U.S. History

Captain Loebl of the US Coast Guard, Sector New York cuts the birthday cake for Alexander Hamilton at the Museum of American Finance

Crashing Alexander Hamilton's Birthday Weekend

Each year, admirers of the oft-neglected Founding Father gather for a multi-day birthday celebration ranging across Manhattan.

A group of young people, joyful at the success of the march, sing while walking through the St. Jude complex in Montgomery.

These Rare Photos of the Selma March Place You in the Thick of History

James Barker, a photographer from Alaska, shares his memories of documenting the famed event

The Montanas arrested under the state's sedition law.

World War I: 100 Years Later

The Year Montana Rounded Up Citizens for Shooting Off Their Mouths

During World War I, the powers that ran Montana sought any excuse to silence dissent

Olympian and airman Louis Zamperini crouches in his starting position on a B-18 bomber.

Document Deep Dive

"Unbroken"'s Louis Zamperini Crashed Into the Pacific on May 27, 1943. Here is the Missing Air Crew Report

The National Archives holds a record with details of the downing of the former Olympian's B-24 bomber that left him lost at sea for 47 days

The wounded soldiers above were photographed at a hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia, between 1861 and 1865.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Did Civil War Soldiers Have PTSD?

One hundred and fifty years later, historians are discovering some of the earliest known cases of post-traumatic stress disorder

King led a throng of 25,000 marchers through downtown Montgomery in 1965.

The Radical Paradox of Martin Luther King’s Devotion to Nonviolence

Biographer Taylor Branch makes a timely argument about civil right leader’s true legacy

Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) embraces Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) in a famous scene from the 1939 epic film Gone with the Wind.

How Gone With the Wind Took the Nation by Storm By Catering to its Southern Sensibilities

From casting to its premiere, how Southerners viewed the film made all the difference

Amphitheater and mountainous landscape in Red Rock Park, Colorado.

When America Invested in Infrastructure, These Beautiful Landmarks Were the Result

Explore eight of the Works Progress Administration’s most impressive structures.

Lts. Frank Ballou and Samuel Peterson test out a new metal bulletproof shield. The shield's inventor, Elliot Wisbrod, is the man holding it.

Up-Close and Personal With Chicago's Most Infamous Criminals

"Gangsters & Grifters," a book by the Chicago Tribune, recalls a time when photographers had unprecedented access to the world of crime

English Settlers in America

The 17th-Century English Who Settled in the Southern U.S. Had Very Little to be Thankful For

Indentured servants, these immigrants suffered through malnutrition and horrible conditions upon arriving in America

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Document Deep Dive

John Smith Coined the Term New England on This 1616 Map

After Jamestown, Smith pushed the English to settle the northeast, identifying Plymouth as a suitable harbor four years before the Pilgrims landed there

The Horrific Sand Creek Massacre Will Be Forgotten No More

The opening of a national historic site in Colorado helps restore to public memory one of the worst atrocities ever perpetrated on Native Americans

From the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center

Why the SR-71 Blackbird is the Epitome of Cold War Spycraft

The sleek and shadowy plane still commands awe 50 years after its first test flight

As Prohibition shut bars, an ad touted the family’s coffeehouse as a place to linger.

The Roosevelt Family Built a New York Coffee Chain 50 Years Before Starbucks

Teddy Roosevelt’s children brought fresh-roasted beans and European coffeehouse culture to Manhattan

Middle-class families scooped up affordable and speedy Model Ts. As they began to race through the streets, they ran headlong into pedestrians—with lethal results.

When Pedestrians Ruled the Streets

The driverless car may take a while to catch on—just as the automobile did a century ago

After Bing Cros­by turned down “Rudolph,” Gene Autry’s recording became an all-time best seller.

It Could Have Been Reginald the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Inside the very shiny life of a marketing gimmick from 1939

The Oswald family—with Marguerite Oswald second from right—sit next to Lee Harvey Oswald's casket.

When Lee Harvey Oswald Shot the President, His Mother Tried to Take Center Stage

Marguerite Oswald had a series of bizarre reactions to her son’s transgression, forever making her a famous mother to history

National Museum of Natural History physical anthropologists Lucille St. Hoyme, J. Lawrence Angel and Thomas Dale Stewart hold Hans Langseth's beard upon its arrival to the Smithsonian in 1967.

The World's Longest Beard Is One Of The Smithsonian's Strangest Artifacts

Kept in storage at the National Museum of Natural History, the world's longest beard measures over 17 feet in length

Vice President Al Gore, with President George Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney

How the Office of the Vice Presidency Evolved from Nothing to Something

Vice President John Adams once said "In this I am nothing, But I may be everything." A new book tells how the office has moved from irrelevance to power

An illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper that depicts soldiers raiding an illegal distillery in Brooklyn in 1869.

The Whiskey Wars That Left Brooklyn in Ruins

Unwilling to pay their taxes, distillers in New York City faced an army willing to go to the extreme to enforce the law

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