US History News | Smithsonian Magazine

An illustration of Moby Dick attacking a whaling ship.

The True-Life Horror That Inspired 'Moby-Dick'

The whaler <i>Essex</i> was indeed sunk by a whale—and that's only the beginning

March 1, 2013

The ”peaceful” Pilgrims massacred the Pequots and destroyed their fort near Stonington, Connecticut, in 1637. A 19th-century wood engraving (above) depicts the slaughter.

The Shocking Savagery of America’s Early History

Bernard Bailyn, one of our greatest historians, shines his light on the nation’s Dark Ages

March 2013

George crawls into a pneumatic tube which will transport him to Mr. Spacely’s office (1963)

George Jetson Navigates a Series of Tubes

Travel by pneumatic tubes? The idea was seriously considered in the 1960s

February 25, 2013

The Civil War

Photo Interactive: The Civil War, Now in Living Color

How one author adds actual blues and grays to historic photographs

February 22, 2013

Justice Robert Jackson, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Soviet Sniper

Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper credited with 309 kills—and an advocate for women's rights. On a U.S. tour in 1942, she found a friend in the first lady

February 21, 2013

A photo sometimes said to depict members of Chiloé’s murderous society of warlocks—founded, so they claimed, in 1786 and destroyed by the great trial of 1880-81.

Into the Cave of Chile’s Witches

Did members of a powerful society of warlocks actually murder their enemies and kidnap children?

February 19, 2013

The Civil War, Now in Living Color

How one author adds actual blues and grays to historic photographs

February 15, 2013

Jane Jetson gets a driving lesson in the 18th episode of “The Jetsons” (1963)

Jane Jetson and the Origins of the “Women Are Bad Drivers” Joke

What happens when a comedy staple of mid-century sitcoms reappears as a late-century Saturday morning tradition?

February 14, 2013

Lost and Found Again: Photos of African-Americans on the Plains

What would otherwise be a local-interest story became a snapshot of history integral to the American experience

February 2013

Lincoln sat at the back of the train in disguise to escape his assassins.

The Civil War

The Unsuccessful Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln

On the eve of his first inauguration, President Lincoln snuck into Washington at night, evading the would-be assassins who waited for him in Baltimore

February 2013

Herald Square circa 1907, when Ida Wood first moved into the Herald Square Hotel.

Everything Was Fake but Her Wealth

Ida Wood, who lived for decades as a recluse in a New York City hotel, would have taken her secrets to the grave—if here sister hadn't gotten there first

January 23, 2013