U.S. History

Garfield Elementary's award-winning drumline performs with the cheerleading squad in celebration of the Anacostia Community Museum's 50th anniversary.

How This Washington, D.C. Museum Redefined What Museums Could Be

Fifty years after its founding, the Smithsonian's beloved Anacostia Community Museum continues to tell stories heard nowhere else

The recipes in late 19th-century American cookbooks—precise and detailed—met the needs of cooks in a highly mobile and modern country. Image from "Recipes: cards with text; depicting a woman in a kitchen reading, a server, meat, fish and a scale."

The Making of the Modern American Recipe

Scientific methods, rising literacy and an increasingly mobile society were key ingredients for a culinary revolution

A page from a New England Primer printed in Massachusetts in 1811, with the text "Life and the Grave two different lessons give/Life shows us how to die, death how to live."

Children Used to Learn About Death and Damnation With Their ABCs

In 19th-century New England, the books that taught kids how to read had a Puritanical morbidity to them

Parlor scene of G. Burk, Warwick, New York

When the Idea of Home Was Key to American Identity

From log cabins to Gilded Age mansions, how you lived determined where you belonged

1879 football match between Yale and Princeton

Turn-of-the-Century Kid's Books Taught Wealthy, White Boys the Virtues of Playing Football

A founder of the NCAA, Walter Camp thought that sport was the cure for the social anxiety facing parents in America's upper class

In an era of rapid change, the managers of our nation's wild spaces are asking: What counts as natural anymore?

The National Parks Face a Looming Existential Crisis

Political uncertainty and a changing climate converge to forge the park system's biggest challenge yet

A reproduction 5th century Corinthian helmet given by a visiting Greek Army officer. It's become the logo for "The Art of War – Gifts of Peace" initiative.

At an Army Base in Kansas, There's a Secret Collection of Incredible Finds

Are these priceless artifacts or worthless trinkets? No one knows for sure, but a local art gallery is pitching in to find out

Some parents cut a cake, while others release pink or blue balloons from a box.

What Does the Gender Reveal Fad Say About Modern Pregnancy?

A new ritual speaks to anxieties surrounding the medicalization of childbearing

How Agriculture Came to Be a Political Weapon—And What That Means for Farmers

In his new book, Ted Genoways follows a family farm and the ways they’re impacted by geopolitics

APVA Jamestown Memorial Church, 1607 James Fort

The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding of American History

The year the first enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown is drilled into students’ memories, but overemphasizing this date distorts history

Aerial view of Pennsylvania Station

Five Architects on the One Building They Wish Had Been Preserved

From an elegant solution to urban density to a magnificent financial hub

In Charlottesville, Virginia, city workers drape a tarp over the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Emancipation park to symbolize the city's mourning for Heather Heyer, killed while protesting a white nationalist rally in August.

Commentary

We Legitimize the 'So-Called' Confederacy With Our Vocabulary, and That's a Problem

Tearing down monuments is only the beginning to understanding the false narrative of Jim Crow

The replica (left) and original were first displayed together at the 2012 clan conference in Sitka, Alaska.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Replica of a Tlingit Killer Whale Hat Is Spurring Dialogue About Digitization

Collaboration between museums and indigenous groups provides educational opportunities, archival documentation—and ethical dilemmas

Aftermath of the fire at Imperial Foods processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina

History of Now

The Deadly 1991 Hamlet Fire Exposed the High Cost of “Cheap”

A new book argues that more than emergency unpreparedness and locked doors led to the deaths of 25 workers in the chicken factory blaze

How NYC Women Stayed Safe from the Son of Sam Killer

In 1977, one reporter took to the streets to ask them about the steps they’d taken to protect themselves

Old West, as seen through 1967 Orange County eyes

The Wild West of Knott's Berry Farm Is More Fantasy Than Reality

A critic of government welfare, the theme park's Walter Knott built the first “Old West” town as a shrine to rugged individualism

The Moment Lincoln Realized the Military Power of Railroads

Following victory for the South in the battle of Bull Run, President Lincoln reached an inescapable conclusion

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division escort the Little Rock Nine students into the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.

The Youngest of the Little Rock Nine Speaks About Holding on to History

Carlotta Walls LeNier, whose school dress is in the Smithsonian, says much was accomplished and now we need to hold onto it

How JFK's Clever TV Strategies Helped Him Win the Election

Seventy million people tuned in to watch America's first televised presidential debate in 1960. They were met with a well-prepared, well-dressed JFK

A development test model of the Voyager spacecraft looms large in the Air and Space Museum's Exploring the Planets gallery.

Forty Years Later, the Voyager Spacecraft Remain Beacons of Human Imagination

Remembering the mission that opened Earth’s eyes to the vastness and wonder of space

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