Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

History

An audio tape from the oral history collection at the Navajo Nation Library

Cool Finds

Navajo Nation Library Wants to Digitally Preserve Thousands of Hours of Oral Histories

The library is looking for help protecting its tapes

A technician takes an X-ray fluoroscope of a female patient. Fluoroscope exams delivered much more radiation exposures than modern X-rays.

Just Months After Its Discovery, the X-Ray Was in Use in War

The public was also fascinated by the fact it was possible to take pictures of somebody’s insides

Patrons of the sciences once offered cash prizes, exotic pets and even islands for world-changing discoveries. Here, Louis XIV surveys the members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1667.

For Your Contributions to Science, I Humbly Bequeath You This Pet Moose

A history of motivating scientific endeavor through cash prizes, islands and exotic pets

Uniformed Letter Carrier with Child in Mailbag

Smithsonian Podcast

A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail

In the early days of the parcel post, some parents took advantage of the mail in unexpected ways

Smithsonian Podcast

When the Standardization of Time Arrived in America

It used to be that each town kept its own time, and chaos reigned

Bei Bei, the National Zoo's youngest giant panda cub, during a veterinary exam when he was less than three months old.

The Long, Adorable History of Pandas in America

Su Lin was the first giant panda to come to America, landing in San Francisco in 1936

Men smoke pipes and drink on the London streets. Booth's police notebooks reveal the everyday habits of Londoners.

Cool Finds

Explore the Seedy Reality of a London Long Gone

Charles Booth explored the poorest parts of England’s capital—and changed the way social scientists think about the world

Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein (left) in conversation with National Museum of Natural History Kirk Johnson.

The Natural History Museum’s National Fossil Hall Is Getting a Full Facelift

Museum director Kirk Johnson gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the new dinosaur hall, home to the T-Rex

Radiocarbon dating has been used to determine of the ages of ancient mummies, in some cases going back more than 9000 years.

Age of Humans

Thanks to Fossil Fuels, Carbon Dating Is in Jeopardy. One Scientist May Have an Easy Fix

If only there were such an easy fix for climate change

Do We Finally Know How the Holy Grail Disappeared?

How did an onyx cup thought to be the Holy Grail disappear from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 909 AD?

Trending Today

Yasir Arafat Museum Opens in Ramallah

The three-story building tells the story of the controversial Palestinian leader and includes artifacts like his Nobel Prize and views of his bedroom

Evel Kneivel shown here in this promotional still from the 2015 documentary Being Evel, about to launch in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket, wearing a helmet, of course.

Risk-Taker Evel Knievel Was a Big Proponent of Wearing a Helmet

The daredevil still holds the world record for the most broken bones

Why Porsche Is Revisiting the Hybrid Car It Also Invented

Though Porsche isn’t naturally associate with hybrid cars, it actually invented them in 1900

Female workers make wigs to be exported at a hair products factory in China's Sichuan province.

The Secret History of Buying and Selling Hair

Globalization hit the hair trade centuries ago, and the business is still thriving

New Research

Did the Greeks Help Sculpt China’s Terra Cotta Warriors?

New analysis and DNA evidence suggests the 8,000 life-sized figures in emperor Qin Shi Huang’s necropolis owe their inspiration to the Greeks

Space Patrol depended more on good stories, excellent production values, and an empathic cast of characters than it did on expensive visual special effects. As a result it had a large adult audience, which didn’t stop merchandise being created with younger viewers in mind.

How Artists, Mad Scientists and Speculative Fiction Writers Made Spaceflight Possible

A new book chronicles spaceflight’s centuries-long journey from dream to reality

What These Mysterious Scrolls Tell Us About Women in Petra

In 1961, archaeologists in southern Israel discovered a mysterious set of documents. They provide clues into the elevated status of Nabataean women

Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols on Uhura’s Radical Impact

Star Trek’s decision to cast Nichelle Nichols, an African American woman, as major character on the show was an almost unheard-of move in 1968

Why Tomb Raiders Treated This Priceless Gem Like Trash

Why would grave robbers break into the King of Xuzhou’s tomb and leave its most priceless jade treasure behind?

Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, overthrown by sugar plantation owners and U.S. troops in 1893

Trending Today

Rule Allows Native Hawaiians to Form Their Own Government

A rule by the Interior Department will allow indigenous Hawaiians to vote on creating a sovereign government similar to those of Native American tribes

Page 78 of 128