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Ellen Wexler

Writer and Special Projects Editor

Ellen Wexler

Ellen Wexler is a staff writer and special projects editor, digital, for Smithsonian magazine. She covers history, archaeology, arts and culture, literature, and film.

Highlights

  • Published in Smithsonian magazine, Moment magazine, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, EdSurge, WETA and more
  • Mirror Awards finalist, Simon Rockower Awards winner, SPJ Dateline Awards finalist, Religion News Association Awards finalist
  • Reporting featured in episodes of “There’s More to That” podcast

Education

Bachelor’s degree in English from the College of William & Mary

A detail from Jackson Pollock's Number 7A, 1948

What Did Jackson Pollock Hope to Accomplish With This Dizzying Drip Painting, Which Just Sold for a Record-Breaking $181 Million?

The Abstract Expressionist is best known for his action paintings, which emphasized the movements of the artist’s body during the creative process. “Number 7A, 1948” is now his most expensive work ever auctioned

Museumgoers can read the labels on the backs of the paintings, which may provide clues about each work's provenance.

Who Are the Owners of These Nazi-Looted Masterpieces—and Could Displaying Them at One of France’s Most Popular Museums Help Track Them Down?

A new permanent display at the Musée d’Orsay showcases artworks that may have been stolen or sold under suspicious circumstances during World War II. Officials are still hoping to find the families of their rightful owners

The Roman funerary marker in the custody of FBI New Orleans in November 2025

Why Was This Ancient Roman Soldier’s Gravestone Hidden in a Louisiana Backyard? Archaeologists Solved the Mystery—and Helped Return the Artifact to Italy

The funerary marker, which surfaced on a New Orleans property last year, once belonged to a Roman soldier who died nearly 2,000 years ago. Officials repatriated the stone in a recent ceremony in Rome

During World War I, the Tampa protected convoys from submarine attacks.

Divers Discover the Shipwreck of a World War I-Era Coast Guard Cutter, Which Vanished With 131 Sailors on Board in 1918

The wreckage of the “Tampa,” which was torpedoed by a German submarine, was found 50 miles off the coast of Cornwall, England. The disaster was the largest single American naval combat loss of life during the war

A remotely operated vehicle captured this image of the ceramics from the Camarat 4.

Here’s What Underwater Robots Are Finding at France’s Deepest Shipwreck, a 16th-Century Merchant Vessel Resting at the Bottom of the Mediterranean

Known as the “Camarat 4,” the ship was loaded with cannons, cauldrons and hundreds of ceramics—which are still visible on the seafloor. Researchers are surveying the site and carefully recovering a small selection of artifacts

A virtual reconstruction of the Berlanga Cup

This Souvenir Bowl May Have Commemorated an Ancient Roman Soldier’s Service at Hadrian’s Wall. It Was Discovered on a Spanish Farm 1,900 Years Later

The artifact is decorated with an illustration of the defensive fortification in northern England, but it was unearthed some 1,200 miles away. A new study suggests the design reflects a soldier’s achievements at the site

The HMS Victory at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in England

How Do You Lift a 30,000-Pound Mast From a Warship Built a Record-Breaking 261 Years Ago? With a Really, Really Big Crane

HMS “Victory” served in the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. It’s the world’s oldest warship still in commission—but it’s in desperate need of repairs

The man in his 30s was found just outside Pompeii's gates.

This Man Fled Pompeii as Mount Vesuvius Erupted. Archaeologists Found Him 2,000 Years Later, Holding a Bowl to Protect His Head and a Lamp to Light His Way

Recent excavations revealed two skeletons just outside the ancient city’s walls. Researchers also created an A.I.-generated reconstruction of one of the victim’s harrowing final moments

Sculptor Alexander Calder and one of his mobiles

Alexander Calder Thought ‘It Would Be Fun’ to Set Abstract Art in Motion. His Mesmerizing Mobiles Transformed the Definition of Sculpture

A new exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris spotlights 300 of the sculptor’s groundbreaking kinetic artworks, large-scale public sculptures, paintings, drawings and wire portraits

The papyrus fragment with a passage from Homer's Iliad

Archaeologists Unearth a Papyrus Fragment From the ‘Iliad’ Tucked Inside the Wrappings of a 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

The excerpt from Homer’s epic poem features his catalog of ships, a famous passage listing the Greek forces that sailed to Troy. It may be the first Greek literary text found in the context of mummification

The typewritten lyrics were found on a torn piece of paper measuring roughly eight by seven inches.

