Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Historical Documents

None

There's More to That

How to Separate Fact From Myth in the Extraordinary Story of Sojourner Truth

Two historians tell us why the pioneering 19th-century feminist, suffragist and abolitionist’s legacy has so frequently been misrepresented

Georgina Hogarth lived with Charles Dickens for nearly three decades.

Who Was Georgina Hogarth, Charles Dickens’ ‘Best and Truest Friend’?

Unpublished letters reveal new insights into the baffling relationship between the English novelist and his sister-in-law

The scroll is part of a vast library found in the ancient town of Herculaneum.

Three Students Just Deciphered the First Passages of a 2,000-Year-Old Scroll Burned in Vesuvius’ Eruption

The trio used artificial intelligence to decode sections of the text, which appear to be a philosophical exploration of pleasure

The envelope was sent twice: once on May 2, 1840, and again on May 4, 1840.

First Known Piece of Mail Sent Using a Stamp Goes to Auction

The 183-year-old envelope is a rare example of two early forms of prepaid postage: Mulready envelopes and adhesive stamps

The letters remained unopened in storage for more than two centuries before Renaud Morieux read them.

Sealed French Love Letters Read for the First Time in 265 Years

Written during the Seven Years’ War, the letters offer rare insights into the lives of everyday people during wartime

The rare 14th-century portolan chart is worth $7.5 million.

Cool Finds

Sold for $239,000, This Map Is Actually a Rare 14th-Century Nautical Chart—and Worth $7.5 Million

A San Diego map dealer uncovered the artifact’s true origins through impressive historical sleuthing

An original copy of a 15th-century Christopher Columbus letter translated from Spanish into Latin

Christopher Columbus Letter Describing Journey to the Americas Sells for $3.9 Million

Copies of the letter have long been the target of thefts and forgeries, but Christie’s says this one is the real deal

Of the nearly 2,000 items missing from Welsh museums, more than half are from St. Fagans in Cardiff, Wales.

Nearly 2,000 Items Are Missing From Welsh Museums

Museum officials say that many of the objects will likely be recovered as documentation work progresses

A Herculaneum scroll being scanned at Institut de France by Brent Seales and his team

Cool Finds

This 21-Year-Old Used A.I. to Decipher Text From a Scroll That Hasn’t Been Read in 2,000 Years

The papyrus scroll is one of hundreds that were carbonized in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

Stamped with the date—April 14, 1865—the two tickets correspond with a front-row spot in the dress circle.

What Did These Two Ticket Holders See on the Night of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination?

A rare pair of Ford’s Theatre tickets—for seats across from the president’s box—have sold for $262,500

Brooker began collecting in 1959 in Paris and has been assembling his library ever since.

Trove of Rare Renaissance Books Could Fetch $25 Million at Auction

T. Kimball Brooker has amassed a collection of more than 1,300 texts from the 16th century

U.S. authorities have returned a rare copy of a letter by Christopher Columbus, which vanished from Venice decades ago.

Stolen in the 1980s, a Rare Christopher Columbus Letter Returns to Italy

The document is among several missing copies of the letter to be recovered from the U.S. in recent years

A free exhibition in Washington, D.C., shows 12 pages from the multi-volume collection of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks called the Codex Atlanticus.

Leonardo da Vinci Sketches Go on Display in the U.S. for the First Time

Pages of the “Codex Atlanticus” provide a rare glimpse into the Renaissance icon’s imagination and scientific prowess

In the Heege manuscript, an English tutor may have copied the text of a medieval minstrel’s repertoire book.

Cool Finds

Medieval Manuscript Reveals 15th-Century Comedy Routine

Written to be performed live, a medieval minstrel’s jokes poked fun at the powerful

A diver takes a rubbing of John Greer’s gravestone underwater at Dry Tortugas National Park.

Cool Finds

Quarantine Hospital and Cemetery Found Underwater Off the Coast of Florida

Before it was submerged, a small island was home to 19th-century yellow fever patients

Of the roughly 750 First Folios printed, at least 235 known copies survive today.

Without the First Folio, Half of Shakespeare’s Plays Would Have Been Lost to History

The 400-year-old text presented the Bard’s plays as serious literature, muddling the boundaries between popular culture and high art

One of the scrolls carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius

You Could Win $1 Million by Deciphering These Ancient Roman Scrolls

The Herculaneum scrolls have remained unreadable since their discovery in 1750, but researchers hope to change that

The Codex Sassoon, which measures 12 by 14 inches, dates to the late ninth or early tenth century.

World’s Oldest Near-Complete Hebrew Bible Goes to Auction

The Codex Sassoon could break auction records, becoming the most valuable historical document ever sold

Historian John Rice Irwin, linguist Carl Croneberg and historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall

Three Pioneering Scholars Who Died This Year

They believed that the stories of marginalized communities were worth chronicling

President John F. Kennedy delivers remarks at Rice University regarding the nation's efforts in space exploration on September 12, 1962

National Archives Releases Thousands of Kennedy Assassination Files

Over 97 percent of documents related to the event are now publicly available

Page 5 of 12