Smart News History & Archaeology

The Mary Rose undergoing restoration.

Cool Finds

Explore Skulls and Artifacts From a 16th-Century Warship

The <i>Mary Rose</i> was the pride of Henry VIII’s fleet before it sank at sea

This shopping bag was designed by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and handed out to shoppers in front of department stores around New York in 1964.

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Fuel Your Design Obsession With 200,000 Newly Digitized Artifacts

Explore 30 centuries of design at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum without leaving your computer

Benjamin photographed at Beaumaris Zoo in 1933.

Remembering the Tasmanian Tiger, 80 Years After It Became Extinct

Today, the animal’s memory is alive and well in Australia

Cool Finds

See the Marriage License From the Historic Loving Decision

Visitors can see the document that led to the Supreme Court case that overturned laws barring interracial marriage in the U.S. on display

Beneath this obelisk is an even more outrageous display of Mussolini's self-regard.

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Scholars Uncover Secret Message from Mussolini

The dictator's self-image lives on deep beneath an obelisk he built to commemorate his own greatness

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New York's Highest Court Has Expanded the Definition of What it Means to Be a Parent

Under New York law, parental rights have now become more inclusive

CCC workers plant trees at Mammoth Cave National Park in 1938. It's thought that "Roosevelt's Tree Army" planted 3 billion trees during the group's tenure.

Cool Finds

You Can Thank These Depression-Era Workers for Your National Parks

Daily life in the Civilian Conservation Corps is preserved in a new National Park Service archive

Dr. Anwen Caffell lays out the remains of a Scottish soldier found in a mass grave in Durham, England.

Cool Finds

The Remains of 400-Year-Old Scottish Soldiers Will Be Reburied in England

The soldiers were captured by Oliver Cromwell's forces following the Battle of Dunbar

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were all fun and games—until they felt wronged by their fellow gang members.

Cool Finds

Read a Chilling Letter From Bonnie and Clyde

Got $40,000? You could own an angry letter from the vengeful duo

Langston Hughes' Harlem brownstone: Cultural remnant or great place for a Starbucks?

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The Fight to Preserve Langston Hughes’ Harlem Home From Gentrification

A new kind of Harlem renaissance is threatening the home of one of America's greatest poets

One of 5,200 wine labels from Maynard Amerine's collection

Cool Finds

Help Crowdsource the History of Wine

The University of California, Davis, is looking for online volunteers to help catalog and describe 5,200 wine labels

Cool Finds

Ancient Egyptian Stories Will Be Published in English for the First Time

Translated from hieroglyphics on monuments, tombs and papyri, the book will present tales few outside of academia have read

Publisher Set to Release Exact Replicas of the World's Most Mysterious Manuscript

There will be 898 copies made of the coded Voynich Manuscript, which has stumped scholars for over a century

Images revealed by scanning the Codex Selden

Cool Finds

Scan Reveals Rare, 500-Year-Old Mesoamerican Manuscript

Hyperspectral imagery reveals hidden Mixtec paintings and glyphs on the 16-foot, deer-hide Codex Selden

From Slavery to Mass Incarceration will be a museum dedicated to the history of racial injustice in America, and will be located just steps from a site where slaves were auctioned off.

Cool Finds

Inside the Upcoming Memorial and Museum Dedicated to Lynching Victims

Spanning slavery to segregation to mass incarceration

The Dessen Bauhaus was home to ambitious movement that went far beyond blocky architecture.

Cool Finds

Harvard Just Launched a Fascinating Resource All About Bauhaus

The newly digitized collection is as ambitious as the art school it documents

Is it disrespectful to sell a literary great’s remains—or is the stunt worthy of Capote himself?

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Love Truman Capote? Buy His Ashes

Is the sale of Capote’s earthy remains a gauche publicity stunt or an act worthy of the audacious author?

This 2,000-year-old scroll is covered with mysterious words in Aramaic.

Cool Finds

A Guide to Ancient Magic

In antiquity, love or revenge was just a spell away

Vanderbilt University's newly renamed "Memorial Hall."

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Five Places Where Confederate Monuments Have Recently Disappeared (or Soon Will)

Vanderbilt University's decision to rename a building to "Memorial Hall" is just one of many ongoing efforts

The Torrance County Prison in Estancia, New Mexico is operated by CCA, a private prison company. It will not be affected by the DOJ's new phaseout of private federal prisons.

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DOJ Will Say Goodbye to Private Federal Prisons

Private facilities for federal inmates will be phased out—but state use of the practice remains

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