Horses

Couriers’ duties included fetching patients from cabins, weighing babies, delivering medicine, cleaning saddles and bridles, and escorting any guests who rode the routes between FNS outposts.

Why Debutantes Volunteered to Be Horse-Riding Couriers in Rural Kentucky

Between the 1920s and 1940s, wealthy young women signed up to run errands and carry messages for the Frontier Nursing Service, whose nurse-midwives provided care to patients in hard-to-reach areas

The remains of a dog buried next to a baby

These Ancient Celts Were Buried With Their Animals

Some remains found in the 2,000-year-old graves were likely food offerings, but others may have been much-loved companions

This year's top titles include The Last Ride of the Pony Express, Elixir, Airplane Mode, and more.

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2023

Take a trip without leaving home with these adventurous reads from this year

This year's list includes The Horses, Still Life, Believable: Traveling with My Ancestors, and more.

The Ten Best Photography Books of 2023

Our favorite titles this year will make readers feel the power of visual storytelling

Helen Gibson once remarked, “I certainly do get angry when I hear someone say, ‘I bet she didn’t do that herself.’”

Hollywood's First Professional Stuntwoman Jumped From Planes and Swung Onto Trains

Dubbed "the most daring actress in pictures," Helen Gibson rose to fame in the 1910s

New research suggests Native Americans used horses of European descent long before colonizers arrived in the American West.

New Research Rewrites the History of American Horses

Native Americans spread the animals across the West before Europeans arrived in the region, archaeological evidence and Indigenous knowledge show

Ulysses S. Grant’s 1872 brush with the law marked the first and so far only time a United States president has been arrested while in office. Pictured: Grant with his racehorse Cincinnati

When President Ulysses S. Grant Was Arrested for Speeding in a Horse-Drawn Carriage

The sitting commander in chief insisted the Black police officer who cited him not face punishment for doing his duty

Studying skeletal remains, researchers identified six criteria that could indicate whether someone rode horses.

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Earliest Known Horseback Riders

New research indicates that humans were riding horses as early as 5,000 years ago

Viking burial mound at Heath Wood being excavated

Vikings Brought Horses and Dogs to England, Study Finds

Cremated bone fragments suggest these animals were companions to the Vikings

Archaeologists discovered the sarcophagi beneath the floor of the Notre-Dame cathedral's transept.

Unraveling the Secrets of the Sarcophagi Found Beneath Notre-Dame Cathedral

Archaeologists are learning more about the two men buried under the iconic Paris landmark

This year's list includes Bird Planet, Floridas, I Just Wanna Surf and more.

The Ten Best Photography Books of 2022

Our favorite titles this year invite viewers to worlds outside their own

Magic was just another tool in a medieval animal healer's toolbox.

The Veterinary Magic of the Middle Ages

Medieval healers treated animals' ailments with a mix of faith, tradition and science

Donkeys are important pack animals that helped shape human civilizations.

Scientists Uncover the Story of Donkey Domestication

Humans tamed the equines about 7,000 years ago in East Africa, new research suggests

An X-ray of the Dancing Horse earthenware sculpture, which dates to 608 to 907 C.E. during China's Tang dynasty

Chemistry Reveals the History of an Ancient Dancing Horse Sculpture

The artwork dates to China's Tang dynasty, when horses were a symbol of prosperity

A rider hangs tough during a rodeo at Madison Square Garden in New York, 1957. 

A Brief History of the Rodeo

The humble origins and complex future of cowboy competition

Participants in First Nature Tours help mitigate damages from wildfires in Central Oregon.

Regenerative Tourism Invites Travelers to Get Their Hands Dirty

Vacations that allow tourists to participate in conservation activities, such as habitat restoration, are growing in popularity

In her new historic novel, Brooks reimagines the life of the itinerant artist Thomas J. Scott, who rendered the distinguished race horse in the oil painting, Portrait of Lexington, ca. 1857, a work that Smithsonian curator Eleanor Harvey describes as "visually riveting."

The Lost Story of Lexington, the Record-Breaking Thoroughbred, Races Back to Life

For her latest novel “Horse,” the Pulitzer-prize winning author Geraldine Brooks found inspiration in the Smithsonian collections

Horses have shaped human history over millennia, just as humans have influenced their evolution

When Did Humans Domesticate the Horse?

Only recently have scientists discovered exactly when and where the animal went from wild to tame

Further analysis of bones collected from the Bluefish Caves in Yukon is expanding scientists’ understanding of what early Americans were up to

What Were Humans Doing in the Yukon 24,000 Years Ago?

Scientists have examined remains from caves and think the shelters served as temporary camps for hunters who targeted horses

The more than 7,000-acre Rowse's 1+1 Ranch hosts vacation stays in Burwell, Nebraska.

Unleash Your Inner Cowboy on These Dude Ranch Vacations

Fans of 'Yellowstone,' live out your ranching dreams, even if for just a few days

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