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Historical Documents

The title page of the collection of Bartholomäus Vogtherr's medical recipes (left) and a page from another medical text called the Kreuterbu[o]ch (right)

New Research

Renaissance Readers Left Chemical Clues Inside These Medical Manuals. Were They Using Human Feces and Tortoise Shells to Treat Illnesses?

Researchers analyzed proteins extracted from “How to Cure and Expel All Afflictions and Illnesses of the Human Body” and “A Useful and Essential Little Book of Medicine for the Common Man,” both written by a 16th-century German eye doctor

Inky paw prints on a 15th-century Flemish manuscript

A Cat Left Paw Prints on the Pages of This Medieval Manuscript When the Ink Was Drying 500 Years Ago

An exhibition called “Paws on Parchment” tracks how cats were depicted in the Middle Ages through texts and artworks from around the world—including one example of a 15th-century “keyboard cat”

The Hornet's Nest, Jimmy Carter, 2003

You Can Buy President Jimmy Carter’s Paintings, Furniture, Mementos and a Love Letter to His Wife

Christie’s selected the items with help from the president’s daughter, Amy, for a special sale in celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday

An ogham stone in Cornwall, England

These Linguists Are Creating a New Dictionary of Ancient Celtic Languages—With Help From ‘Curse Tablets’ and Roman Records

The project aims to produce a record of the Celtic languages spoken in Britain and Ireland, though the majority of these words have already been lost to history

A letter from Jane Austen to her sister, Cassandra, discussing the publication of Pride and Prejudice in 1813

Jane Austen’s Letters Are the Closest We Can Get to Her. What Do They Reveal About the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Author?

This year marks the English novelist’s 250th birthday. Her hundreds of surviving letters—both real and fictional—offer valuable insights into her imaginative wit and enduring appeal

Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, is leading a project to compile the names of as many Jewish Holocaust victims as possible.

Researchers Have Identified the Names of Five Million Victims Murdered in the Holocaust

Led by Israel’s Yad Vashem, the initiative has been underway since the 1950s. But it recently got a boost from artificial intelligence, which is helping humans search through the records

This 14th- or 15th-century aquamanile, a vessel for pouring water in domestic and religious settings, shows a sexual depiction of the legend of Aristotle and Phyllis.

See How These Medieval Artists Explored the Many Meanings of Love and Desire in a New Exhibition at the Met Cloisters

The show features more than 50 paintings, manuscripts, textiles and other artworks created in Western Europe between the 13th and 15th centuries

The National Archives is the permanent home of the United States Constitution.

America's 250th Anniversary

See the Entire U.S. Constitution on Display for the Very First Time in History

The National Archives in Washington, D.C. will be showcasing the four pages of the historic document, plus a rarely shown “fifth page,” the Bill of Rights and the 17 other amendments

The New York Public Library has one of Thomas Jefferson's handwritten copies of the Declaration of Independence in its collection.

America's 250th Anniversary

See Thomas Jefferson’s Handwritten Copy of the Declaration of Independence

The rare document will be on view for just three days at the New York Public Library next year in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary

Every page is stamped with the words "Pearl Harbor" at the top.

Cool Finds

She Found a Tattered Logbook in the Trash. It Turned Out to Be a Rare Record From the 1941 Pearl Harbor Attack

The National Archives has recovered the volume, which includes more than 500 pages of data from March 1941 to June 1942. It had been tucked away in storage for half a century

E.Y. “Yip” Harburg's sketch for the lyrics of “Over the Rainbow"

Want to See the Original Lyrics for ‘Over the Rainbow’? All You Need Is a Library Card

The Library of Congress has acquired a collection of musical manuscripts and other rare artifacts connected to “The Wizard of Oz”

Thornton's handwritten memoirs recount the same period of her life.

Read the Dramatic 17th-Century Memoirs of Alice Thornton, Who Wrote Four Versions of Her Life Story

Researchers have digitized all four volumes, which are now available online. The autobiographies offer a compelling window into a tumultuous period in English history

The page was marked with a wax numbering system in the 1980s, which helped officials determine when it was stolen.

FBI Returns Long-Lost Manuscript Signed by Hernán Cortés in 1527 to Mexico’s National Archives

The document, which vanished decades ago, includes logistical details linked to the travels of the Spanish conquistador, who had conquered the Aztec Empire several years earlier

Karin Wulf's new book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America, explores the many ways in which people of the past reflected on their family histories.

Why 18th-Century Americans Were Just as Obsessed With Their Genealogy as We Are Today

People living in British America and later the nascent United States recorded their family histories in needlework samplers, notebooks and newspapers

The box given to Brand contained records from the Dutch East India Company.

Cool Finds

Stolen Historic Documents Surface in Attic—Ten Years After an Employee Used Them as Collateral to Borrow Money

The thief likely took the trove when he worked for the Dutch National Archives in 2015. Recently, someone found them in storage and contacted art detective Arthur Brand

Griffin spent $18 million for the two documents.

A Rare Copy of the 13th Amendment Signed by Abraham Lincoln Sells for a Record $13.7 Million

Kenneth Griffin, the billionaire art collector and hedge fund founder, purchased the document that abolished slavery, as well as a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation

The Lough Kinale Book Shrine was discovered in an Irish lake in 1986.

These Medieval Monks Scribbled Notes in the Margins of Their Books More Than 1,000 Years Ago

A new exhibition in Dublin showcases historic manuscripts written in Irish monasteries. The show also features medieval artifacts, such as a rare book shrine found in a river in the 1980s

The fading pages of the manuscript were sitting in a screened-in porch at a home in Barrington, Rhode Island, for years.

Untold Stories of American History

Tattered Pages Discovered in Storage Reveal an Enslaved Man’s Daring Bid for Freedom—and His Second Life at Sea

Historians are investigating the haunting handwritten manuscript, which chronicles Thomas White’s escape from slavery in Maryland and adventures around the world nearly 200 years ago

The National Archives Museum is undergoing a $40 million renovation.

America's 250th Anniversary

The National Archives Museum Is Using A.I. to Take Visitors on an Immersive Journey Through American History

Called “The American Story,” the new permanent exhibition will guide museumgoers through two million historic documents and artifacts

Radiocarbon dating requires destroying small samples of the fragile scrolls.

New Research

The Dead Sea Scrolls Changed Our Understanding of the Bible. Could Some of Them Be Even Older Than We Thought?

A new study combines A.I., radiocarbon dating and handwriting analysis to estimate new dates for some of the ancient scrolls, thought to be some of the earliest surviving fragments of the Old Testament

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