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European History

A guillotine donated by French lawyer Robert Badinter, who fought for the abolition of the death penalty, is on display at Marseille’s Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean through April 2026.

A Guillotine Goes on Display in Marseille, Where the Execution Device Was Last Used 48 Years Ago

A museum in the city is honoring the legacy of Minister of Justice Robert Badinter, who fought to repeal the death penalty in France once and for all

Surviving members of the Sobibor Uprising in 1944. Leon Feldhendler, a leader of the revolt, is standing in the back row at far right.

These Jewish Prisoners Revolted Against the Nazis, Killing Their Guards and Escaping From a World War II Death Camp

During the lesser-known 1943 Sobibor Uprising, several hundred Jews fled into the forests of Poland, where many were tracked down and shot. Fifty-eight Sobibor inmates survived the war

The stone is dedicated to soldier Sextus Congenius Verus.

Cool Finds

A Married Couple in New Orleans Found a Stone in Their Backyard. It Turned Out to Be an Ancient Roman Soldier’s Gravestone

The piece bears a Latin inscription describing the legionary’s service aboard a warship

“This ship is not as strong as the Nimrod constructionally,” Ernest Shackleton wrote to his wife of Endurance. “I would exchange her for the old Nimrod any day now except for comfort.”

New Research

Explorer Ernest Shackleton May Have Known His Ship ‘Endurance’ Wasn’t Equipped to Survive the Antarctic Ice

The vessel, which sank in November 1915, had structural shortcomings, including weak deck frames and no diagonal beams to strengthen the hull, a new study argues

Generations of bearded vultures return to the same nesting sites for centuries, offering archaeologists a glimpse into the past.

Generations of Bearded Vultures Stashed Humans’ Treasures, Including a 650-Year-Old Sandal, in These Bird Nests

Researchers recovered more than 200 human artifacts from historical nests in southern Spain

A magnified view of tiny specks of blue residue found on a Paleolithic stone artifact

Cool Finds

These Archaeologists Set Out in Search of Animal Fat. Instead, They Found the Oldest Blue Pigment Ever Discovered in Europe

Blue residue on a 13,000-year-old stone artifact, long believed to be an oil lamp, may paint a new picture of Paleolithic art and culture

During the summer of 2025, a team of divers pulled up 1,051 silver coins known as reales, five gold coins called escudos and other gold artifacts.

Divers Recover More Than $1 Million Worth of Gold and Silver Coins From 310-Year-Old ‘Treasure Fleet’ Shipwrecks

The vessels sank in a violent hurricane off the coast of Florida in July 1715, when they were traveling from Cuba to Spain with an estimated $400 million worth of coins and jewels from the New World

Three of the circles were built between 4850 and 4500 B.C.E.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Earthwork Circles Built 6,500 Years Ago—Nearly 2,000 Years Before Stonehenge

Recent excavations have shed new light on the four circular ditches, which were identified in a field near Rechnitz, Austria, during surveys of the area between 2011 and 2017

A portrait of Johanna Koerten, whose "thread painting" for the wife of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I sold for more money than Rembrandt's The Night Watch, one of the most famous artworks of all time

This 17th-Century Female Artist Was Once a Bigger Star Than Rembrandt. Why Did History Forget About Johanna Koerten and Her Peers?

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts spotlights 40 women who found fame in the Low Countries between 1600 and 1750, including Koerten, Judith Leyster and Clara Peeters

Archaeologists think the bench may have been used by visitors who came to meet with the villa's owner.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Pompeii Discover Ancient Bench Where Hopeful Clients Waited to Be Seen by an Elite Roman

The seat is across from the entrance to the Villa of the Mysteries, a large property full of beautiful frescoes located just outside the ancient city’s walls

The buried limestone chamber dates to the third or fourth century C.E.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Albania Unearth Tomb Belonging to an Upper-Class Roman Who Died 1,700 Years Ago

The limestone chamber is marked with inscriptions identifying the deceased and honoring the deity Jupiter. Officials say it’s the first tomb of its kind to be found in the country

The paintings are pictured in a directory of property looted in France between 1939 and 1945.

These Long-Lost 17th-Century Paintings Were Looted by the Nazis. They Just Surfaced at an Ohio Auction House

The still lifes were part of the Schloss collection, which was seized in 1943. Auction house officials halted the sale when they learned of the artworks’ suspected provenance

Medical supplies for the front are piled up at a railway station in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1935. Back in America, Black educator Melva L. Price rallied support for Ethiopian refugees fleeing the violence of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

During the Great Depression, This Black Educator Looked to Conflicts Abroad for Lessons on Fighting Racism at Home

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the Spanish Civil War offered Melva L. Price and her fellow female activists an opportunity to examine the links between racism and fascism

The Oseberg, a Viking ship built in 820 C.E., moved to its new home at the Museum of the Viking Age at the speed of ten inches per minute.

The Best-Preserved Viking Ship in the World Just Survived Its Treacherous Final Journey

For more than ten years, experts have been painstakingly planning to move three 1,000-year-old vessels—the “Oseberg,” “Gokstad” and “Tune”—about 115 yards to their new home in Oslo

Located nearly 60 feet below the surface, the statue is cleaned every year.

See How Divers Clean This Statue of Jesus Christ Submerged Nearly 60 Feet Below the Surface of the Mediterranean

Located off the coast of northern Italy, “Christ of the Abyss” was installed in 1954 to commemorate lives lost at sea. The statue receives a routine cleaning every year

The figurine is a little more than an inch tall.

Cool Finds

Curator Rediscovers Tenth-Century ‘Portrait’ of a Viking With an ‘Unusual, Ornate Hairstyle’

First unearthed in 1797, the small gaming piece was kept in storage at the National Museum of Denmark for more than 200 years until curator Peter Pentz found it

Sweden's fans wave IKEA flags before a soccer game between Austria and Sweden in Vienna in 2023.

Sweden Releases an Official Cultural Canon That Features IKEA and ‘Pippi Longstocking’—but Not ABBA

Critics of the list, which features 100 artworks and other cultural creations from before 1975, say the selections are exclusionary

As the sun rises over the horizon, the Castle of Rocca Calascio emerges from the peaks of the Abruzzo Apennines.

Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries

Explore 15 Captivating, Cool and Classic Castles

These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest capture the grandeur of the historic fortresses

Real tennis was played indoors, usually in a court with high windows, a sloping roof and a spectators’ gallery.

Why European Royals, From Henry VIII to Louis X, Loved Playing ‘Real Tennis,’ the So-Called Sport of Kings

Modern tennis’ predecessor was a different—and potentially more dangerous—test of athletic prowess

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America's 250th Anniversary

The Underappreciated True Story of the Brash Prussian Military Officer Who Whipped the Patriots Into Shape at Valley Forge

Most Americans think of George Washington’s winter encampment as brutal and deadly. But Friedrich von Steuben, an out-of-work military veteran from Europe, turned it into a fruitful training ground

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