goods

So far, archaeologists have recovered 40 artifacts from the discovery, an 18th-century shipwreck that likely will yield thousands more treasures

Sagrada Família, in Barcelona, Spain

This Basilica Has Been Rising Above Barcelona for 144 Years. With Its Central Tower Now Complete, Pope Leo XIV Prepares to Visit

When Antoni Gaudí dreamed up his ambitious vision for Sagrada Família, he knew he wouldn’t live to see its completion. One hundred years after the architect’s death, the tallest tower has reached its peak

Elisenda of Montcada founded the Royal Monastery of St. Mary of Pedralbes in 1327. She was buried there after her death in 1364.

Archaeologists Excavating a Monastery in Spain Identified the Remains of a 14th-Century Queen—and Multiple Skeletons Buried in the Wrong Graves

The tomb of Elisenda of Montcada has long fascinated experts. But the team was surprised to learn that burials supposedly belonging to a medieval knight and abbess held entirely different individuals

Partial view of Eurasian blackbird, Missy Dunaway, acrylic ink on paper

Shakespeare Referenced Dozens of Bird Species in His Work. This Artist Has Made It Her Mission to Paint Them All

Missy Dunaway’s colorful illustrations combine natural history, folklore and literature to depict the Bard’s birds

A limestone pigeon sculpture from Cyprus, dated between 600 and 480 B.C.E.

Pigeon Bones Found at an Ancient Cyprus Settlement Reveal That Our Relationship With These Birds Began Earlier Than We Thought

Before common pigeons were considered urban pests, people domesticated them and relied on them for meat, fertilizer, messages and more. A new study suggests humans have lived alongside the winged creatures for at least 3,400 years

Brendan Fraser (left) as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Andrew Scott (right) as James Stagg in Pressure, a new WWII drama about the weather forecast for D-Day

Based on a True Story

One Weather Forecast Changed the Course of WWII. Here’s the Real Story Behind ‘Pressure,’ a Drama About the Meteorologist Who Convinced the Allies to Delay D-Day

A new movie starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser dramatizes the tense 72 hours before the Allied invasion of Normandy, revealing how meteorology helped determine Operation Overlord’s success

Researchers decided not to dye or bleach the yarn so that the shipwreck’s original color could shine.

A Shipwreck, but Make It Fashion: Researchers Transformed Wooden Fragments From a 17th-Century Shipwreck Into a Pair of Stylish Maxi Dresses

Scientists at Aalto University in Finland saved pieces of the Hahtiperä wreck and turned them into textile fibers

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, James McNeill Whistler, 1871

Whistler Didn’t Mean to Make His Mourning Mother an Art World Star. Today, She’s a Highlight at a Major Exhibition in London

Officially titled ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1,’ James McNeill Whistler’s stoic portrait of his mother has come to define the artist’s style and legacy. The artwork is currently on display in the same city where it was painted more than 150 years ago

The entrance gate to the Jewish cemetery on St. Eustatius

America's 250th Anniversary

This Jewish Community in the Caribbean Smuggled Gunpowder to the Patriots During the Revolution. A British Admiral Condemned the Island as a ‘Nest of Vipers’

A new exhibition at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, in Philadelphia, spotlights the little-known wartime contributions of the Jews of St. Eustatius

Researchers found evidence of degenerative joint disease, trauma and other health problems.

Whalers Didn’t Just Sing Sea Shanties and Seek Adventure. Proof of Laborers’ Grueling Work Is in Their Skeletons, Buried in the Arctic

Remains buried on Svalbard show the brutal toll whaling took on men in the 17th and 18th centuries. Climate change threatens these kinds of archaeological sites across the Arctic

Page 1 of 79