Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Historical Documents

An ancient star map (not the document analyzed in the new research) unearthed in Dunhuang, China, in the seventh century C.E.

New Research

These Scientists Say They’ve Identified the Oldest Known Star Chart in the World

A new preprint suggests that an ancient Chinese star catalog dates to 355 B.C.E. But other researchers aren’t convinced, arguing that the original coordinates are misaligned by one degree

Historian David Carpenter examines the digitized document.

Cool Finds

Harvard Bought This Stained Copy of the Magna Carta for $27.50. It Turned Out to Be an Original

Issued by Edward I in 1300, this version of the historic text is one of only seven known surviving copies. It’s been hiding in plain sight in Harvard Law School’s library since 1946

The scroll previously known only as PHerc. 172 was written by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus.

Cool Finds

These Ancient Scrolls Have Been a Tantalizing Mystery for 2,000 Years. Researchers Just Deciphered a Title for the First Time

Mount Vesuvius’ eruption preserved the Herculaneum scrolls beneath a blanket of ash. Two millennia later, X-ray scans show that one of them is a philosophical text called “On Vice”

Pope Francis meets with Martin Scorsese on January 31, 2024 in Vatican City.

Martin Scorsese’s New Documentary Will Feature One of Pope Francis’ Final Interviews

The film focuses on a project founded by the pope that encourages small communities around the world to tell their stories through cinema

Sotheby’s will auction off the set in London on May 23.

This Complete Set of Shakespeare’s Four Folios Could Sell for $6 Million

In the 17th century, the Bard’s plays were preserved for posterity in the First, Second, Third and Fourth Folios. Now, all four volumes are being sold as a set

Campaign memorabilia from Lincoln's first run for the White House in 1860

Abraham Lincoln’s Blood-Stained Gloves, Early Scribblings and Dozens of Other Belongings Are Going Up for Sale

Nearly 150 pieces of Lincolniana from throughout the 16th president’s life will be hitting the auction block in Chicago on May 21

Stephen Tabor with the Huntington Library's copy of the Gutenberg Bible

Gutenberg Bible Reunited With Rare 15th-Century Devotional Print Once Tucked Inside Its Pages

Two centuries after they were separated, the print and the Bible are on display together at the Huntington Library in California

Written in 1777, the letter from George Washington is expected to sell for $150,000.

You Can Buy a Rare Letter by George Washington Written at a Crucial Turning Point in the Revolutionary War

In the optimistic missive, Washington extols the revolutionary spirit of the American people—even in defeat—and makes a rare reference to the experimental smallpox inoculation that helped prevent outbreaks

Researchers just revealed previously hidden text from a 2,000-year-old scroll called PHerc. 172, which is housed at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries.

Using A.I., Researchers Peer Inside a 2,000-Year-Old Scroll Charred by Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption

For the past two years, citizen scientists and scholars have been working to reveal the previously hidden texts of the Herculaneum scrolls

The 315-page police docket from 1904 is bound in red leather with gold accents.

Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

This 120-Year-Old Police Docket Documented Crimes Like Reckless Horse Riding

Discovered in a thrift store, the historic docket lists incidents that occurred in the town of Casper, Wyoming, in 1904—including “reckless riding [of a horse]” and “keeping a house of prostitution”

This copy of the Declaration was printed by Robert Luist Fowle of New Hampshire.

This Rare Printing of the Declaration of Independence Could Sell for $4 Million

Made by a printer in New Hampshire, this 1776 broadside edition was created to disseminate America’s founding document to the public

A Revolutionary War pension and bounty land warrant application submitted by James Lambert

Can You Read This Cursive Handwriting? The National Archives Wants Your Help

Anyone with an internet connection can volunteer to transcribe historical documents and help make the archives’ digital catalog more accessible

People suspected of collaborating with the Nazis were rounded up after American troops liberated the Dutch town of Nijmegen at the end of World War II.

The Netherlands Has Published a List of 425,000 Suspected Nazi Collaborators

In the past, the names could only be viewed in person. But due to expiring access restrictions, they’re now available to anyone with an internet connection

The silver amulet contained a thin foil scroll.

New Research

Archaeologists Say This Tiny Amulet Is the Oldest Evidence of Christianity Found North of the Alps

Discovered in central Germany, the 1,800-year-old silver artifact held a tiny scroll, which researchers have now deciphered using high-resolution scans

Charles de Gaulle talking to reporters in 1945

Cool Finds

A Forgotten Collection of Charles de Gaulle’s Personal Letters, Speeches and Manuscripts Has Been Discovered in a Safe

Most of the documents are heading to the auction block, where they could fetch more than $1 million. They were found in a bank vault owned by the French statesman’s son

Pages from the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski

The Discovery of a Jewish Teenager’s Holocaust Diary Reveals How Songs, Jokes and Stories Served as Cultural Resistance

Yitskhok Rudashevski documented his life while hiding from Nazis, as well as folklore told in his community that “must be collected and preserved as a treasure for the future”

Machiavelli's The Prince was written in 1513 and printed in 1532.

A Rare First-Edition Copy of Machiavelli’s Notorious Political Treatise ‘The Prince’ Heads to Auction

This copy of the 16th-century text is owned by a private collector. Until recently, historians weren’t aware that it existed

This marble tablet weighs 115 pounds and measures two feet tall.

An Ancient Tablet Inscribed With Nine of the Ten Commandments From the Book of Exodus Is for Sale

The marble slab, which dates to between 300 and 500 C.E., is the oldest-known stone tablet inscribed with the Commandments. Nobody recognized its significance until decades after its discovery

Experts have found that the manuscript's paper and ink are consistent with the materials Chopin was using at the time.

Cool Finds

You Can Listen to a Lost Chopin Waltz That Hasn’t Been Heard for Nearly Two Centuries

The one-minute composition, which dates to the 1830s, was found on a piece of paper about the size of an index card at a museum in New York City

Green Tea, Leonora Carrington, 1942

Surrealism Is Turning 100. See the Dreamlike Paintings That Made the Movement So Revolutionary

A blockbuster exhibition in Paris is showcasing 500 artifacts and artworks in honor of the Surrealist Manifesto, which sparked a new artistic style that spread around the world

Page 3 of 12