US History News | Smithsonian Magazine

Document Deep Dive

Document Deep Dive: What Does the Magna Carta Really Say?

A curator from the National Archives takes us through what the governing charter means

May 2012

Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel's expertise in the realm of neuroscience is unsurpassed.

Austria

The Art and Science of Embarrassing Art

Neuroscientist and Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel explores the flourishing of culture in Vienna

March 21, 2012

Edward S. Curtis' Canon de Chelly—Navajo (1904).

Edward Curtis’ Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans

His 20-volume masterwork was hailed as "the most ambitious enterprise in publishing since the production of the King James Bible"

March 21, 2012

Thomas Edison examines Clarence Dally's, his assistant, hand thru a fluoroscope of his own design.

Clarence Dally — The Man Who Gave Thomas Edison X-Ray Vision

"Don't talk to me about X-rays," Edison said after an assistant on one of his X-ray projects started showing signs of illness. "I am afraid of them."

March 14, 2012

Laboratory technician injects tomatoes on the "factory farm" of the future (1961)

Super-Sized Food of the Future

How do you eat an eight-foot-long ear of corn?

March 9, 2012

A crowd of 250,000 jammed Times Square to see the start of the race.

Paris or Bust: The Great New York-to-Paris Auto Race of 1908

Even before there were roads, there were men who wanted to drive fast

March 7, 2012

The iPad of 1935

Yep, there was an app for that

March 7, 2012

Now celebrating its 100-year history, the Girl Scouts is the largest educational organization for girls in the world, with 3.3 million current members.

The Very First Troop Leader

A new biography tells the story of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts

March 7, 2012

Seven Famous People Who Missed the Titanic

The notables who planned to sail on the fateful voyage included a world-famous novelist, a radio pioneer and America’s biggest tycoons

March 1, 2012

From the Editor: Fateful Encounters

The Titanic and the elusive nature of perception

March 2012

John D. Lee, seated on his coffin, moments before his execution.

The Aftermath of Mountain Meadows

The massacre almost brought the United States to war against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but only one man was brought to trial: John D

February 29, 2012

Colonel Tom Parker—the title was awarded to him by Louisiana Governor Jimmie Davis in 1948 for political services rendered—claimed until 1982 to have been born in West Virginia. In fact he was a Dutchman, and the circumstances under which he left the Netherlands in 1929 remain a puzzle to this day.

Colonel Parker Managed Elvis’ Career, but Was He a Killer on the Lam?

The man who brought The King to global fame kept his own past secret. But what exactly was Tom Parker hiding?

February 24, 2012

Fourth-grader Lisa Gilvar's Jetsons-inspired bubble-top homes

1970s Children Draw Robot Presidents and Nuclear Apocalypse

Kids predict the darndest things

February 23, 2012

A Spectacle of Horror – The Burning of the General Slocum

The deadliest disaster in New York before 9/11 killed many women and children and ultimately erased a German community from the map of Manhattan

February 21, 2012

President William Howard Taft and his sons, Robert, right, and Charles Phelps.

When the Country's Founding Father Is Your Founding Father

The descendants of American presidents are the athletic trainers, lawyers, salesmen and executives of everyday life

February 17, 2012

Honeymooners on the moon as imagined by illustrator Arthur Radebaugh (June 1, 1958 Closer Than We Think)

Honeymoon on the Moon

Newlyweds who didn't want to visit the cliched destination of the time, Niagara Falls, dreamt of one day spending their first days as a couple on the moon

February 15, 2012