American History

Convicted bank robber, Patty Hearst arrest photo

How the Abduction of Patty Hearst Made Her an Icon of the 1970s Counterculture

A new book places a much-needed modern-day lens on the kidnapping that captivated the nation

How the American Civil War Built Egypt’s Vaunted Cotton Industry and Changed the Country Forever

The battle between the U.S. and the Confederacy affected global trade in astonishing ways

The pony swim in 2008

Watch the Chincoteague Ponies Complete Their 91st Annual Swim

For nine decades, the local fire department has herded the horses from Assateague to Chincoteague Island to auction off the foals

Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Jon Grinspan, curators with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

How Do Smithsonian Curators Decide What to Collect at the Political Conventions?

For Smithsonian’s Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Jon Grinspan, it’s trying to guess what people of the future will want to know about 2016

Walmart Once Pulled a Shirt That Said “Someday a Woman Will Be President” From Its Shelves

While Hillary Clinton was living in the White House, no less

Sarah Winnemucca, the first Indian woman to write a book highlighting the plight of the Indian people.

Sarah Winnemucca Devoted Her Life to Protecting Native Americans in the Face of an Expanding United States

The 19th-century visionary often found herself stuck between two cultures

Pictographs at Newspaper Rock, Utah

Why Ancestral Puebloans Honored People With Extra Digits

New research shows having extra toes or fingers was a revered trait among people living in the Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Earliest known photograph of the White House. The image was taken in 1846 by John Plumbe during the administration of James K. Polk.

The White House Was, in Fact, Built by Enslaved Labor

Along with the Capitol and other iconic buildings in Washington, D.C.

What the Candidates (and Journalists) Can Learn From the 1948 Democratic Convention

The first time television was beamed into millions of homes meant that presidential politics would have to change

The key to the Bastille, as held in Mount Vernon's collections.

How the Key to the Bastille Ended Up in George Washington’s Possession

A gift from an old friend is one of Mount Vernon’s most fascinating objects

The Young Orphan, c. 1884

Meet William Merritt Chase, the American Master Coming Back into Fashion

At the turn of the century, Chase was one of the most well-known painters and teachers in the United States. A new exhibit revisits his revolutionary skill

W.E.B. Du Bois at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

The Revolutionary Infographics of W.E.B. Du Bois And Booker T. Washington

Data visualizations shed light on the living conditions of black people decades after the end of slavery

Artist sketches of D.B. Cooper, who vanished in 1971 with $200,000 in stolen cash.

After 45 Years, the FBI Has Officially Stopped Looking for D.B. Cooper

The mysterious skyjacker got away clean

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on His Love of History, Youth Sports and Which Books Everyone Should Read

The basketball legend has always had a writer's touch

Family Discovers Rare Letters by Thomas Jefferson

In the two letters selling for over $300,000 each, Jefferson opines on the War of 1812 and his dislike for Alexander Hamilton's economics

Cupid Fountain

The Heiress to a Gun Empire Built a Mansion Forever Haunted by the Blood Money That Built It

Sarah Winchester inherited a fortune and used it to construct a mysterious mansion in northern California

Who will be the next Hamilton?

Which Great American Should Be Immortalized With the Next Big Broadway Musical?

<em>Hamilton</em> has caught the nation's attention. A panel of Smithsonian writers and curators suggest who's next.

The cover of Captain America Comics #1, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Captain America Is Getting a Real-Life Statue, But Some Say It’s in the Wrong Place

Did Steve Rogers grow up in Brooklyn or the Lower East Side?

Tankard made in Westerwald, German , found along with lots of tanning debris in a privy associated with a small house on an alley that probably be longed to tanner.

Tens of Thousands of Artifacts Have Been Found in Colonial Philadelphia Toilets

Archaeologists excavating the site of the Museum of the American Revolution found a dozen privy pits full of pottery, printing supplies and animal bones

Four Explosive Advancements for Future Fireworks

From color to sound, the next-gen fireworks are sure to wow

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