American History

Capturing America's Fight for Freedom

Smithsonian experts help the makers of Mel Gibson's new movie, The Patriot, create scenes and bring the conflict's many factions into sharper focus

George Mason

George Mason: Forgotten Founder, He Conceived the Bill of Rights

This wise Virginian was a friend to four future presidents, yet he refused to sign the Constitution

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Myles and Me

The author, who according to family legend is a direct descendant of Myles Standish, surveys the checkered career of his pugnacious Pilgrim ancestor

The Hatfield clan in 1897

A Tale of Fatal Feuds and Futile Forensics

A Smithsonian anthropologist digs for victims of a West Virginia mob murder

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Picturing the American Century

As the 1900s slip away, New York's Whitney Museum recalls the artists and images that made these years uniquely ours

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Picturing Pocahontas

An image at the National Portrait Gallery may be the truest account we have of the Indian princess

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The Steam Locomotive

Even in the computer age, a thousand-ton train driven by fire and water inspires awe

Campaign banner for the ill-fated ticket of President Grover Cleveland and Senator Allen Thurman.

The Vote That Failed

Old style ballots cast illegally in Indiana helped topple a president then he helped topple them

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Why Save the Flag?

Preserving the Star-Spangled Banner reflects our ongoing effort to establish a more perfect union

The barn at Cogswell's Grant, Essex, Massachusetts

A Passion for the Past

Bertram and Nina Little spent six decades amassing folk art that captures a corner of American history

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Long May It Wave

The Smithsonian embarks on an ambitious project to preserve the Star-Spangled Banner

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In Vermont, a Valiant Stand for Freedom

At Mount Independence, heroic Americans held off the British in a confrontation that changed the course of the Revolutionary War

Drop Cut-Off Valve and Mechanism Model

Catching a Glimpse of America's Industrial Past

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In Honor of Struggle

Life came hard for people like historian Lonnie Bunch's ancestors; he strives to commemorate them

Edith Wilson

A Symbol That Failed

In 1918, a hopeful France gave Mrs. Wilson a peace brooch, but peace eluded her husband and the world

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Symbolically Speaking

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Bang! Bang! You're Dead

Dueling at the drop of a hat was as European as truffles, and as American as mom's apple pie

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The Space Race

Onetime rivals are now partners. A new exhibition and an IMAX film, Mission to Mir, tell the story

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John Brown's Picture

A long-lost daguerrotype, made by a black artist in 1847, has lately come to rest at the Smithsonian

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George C. Marshall The Last Great American?

No soldier since Washington has had his Roman virtues, and so significantly shaped a peace

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