Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Political Leaders

None

Smithsonian Magazine Presents: America at 250—The Revolutionary Spark

Celebrating the visionary insights & darling innovators that forged a nation.

The new statue was installed overnight in Waterloo Place.

Attributed to Banksy, a New Statue of a Suited Man, Blinded by a Flag and Walking Off a Ledge, Appeared in Central London

The artwork was installed under the cloak of night this week, less than two months after a journalism investigation into Banksy’s true identity was published

This colonnaded open hall—unearthed in the Maya city of Ucanal in 2024—may have been a council house.

Cool Finds

In Times of Trouble, the Maya Rejected Divine Kingship. This Newly Discovered Public Building Reveals How the Transition to Shared Power Unfolded

Archaeologists in northern Guatemala unearthed a colonnaded open hall that may have served as a council house, where local leaders and everyday people met to discuss political issues

In this “Doonesbury” strip from January 17, 2004, Trudeau makes gentle fun of his own legendary political obsessions.

With ‘Doonesbury,’ Garry Trudeau Found a Way to Inform and Entertain a Generation of Newspaper Readers, One Panel at a Time

A new biography chronicles the history and evolution of the reserved artist who has always let his pen do the talking

President William Howard Taft boards the Mayflower in 1909, the year that he supposedly got stuck in a bathtub on board the Oleander steamship.

Popular Lore Claims That William Howard Taft Got Stuck in a Bathtub. New Research Sheds Light on the Legend’s Forgotten Origins

A long-overlooked 1929 account contains the earliest known reference to the anecdote, suggesting that the 27th president found himself trapped in a tub during a Mississippi River voyage

Workers wave proudly from the windows of a plant closed by the sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan, in 1937. 

Organized Labor Took a Huge Step Forward When GM Workers Sat Down in Unison in 1937

Instead of picketing, striking autoworkers in Flint, Michigan, tried a bold tactic that gummed up the works and forced the company to recognize their union

Michael Shannon as President James A. Garfield in Netflix's "Death by Lightning"

Based on a True Story

The Real Story Behind Netflix’s ‘Death by Lightning’ and the Shocking Assassination of President James A. Garfield

The new limited series dramatizes the brief tenure of the 20th commander in chief, who was fatally shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a lawyer who believed he’d secured Garfield’s election

Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent much of the last year in hiding and has not been seen publicly since January.

María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady,’ Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Machado, who leads the Vente Venezuela opposition party against President Nicolás Maduro, was lauded for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela”

Only a fraction of the nearly 12,000 proposed amendments to the Constitution have been ratified into law.

Twelve Failed Constitutional Amendments That Could Have Reshaped American History

These proposals sought to change the United States’ name, abolish the presidency and the vice presidency, and set a limit on personal fortunes, among other measures

Two of Frank Kameny’s notebooks. In one, Kameny notes that the owners of the Tides Hotel are “non-members” but “sympathetic.”

Frank Kameny Helped Chart a Path to Liberation for Millions of Gay Americans

Personal notebooks reveal what life was like for the Washington activist who spent decades advocating for equal rights in the federal government and elsewhere

None

When Historians Rediscovered These Frederick Douglass Letters, They Were Surprised by His Candid Opinions About Abraham Lincoln

In correspondence with a passionate abolitionist in London, the great American orator didn’t hold back when talking about the 16th president, or his successor, the much-maligned Andrew Johnson

UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, is headquartered in Paris and has 194 member countries.

The U.S. Is Withdrawing From UNESCO for the Third Time in the Agency’s 80-Year History

The country previously left the agency for two brief stints—once from 1984 to 2003 and again from 2017 to 2023. The newly announced decision will take effect by the end of 2026

John Tyler was 63 when his 13th child was born in 1853. That child, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was 75 when Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928.

Last Surviving Grandson of President John Tyler, Who Took Office in 1841, Dies at 96

When Harrison Ruffin Tyler’s grandfather was born 235 years ago in 1790, George Washington had just become the nation’s first president

The president of Poland, the senior United States senator from Illinois and much of the Chicago political machine gathered beneath this painting, Pulaski at Savannah, on the first Monday in March.

America's 250th Anniversary

Discover the Short Life and Long Legacy of Casimir Pulaski, a Polish Cavalry Officer Who Became an American Revolutionary Hero

On the first Monday in March, Pulaski Day festivities at Chicago’s Polish Museum of America honored the “Father of American Cavalry,” 280 years after his birth

A Harper's Weekly illustration of Confederate soldiers driving Black Americans south in 1862

Untold Stories of American History

After Confederate Forces Captured Their Children, These Black Mothers Fought to Reunite Their Families

During the Civil War, Confederates targeted free Black people in the North, kidnapping them to sell into slavery. After the conflict ended, two women sought help from high places to track down their lost loved ones

Researchers found the pieces covered in newspaper and tucked beneath a staircase in the crypt.

Cool Finds

Medieval Crowns and Scepters Discovered Hidden Inside the Walls of a Crypt Beneath a Lithuanian Cathedral

The royal treasures were stashed away at the beginning of World War II. Experts knew the trove existed, but previous attempts to find it had failed

The passage connects the Uffizi Galleries to the Boboli Gardens.

See the Sprawling Secret Passageway Built for Florence’s Elite 450 Years Ago

The 2,500-foot-long Vasari Corridor impressed guests of the Medicis and other leaders that followed (including Benito Mussolini). Now, it’s reopening to the public

Martin Van Buren in 1860. 

Martin Van Buren Created America’s Partisan Political System. We’re Still Recovering

The eighth president of the United States, the so-called little magician, saw political parties as the key to achieving power

James Earl Carter, Jr. by Robert Clark Templeton, 1980

The Lasting Legacy of Jimmy Carter, Dead at 100

Smithsonian curators remember and honor the 39th president’s uncompromising idealism

The exhibition showcases political cartoons dating from 1909 to 2003.

See Winston Churchill Through the Eyes of the Political Cartoonists He Inspired

A new exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum brings together political cartoons from around the world that celebrate and satirize the wartime prime minister

Page 1 of 15