Ellen Wexler

Ellen Wexler

 

Ellen Wexler is Smithsonian magazine’s assistant digital editor, humanities.

Ruben Soto (right), a migrant from Venezuela, sits with Rosa Bello, a Honduran migrant, on top of a freight train known as “The Beast.” Ruben and Rosa met in Mexico and fell in love on their way to the United States.

See 25 Astonishing Images From the World Press Photo Contest

The winning photographs capture moving moments in the midst of tumultuous global events

Regina King as Shirley Chisholm in Shirley, a new film written and directed by John Ridley

The True History Behind Netflix's 'Shirley' Movie

A new film dramatizes Shirley Chisholm's history-making bid to become the first Black woman president in 1972

The National Museum of Natural History holds the majority of the human remains in the Smithsonian's collections.

The Smithsonian’s Human Remains Task Force Calls for New Repatriation Policies

The report provides recommendations regarding the return of human remains in the Institution’s collections

The steering wheel at the site of the newly identified shipwreck

Eight Decades Ago, a Ship Vanished Into the Depths of Lake Superior. Why Did the Captain Remain Aboard?

The wreck of the S.S. Arlington has finally been found—but it provides no answers about Captain Frederick Burke's final moments

Georgina Hogarth lived with Charles Dickens for nearly three decades.

Who Was Georgina Hogarth, Charles Dickens' 'Best and Truest Friend'?

Unpublished letters reveal new insights into the baffling relationship between the English novelist and his sister-in-law

Works entering the public domain this year include Steamboat Willie, J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, A. A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner and Virginia Woolf's Orlando.

Mickey Mouse and Many Other Beloved Creations, Including Peter Pan and 'Mack the Knife,' Are Now in the Public Domain

Almost a century after the cartoon mouse made his first appearance, he finally belongs to everyone—sort of

Fialka's reading group in Venice, California, in 2008

A Book Club Began 'Finnegans Wake' in 1995. After 28 Years, It Finally Reached the End

The group meets once a month to talk about one or two pages of the bewildering James Joyce novel

Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, a new film that arrives on Netflix on December 20

The Real History Behind Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre's Marriage in 'Maestro'

The Bradley Cooper-led film is a dramatization of the storied composer and conductor's complex love life

Hitler stands with co-conspirators Alfred Rosenberg and Friedrich Weber during the Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923.

Before He Rose to Power, Adolf Hitler Staged a Coup and Went to Prison

The Beer Hall Putsch was a spectacular failure. It also set the stage for Nazi Germany

Stamped with the date—April 14, 1865—the two tickets correspond with a front-row spot in the dress circle.

What Did These Two Ticket Holders See on the Night of Abraham Lincoln's Assassination?

A rare pair of Ford's Theatre tickets—for seats across from the president's box—have sold for $262,500

David Byrne, frontman of the Talking Heads, in the concert film Stop Making Sense, which returns to theaters this week

Why the Talking Heads' 40-Year-Old Concert Film Still Mesmerizes

"Stop Making Sense," known as one of the greatest movies of its kind, returns to the big screen

English writer Virginia Woolf in June 1926

Virginia Woolf Scorned Fashion but Couldn't Escape It

A new exhibition investigates the Bloomsbury Group's relationship with clothing, accessories and sartorial social norms

Édouard Manet's Olympia will soon make its United States debut in a new exhibition.

Manet's 'Olympia' Comes to America for the Very First Time

The painting scandalized 19th-century viewers and heralded the dawn of modern art

This 20-inch X-wing miniature was used in the original Star Wars film's final battle.

X-Wing Model From Original 'Star Wars' Movie Found in a Garage

The 20-inch miniature is going to auction, where bidding starts at $200,000

Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Mary Welsh, on a trip to Kenya in 1952

Ernest Hemingway and His Wife Survived Two Plane Crashes Just One Day Apart

The novelist recounted the harrowing ordeal in a letter, which just sold for $237,055 at auction

West Point officials opened the time capsule in a much-hyped livestreamed ceremony.

A Time Capsule Opened Live on Stage Was Empty. Later, Treasures Emerged From the Silt

Found at West Point, the 200-year-old box concealed six silver coins and a medal

Early mug shots of 19th-century criminal suspects in a book by Alphonse Bertillon, chief of criminal identification for the Paris police

A Brief History of the Mug Shot

Police have been using the snapshots in criminal investigations since the advent of commercial photography

The three-inch-long pottery shard contains only parts of a passage from Virgil's Georgics.

Virgil Quotation Found Etched on 1,800-Year-Old Roman Jar

Researchers say the ancient inscription is the first of its kind ever discovered

An illustration of Anthony Comstock, published in Puck magazine in 1906

The 150-Year-Old Comstock Act Could Transform the Abortion Debate

Once considered a relic of moral panics past, the 1873 law criminalized sending "obscene, lewd or lascivious" materials through the mail

Of the roughly 750 First Folios printed, at least 235 known copies survive today.

Without the First Folio, Half of Shakespeare's Plays Would Have Been Lost to History

The 400-year-old text presented the Bard's plays as serious literature, muddling the boundaries between popular culture and high art

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