American History

A Standard Stations filling station in California, circa 1939.

Leaded Gas Was a Known Poison the Day It Was Invented

For most of the mid-twentieth century, lead gasoline was considered normal. But lead is a poison, and burning it has had dire consequences

Capture and Burning of Washington by the British, in 1814, wood engraving, 1876

The Sole American Killed in the 1814 Burning of D.C. Was Related to George Washington

John Lewis was the grandnephew of the first President of the United States

Lethal injection as a means to execute condemned prisoners was first used thirty-four years ago.

Thirty-four Years Ago, the First Person Died by Lethal Injection. It Was Controversial Then, Too

It was seen as more humane and relatively painless, but that's not certain

The electoral map in 2016, that is, assuming there are no faithless electors

The Electoral College Has Been Divisive Since Day One

It has always had the potential for chaos—one that hasn’t been tapped...yet

The monument at sunset.

The Washington Monument Looks Like an Obelisk Because of Egyptomania

In the 1800s, America was desperate to look like it had been around for a while, so it was adopting old styles. Really old

Noble is interviewed by students participating in StoryQuest, an oral history project based at the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experence at Washington College.

A New Oral History Project Seeks the Stories of World War II Before It’s Too Late

Every member of the greatest generation has a tale to tell, no matter what they did during the war

Ahead of her time: Foote first identified the greenhouse effect, now a seminal concept in climate science.

This Suffrage-Supporting Scientist Defined the Greenhouse Effect But Didn’t Get the Credit, Because Sexism

Eunice Foote’s career highlights the subtle forms of discrimination that have kept women on the sidelines of science

A small boat rescues a seaman from the 31,800 ton USS West Virginia burning in the foreground. Smoke rolling out amidships shows where the most extensive damage occurred.

The Children of Pearl Harbor

Military personnel weren't the only people attacked on December 7, 1941

Proposal for Trinity Park

Dallas Proposes the Country's Largest Urban Park

A 10,000-acre Nature District could turn the Trinity River into the city’s centerpiece

Ex-President William Howard Taft (1857-1930) sworn in as chief justice of the United States in 1921

Chief Justice, Not President, Was William Howard Taft’s Dream Job

The 27th president arguably left a more lasting mark on the nation as leader of the Supreme Court

Dorothy's Ruby Slippers Were Originally Silver

Bright red is how we remember them, but Dorothy's famous shoes had another look at the start

Goodbye, Barrow, Alaska. Hello, Utqiagvik

The most northerly city has officially reverted back to the Inupiaq name for the settlement on the Arctic sea

A booking photo from Rosa Parks' arrest on December 1, 1955.

Sixty-Six Years After Rosa Parks Took a Seat in Montgomery, Protest Is Alive in America

The civil rights leader likely would have approved of current activists' work

The Ford assembly line in 1913.

In 1913, Henry Ford Introduced the Assembly Line: His Workers Hated It

It was seen as one more way the automaker could exert rigid control over his employees

An FBI photo of the airplane D.B. Cooper hijacked.

You Can Help Try to Track Down D.B. Cooper’s True Identity by Digging Through FBI Files

A crowdsourced project is trying to identify the infamous skyjacker once and for all

Evel Kneivel shown here in this promotional still from the 2015 documentary Being Evel, about to launch in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket, wearing a helmet, of course.

Risk-Taker Evel Knievel Was a Big Proponent of Wearing a Helmet

The daredevil still holds the world record for the most broken bones

J. Frank Duryea, left, and race umpire Arthur W. White, right, in the 1895 Duryea during the Chicago Times-Herald race, the first automobile race in the U.S.

The Forgotten Car That Won America's First Auto Race

The zippy roadster won America's first automobile race in 1895 with an average speed of 5 mph

The aftermath of the 1919 Great Molasses Flood

The Sticky Science Behind the Deadly Boston Molasses Disaster

Nearly 100 years after the massive molasses tank ruptured, scientists are finally sussing out how this tragedy occurred

Martha, a farmworker in California, says a group of white locals often harass her, yelling that immigrants take U.S. jobs. “Why don’t they work in the fields?” she asked.

A Photographic Chronicle of America's Working Poor

<i>Smithsonian</i> journeyed from Maine to California to update a landmark study of American life

Indians Poisoned

A Smithsonian Scholar Revisits the Neglected History of the Chesapeake Bay's Native Tribes

Revisiting Indian Nations of the Chesapeake

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