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Politics

Convicted bank robber, Patty Hearst arrest photo

How the Abduction of Patty Hearst Made Her an Icon of the 1970s Counterculture

A new book places a much-needed modern-day lens on the kidnapping that captivated the nation

Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Jon Grinspan, curators with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

How Do Smithsonian Curators Decide What to Collect at the Political Conventions?

For Smithsonian’s Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Jon Grinspan, it’s trying to guess what people of the future will want to know about 2016

Trending Today

Walmart Once Pulled a Shirt That Said “Someday a Woman Will Be President” From Its Shelves

While Hillary Clinton was living in the White House, no less

Concerns about patronage under the Grant Administration inspired Horace Greeley (depicted above Grant's left shoulder) to run for President.

History of Now

The Only Time a Major Party Embraced a Third-Party Candidate for President

Horace Greeley was the choice of the splinter grip named the Liberal Republican Party and that of the Democrats

Earliest known photograph of the White House. The image was taken in 1846 by John Plumbe during the administration of James K. Polk.

Trending Today

The White House Was, in Fact, Built by Enslaved Labor

Along with the Capitol and other iconic buildings in Washington, D.C.

Is this supposed to be a democracy or what? (Shown here: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un visiting Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in 2014.)

Metaphorically Speaking, Your Nervous System is a Dictatorship

Except when it’s an oligarchy. Or a democracy. Or all three.

Images are fast outpacing words as the major means of communication.

Commentary

How to Avoid the Pitfalls in the Politics of Graphic Messaging

The director of the National Portrait Gallery offers a few pointers on how to acquire visual intelligence

A cartoon from the magazine The Judge, where "Democracy" is portrayed as the devil overlooking Washington, D.C., and looks very much like Grover Cleveland.

Trending Today

Lucifer Has Long Had His Hands in Politics

Since the earliest days of Christianity, people have accused their political rivals of being in league with the Devil

There is an outbreak of norovirus among a group of staffers for the California delegation of the Republican National Convention in Ohio.

Trending Today

Likely Norovirus Outbreak Strikes the GOP Convention

It’s a short-lived bug with explosive—and contagious—results

Cool Finds

These Anti-Suffrage Postcards Warned Against Giving Women the Vote

There are always those who resist societal change

History of Now

What the Candidates (and Journalists) Can Learn From the 1948 Democratic Convention

The first time television was beamed into millions of homes meant that presidential politics would have to change

Image captured from the 1948 Republican National Convention.

Cool Finds

Watch Historic Footage of Seven Consequential (and Cringeworthy) Convention Moments

These tidbits of political theater past must be seen to be believed

What chemicals are hiding in your couch?

Why Chemicals in the U.S. Are Still “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”

A new chemical bill makes major strides, but doesn’t fix the root problem

Republican Convention in session, Cleveland Public Auditorium, 1924

History of Now

When the GOP Picked a Nominee for Vice President, Only to Be Rejected

Their unrequited choice seemed utterly uninterested in the role

Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office

Cool Finds

10 Downing Street’s “Chief Mouser” Is Keeping His Job Despite Brexit

Larry the Cat will outlast David Cameron at the Prime Minister’s residence

Crowd outside the 1924 Republican National Convention in Cleveland listen to speeches broadcast from inside the hall via an early “public address system.”

100 Years of Women at the Ballot Box

Women Ruled the Floor When the GOP First Came to Cleveland

The 1924 Convention was the first to feature female delegates, and they made their presence known

The historical flag of Prague's Jewish community.

Cool Finds

How Did the Six-Pointed Star Become Associated With Judaism?

The connection between the two goes back centuries

Young Syrian refugees play with donated paper and pens in the former Oxy transit camp in Lesvos, Greece.

Child Refugees Pose Unique Challenge for Mental Health Practitioners

As the crisis deepens, mental health experts move from questions of short-term survival to ones of longer-term rehabilitation

What could be more relatable than a president and first lady in bed?

Cool Finds

These Artifacts Show the Best—And Worst—of American Election Ephemera

From trash to political treasure

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What’s the Difference Between England, Britain and the U.K.?

Listen up, would-be Anglophiles: Here’s how never to mess up your realms, kingdoms and empires again

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