Bob Dylan’s Original Typewritten Draft Lyrics for ‘I’m Not There’ Have Been Rediscovered After More Than Half a Century

For decades, eager fans could only hear the obscure song on bootleg vinyl recordings. The draft lyrics, which were found inside a first-edition copy of Allen Ginsberg poetry, just sold at auction for $6,800

The life jacket worn by Titanic survivor Laura Mabel Francatelli

The Titanic Carried 3,500 Life Jackets, but Almost All of Them Have Been Lost to History. This One Just Sold at Auction for Nearly $1 Million

The artifact belonged to first-class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli, a secretary heading to Chicago with her employer. It’s the only life vest connected to a survivor of the 1912 shipwreck to ever appear at auction

Property plan of the parish of St. Ann Blackfriars

Shakespeare’s House in London Was Lost to History. A Scholar Discovered a Map in the Archives That Revealed Its Exact Location

The Bard purchased the property three years before his death in 1616. Had he hoped to spend more time in the city where he wrote his best-known plays?

The Mona Lisa returning to the Louvre in 1914

Andrew Lloyd Webber Says He’s Writing a New Musical About the Time the ‘Mona Lisa’ Vanished Without a Trace in 1911

Known for spectacles like “The Phantom of the Opera,” Broadway’s most commercially successful composer now wants to tell the story of the world’s most famous painting

Gustave Eiffel at the Eiffel Tower in 1889

A Dizzying Spiral Staircase With a Single Guardrail Once Led to the Top of the Eiffel Tower. Now, You Can Buy 14 of the Original Steps

The 1,062 steps connecting the tower’s second and third levels were installed in 1889. Fragments from the 137-year-old staircase can be found at several French museums

The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring on display before the restoration

This Vincent van Gogh Painting Was Found Wrapped in an Ikea Bag and a Blood-Stained Pillow. Now, the Artwork Has Been Restored to Its Former Glory

Art sleuth Arthur Brand recovered “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring” in 2023, three years after it was stolen from a Dutch museum. Following careful restoration, the canvas is now back on display

This fully assembled robot was found inside an unclaimed bag. Staffers aren't sure what its purpose is.

What’s Inside America’s Lost Luggage? These Travelers Abandoned a Samurai Sword, a Meteorite and a Robot With a Mysterious Purpose

Unclaimed Baggage sells lost belongings at a 50,000-square-foot store in Alabama. An annual report explores how objects packed in 2025 reflect cultural trends

"By the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies," Abigail Adams wrote on March 31, 1776.

Abigail Adams Asked Her Husband to ‘Remember the Ladies’ as He Drafted America’s Laws. Here’s What She Really Meant

She wrote the letter that would come to define her legacy on March 31, 1776. But 250 years later, Americans are misinterpreting her open-ended request

Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633

They Joked About Discovering a Forgotten Masterpiece. Now, Experts Say They’re the Unwitting Owners of an Original Rembrandt

“Vision of Zacharias in the Temple” had been removed from the Dutch painter’s oeuvre in the 1960s. But when the owners brought it to the Rijksmuseum, scholars decided to conduct a close analysis

The camera, a Zeiss Ikon Baby Ikonta from the 1930s, and the newly developed images, which were likely taken in the 1950s

A Man Bought a $13 Camera at a Thrift Shop—and Found 70-Year-Old Film Still Inside. Do You Recognize the Faces in the Photos?

Staffers at a photography shop in England carefully developed the negatives, which depict a ski trip in the Swiss Alps. Now, they’re searching for clues to help identify the people pictured

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