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Photography

Mary Ann Brown Patten, photographed by an unidentified artist, 1857

Women Who Shaped History

How the Camera Introduced Americans to Their Heroines

A new show at the National Portrait Gallery spotlights figures including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott and Margaret Fuller

President Amin at Buvuma Island, October 1971

Thousands of Newly Unearthed Photographs Document Ugandans’ Life Under Idi Amin

Around 150 of the images are now on view at the Uganda Museum in Kampala

Photos Capture the Great South American Eclipse

On July 2, residents of Chile and Argentina witnessed the first total solar eclipse since August 2017

Hansel Mieth, photograph from “International Ladies’ Garment Workers: How a Great Union Works Inside and Out"

Women Who Shaped History

‘Life’ Magazine’s Earliest Women Photojournalists Step Into Spotlight

A new exhibition highlights images by Margaret Bourke-White, Marie Hansen, Martha Holmes, Lisa Larsen, Nina Leen and Hansel Mieth

A group waits for news out of Versailles by a wireless Marconi radio, June 1, 1919.

Europe Reacts to the Treaty of Versailles, in Photos

One hundred years ago, the news broke that World War I had officially ended.

A candlelight vigil is tinged with a sense of resistance and resilience as activists honor the second anniversary of Stonewall, 1971.

LGBTQ+ Pride

The First Pride Marches, in Photos

A look back at a major turning point in the struggle for gay rights

This hand-colored carte de visite depicts Virginia L. Molyneaux Hewlett Douglass, who married Frederick Douglass, Jr., the son of the famous African American leader. The mount is inscribed: “Mrs. Fredk Douglass.”

These Photo Albums Offer a Rare Glimpse of 19th-Century Boston’s Black Community

Thanks to the new acquisition, scholars at the Athenaeum library are connecting the dots of the city’s social network of abolitionists

New Research

‘Mona Lisa’ Comes to Life in Computer-Generated ‘Living Portrait’

A new artificial intelligence system can create realistic animations from a single static image

Stereoscopic portraits of Queen Victoria. Dated 1854.

Two Unseen Photographs of Queen Victoria Released in Honor of Her 200th Birthday

Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were early and eager adopters of new photographic technologies and commissioned many personal family portraits

Blue Hole Regional Park, just south of Austin, Texas, is sought after for its canopy of bald cypress trees and its two rope swings.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

The Sublime Sensation of the Swimming Hole

Kick off your shoes and jump into summer’s most refreshing tradition on a lazy afternoon

The Awakening, February 20, 1915 Chromolithograph

Nine Women’s History Exhibits to See This Year

Museums around the country are celebrating how the contributions of remarkable women changed everything from human rights to mariachi music

The Baker Hotel’s lobby was one of the most magnificent in the nation, but after years of decay it has been left in a moldy and derelict state.

American South

These Photographers Venture Into Derelict Buildings in Texas So That We Don’t Have To

In a new book, Shane and Jessica Steeves capture some of the state’s abandoned churches, schools and hotels

Driftwood rises out of the sand at Lovers Key.

Why The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel Is a Photographer’s Paradise

Photographer Britt Maxwell highlights four of his favorite places to witness the ever changing nature of the tropical paradise he calls home

Qumangapik, age 16, hunts seals near Thule. Inuit were exempted from the 2010 European Union law banning the trade of seal products.

At the Edge of the Ice

Deep inside the Arctic Circle, Inuit hunters embrace modern technology but preserve a traditional way of life

A photographic plate of the 1919 total solar eclipse, taken by Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin and Charles Rundle Davidson during an expedition to Sobral, Brazil. The 1919 eclipse was used by Arthur Eddington, who observed it from the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa, to provide the first experimental evidence of Einstein's theory of relativity.

What the Obsolete Art of Mapping the Skies on Glass Plates Can Still Teach Us

The first pictures of the sky were taken on glass photographic plates, and these treasured artifacts can still help scientists make discoveries today

In 1917 when it was highly unusual for women to protest, a suffrage procession walked the streets of Washington, D.C. towards the White House carrying purple, white and gold banners.

Women Who Shaped History

How Women Got the Vote Is a Far More Complex Story Than the History Textbooks Reveal

An immersive story about the bold and diverse women who helped secure the right to vote is on view at the National Portrait Gallery

Bermuda

A Diver Captures Bermuda Below the Surface

Weldon Wade curates a refreshing Instagram feed focused on ocean conservation and the sport of free diving

A man smokes a cigarette as he talks to an armored guard at a protest in People’s Park circa May, 1969, in Berkeley, California.

Scenes From 50 Years Ago This Spring, When Americans Turned Out to Protest the Vietnam War

In Los Angeles, Boston and New York, students and veterans alike challenged the government’s ongoing support for the lengthy war

Twitter helped identify the identities of the women involved in excavations at Skara Brae, Orkney, in 1929.

Internet Sleuths Were on the Case to Name the Women Archaeologists in These Excavation Photos

A caption in a book about the excavation at Skara Brae, Scotland, had identified them as ‘visitors’ to the dig

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Smithsonian Voices

Works of Pioneering Photographer Constance Stuart Larrabee to Be Digitized

The work of Constance Stuart Larrabee, a pioneering photographer, will soon be digitized

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