![“Part of [Wolfe’s] skewering of society was to also be absolutely his own man,” says National Portrait Gallery curator Brandon Brame Fortune. “For him, that meant wearing this white vanilla colored three-piece suit wherever he went.”](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/325IyMeQ07AyWiNMdp2uCAUduZc=/450x300/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/8b/1d/8b1d49d0-b8ca-4514-ade4-401bcc6c0c0e/wolfe2.jpg)
Five Things to Know About Tom Wolfe
The late author had an undeniable influence on American writing
Writing in the Public Eye, These Women Brought the 20th Century Into Focus
Michelle Dean’s new book looks at the intellects who cut through the male-dominated public conversation
Journalist Virginia Irwin Broke Barriers When She Reported From Berlin at the End of WWII
Her exclusive dispatches from the last days of Nazi Germany appeared in newspapers around the country, briefly making her a national celebrity
Pioneering Black Journalist Les Payne Has Died at Age 76
The fearless Pulitzer Prize-winning Newsday reporter and editor, who was a founding member of NABJ, paved the way for journalists of color
The Reporter Who Helped Persuade FDR to Tell the Truth About War
After witnessing the bloody struggle with Japan, Robert Sherrod thought the public should face the ‘cruel’ facts
What The Post Gets Right (and Wrong) About Katharine Graham and the Pentagon Papers
A Smithsonian historian reminds us how Graham, a Washington socialite-turned-publisher, transformed the paper into what it is today
Pioneering Political Journalist Marianne Means Has Died at Age 83
The first woman assigned to cover a president’s activities on a full-time basis, Means wrote a widely syndicated column about the goings-on in Washington
Why Do We Call TV Watchers ‘Viewers’?
It all goes back to a quirky BBC subcommittee working in the 1930s to change the English language
The 19th-Century Woman Journalist Who Made Congress Bow Down in Fear
A new book examines the life and legacy of Anne Royall, whose literal witch trial made headlines across the country
Collection of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Writing Captures the First Lady’s Lasting Relevance
On the 133rd anniversary of her birth, “ER“‘s influence lives on
Tom Brokaw’s Journey From Middle America to the World Stage
The history-making path of the former NBC Nightly News anchor is honored with a Smithsonian Lewis and Clark compass
The Author of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ Used Almost 200 Pseudonyms
Daniel Defoe honed his pen on political writing before he came to the novel
Was the First Battle of Bull Run Really ‘The Picnic Battle’?
Yep. But it was anything but frivolous
This Was the First Major News Article on HIV/AIDS
The epidemic’s early days were perplexing and terrifying
The Forgotten Man Who Transformed Journalism in America
Lowell Thomas was the first host of a TV broadcast news program, and adopted a number of other new technologies to make his mark in the 20th century
Newseum Ditches Headlines for a Day Without News
It’s a stark reminder of the journalists who’ve died doing their jobs
How Woodrow Wilson’s Propaganda Machine Changed American Journalism
The media are still feeling the impact of an executive order signed in 1917 that created ‘the nation’s first ministry of information’
Reliving the Ebony Fashion Fair Off the Runway, One Couture Dress at a Time
An exhibition on the traveling fashion show memorializes the cultural phenomenon that shook up an industry
Gender-Neutral Pronoun “They” Adopted by Associated Press
The journalist’s bible will finally help reporters talk about non-binary people
The Complicated Racial Politics of Going “Undercover” to Report on the Jim Crow South
How one journalist became black to investigate segregation and what that means today
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