American History

The canned precooked meat product is significantly less ubiquitous than its digital counterpart.

People Have Been Email-Spamming Since the Dawn of (Internet) Time

This is why we can't have nice things

The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2017

From remote hideaways to coastal harbors, discover the towns that topped our list this year

Elijah McCoy.

This Prolific Inventor Helped Give Us The Phrase “The Real McCoy”

There are many stories about how we got this phrase. But there was only one Elijah McCoy

This copy of the first chart of the Gulf Stream was printed in 1786, ten years after Benjamin Franklin first drew it up.

Benjamin Franklin Was the First to Chart the Gulf Stream

Franklin's cousin, Timothy Folger, knew how the then-unnamed current worked from his days as a whaler

Garment workers and union members from the Puritan Underwear Company taking part in the 1916 May Day parade in New York. While these parades were common early in the century, they began to disappear over time.

The US Declared “Loyalty Day” in the 1950s to Erase Worker Protest

Under Eisenhower during the Cold War, "Loyalty Day" was declared to paper over International Workers' Day

A field hospital in Virginia, photographed in 1862, shows the grim conditions during the Civil War.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

After the war, the contents of Pershing's office, including his desk, were shipped back to the U.S. and delivered to the Smithsonian.

From This Desk, 100 Years Ago, U.S. Operations in World War I Were Conceived

Germany's defeat could be traced to pins in a map now on display at the Smithsonian's American History Museum

The censorship board. George Creel is seated at far right.

How Woodrow Wilson’s Propaganda Machine Changed American Journalism

The media are still feeling the impact of an executive order signed in 1917 that created 'the nation's first ministry of information'

"Old City Hall, Wall St., N.Y." Steel engraving by Robert Hinshelwood

George Washington's Congress Got Off to an Embarrassing Start

The new federal government was plagued with absences and excuses—until James Madison helped kick things into gear

By 1948, when this photo montage was made, Times Square was a riot of lights and special effects. Many of these lighted signs were the work of Douglas Leigh.

Times Square's Glitzy Look was One Man's Bright Idea

Douglas Leigh's ability to imagine new kinds of advertising shaped the signs of the city

Ernestine Rose championed abolition and women's rights in her adopted land.

The Immigrant Activist Who Loved America’s Ideals, If Not Its Actions

By the 1850s, Ernestine Rose was a well-known public figure, far more famous than her allies Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

The Mississippi was in its high season, and the water was fast and cold.

This Civil War Boat Explosion Killed More People Than the 'Titanic'

The 'Sultana' was only legally allowed to carry 376 people. When its boilers exploded, it was carrying 2,300

The Sybil Ludington commemorative stamp was issued by USPS in 1975.

Was There Really a Teenage, Female Paul Revere?

Sybil Ludington has been honored for her contributions to the American Revolution, but there's little to indicate they were real

Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was a Prussian soldier designated inspector general of the American Continental Army. He was in charge of training the troops in 1778 during the period of the American Revolutionary War.

The Prussian Nobleman Who Helped Save the American Revolution

When American troops faltered, Baron von Steuben helped whip them into shape

The second parchment Declaration of Independence

Found: A Second Parchment Copy of the Declaration of Independence

Likely commissioned in the 1780s by James Wilson, the handwritten copy's signatory order appears to emphasize national unity

Child coal miners with mules in Gary, West Virginia in 1908. Working conditions were brutal for coal miners, and unionization was violently suppressed.

The Coal Mining Massacre America Forgot

The mountains of southern West Virginia are riddled with coal—and bullets

An artist's rendering of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Meet the Successor to Hubble That Will Peer Through Time

NASA’s next giant space telescope is due to launch next year

Submerged Beach, 1400 Fathoms, Else Bostelmann, Bermuda, 1931. Watercolor on paper, 11 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.

In the Early 20th Century, the Department of Tropical Research Was Full of Glamorous Adventure

A new exhibition features 60 works by artists the New York Zoological Society department hired to help communicate field biology

An early oil well.

A Civil War Colonel Invented Fracking in the 1860s

His first invention was an 'oil well torpedo,' but it was followed by others

High school: difficult to live through, harder to get right in writing.

'The Outsiders' Was Groundbreaking, But It Didn't Create YA Fiction

Many have claimed that “young adult” fiction didn’t exist before S.E. Hinton wrote her cult classic–but it did, sort of

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