Meilan Solly

Meilan Solly

 

Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's senior associate digital editor, history.

Researchers analyzed 75,688 convict tattoos cataloged in the Digital Panopticon database.

The Victorian Tattooing Craze Started With Convicts and Spread to the Royal Family

A new series of data visualizations offers insights on the practice's historical significance

The Pompeiian sorceress' kit contained about 100 different objects.

Twelve Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2019

The list includes a sorceress' kit, a forgotten settlement, a Renaissance masterpiece and a 1,700-year-old egg

Presenting Smithsonian magazine's top ten stories of 2019

Our Top Ten Stories of 2019

From a 16-million-year-old tree to Confederate soldiers’ diaries, voracious snakes and England’s warrior king, these were the most-read stories of 2019

X-ray analysis revealed a hidden landscape depicting the birth of Christ.

Nativity Scene Discovered Beneath 16th-Century Painting of John the Baptist's Beheading

Experts hope further examination will yield insights on the canvas' age, background and history

The film opens on Christmas Day.

The True History Behind the '1917' Movie

A story shared by director Sam Mendes' grandfather, a veteran of the Western Front, inspired the new World War I film

Elizabeth's penmanship deteriorated over time, with the speed and sloppiness of her writing rising in direct correlation with the crown's increasing demands.

Elizabeth I's 'Idiosyncratic' Handwriting Identifies Her as the Scribe Behind a Long Overlooked Translation

The Tudor queen wrote in an "extremely distinctive, disjointed hand," says scholar John-Mark Philo

Students and teachers can download 3-D print-ready files of the Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops skulls.

Ten Smithsonian Artifacts You Can 3-D Print

The list includes Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit, an Abraham Lincoln life mask and a coral skeleton

The 19-page volume features three original stories, advertisements and a table of contents.

Miniature Manuscript Penned by Teenaged Charlotte Brontë Will Return to Author’s Childhood Home

The tiny volume, one of six created for a series, will now join four surviving counterparts on view at the Brontë Parsonage Museum

Helpers fill sandbags on the tip above the shattered Pantglas Junior School to divert a spring and avert the risk of further landslides at Aberfan, South Wales.

The True Story of the Aberfan Disaster

The 1966 Welsh mining tragedy claimed the lives of 116 children and 28 adults and features heavily in the third season of Netflix's "The Crown"

Charlotte Salomon's "Life? or Theatre?" combines memory and imagination, presenting flashbacks and split screens filled with a “dizzying array” of allusions to other art forms.

The Genre-Bending, Death-Defying Triumph of Charlotte Salomon's Art

Prior to her murder in Auschwitz, the Jewish-German artist created a monumental visual narrative centered on her family history

Nick Jonas plays Bruno Gaido, a rear gunner who attacked the Imperial Japanese Navy's carrier fleet during the Battle of Midway.

The True Story of the Battle of Midway

The new film “Midway” revisits the pivotal WWII battle from the perspectives of pilots, codebreakers and naval officers on both sides of the conflict

Henry V's nine-year reign saw a flourishing of royal authority and military action but ended abruptly with his untimely death in 1422

The True Story of Henry V, England’s Warrior King

The new biopic “The King” finds Timothée Chalamet tracing Henry’s evolution from wayward prince to heroic warrior

Patriots toppled the statue in July 1776, but British Loyalists rescued and hid some of the fragments

You Could Own an Amputated Arm From the George III Statue Toppled at Bowling Green

The 18th-century lead fragment was unearthed in a Connecticut resident's garden in 1991

Though she looms large in the public imagination, Harriet Tubman has rarely received the attention afforded to similarly iconic Americans. A new biopic starring Cynthia Erivo focuses on the decade between Tubman's escape and the end of her Underground Railroad days.

The True Story Behind the Harriet Tubman Movie

“Harriet,” a new film starring Cynthia Erivo, is the first feature film dedicated solely to the American icon

The painting, expected to sell for upwards of $6 million, will be auctioned October 27

Lost Renaissance Masterpiece Found Hanging Above Woman’s Hot Plate Sells for $26.8 Million

Experts say the panel painting was created by Florentine artist Cimabue around 1280

Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies portray Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip

Watch the New Trailer for Season Three of 'The Crown'

The hit Netflix show returns November 17 with a new cast and will focus on events from the 1960s and '70s

Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" will make an appearance in the Louvre's upcoming blockbuster exhibition

Leonardo’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ Is Headed to the Louvre Despite Italian Scholars’ Protests

Some researchers say the roughly 530-year-old drawing is too fragile, light-sensitive to travel

For the first time in some 450 years, Nelli’s "Last Supper" is finally on public view

Renaissance Nun's 'Last Supper' Painting Makes Public Debut After 450 Years in Hiding

The 21-foot canvas, created by self-taught artist and nun Plautilla Nelli, is now on view in Florence

Violet King, an usherette at the London Coliseum, pocketed the half-smoked cigar and safeguarded it for the rest of her life

A Cigar Puffed by Winston Churchill Is Set to Go on Auction

The British prime minister smoked the cigar while attending a movie premiere in 1953

This inverted cross was likely carved on the inn's hearth stone in hopes of discouraging witches from flying down the chimney

Archaeologists Find Shot Glass Shards, Anti-Witch Carving at Centuries-Old Scottish Pub

At the time of its construction, the Wilkhouse Inn was considered a "statement of modernity and affluence"

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