American History

After the Revolution, Americans sought a national identity. American Cookery, the first cookbook written and published in the country, proposed one approach to American cuisine.

What America's First Cookbook Says About Our Country and Its Cuisine

An 18th-century kitchen guide taught Americans how to eat simply but sumptuously

Dizzy Gillespie in Hamburg, 1973

Dizzy Gillespie and His Bent Trumpet

Here's how the Smithsonian acquired the instrument of one of the world's most influential and unconventional American jazz musicians

Rage Against the Machine

A short story reimagines the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the chaos that shocked the world

A Timeline of 1968: The Year That Shattered America

The nation is still reckoning with the changes that came in that fateful year

This cartoon from Harper's Weekly depicts how opiates were used in the 19th century to help babies cope with teething.

Inside the Story of America’s 19th-Century Opiate Addiction

Doctors then, as now, overprescribed the painkiller to patients in need, and then, as now, government policy had a distinct bias

Tickets to the Johnson impeachment trial were color-coded to indicate dates for the proceedings, which lasted more than two months.

The Fight Over Andrew Johnson's Impeachment Was a Fight for the Future of the United States

The biggest show in Washington 150 years ago was the trial against the President of the United States

National Guard troops lined Beale Street during a protest on March 29 , 1968. “I was in every march, all of ’em, with that sign: I AM A MAN,” recalls former sanitation worker Ozell Ueal.

The Strike That Brought MLK to Memphis

In his final days, Martin Luther King Jr. stood by striking sanitation workers. We returned to the city to see what has changed—and what hasn’t

“Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” by Rembrandt, one of 13 works stolen during the 1990 theft.

Speak Now: Reward for Biggest Art Heist in History Gets Cut in Half on New Year's

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum hoped the $10 million reward would shake loose new clues in the 27-year-old crime

Emerald Bay and Mount Tallac, Lake Tahoe, 1935.

Cache of Newly Digitized Travel Photographs Will Transport You to 1900s California

Travelers William and Grace McCarthy really got around, and in nearly 3,000 photos, they captured a unique view of San Francisco, Tahoe and Yosemite

A YMCA gym in 1910.

The YMCA First Opened Gyms to Train Stronger Christians

Physical fitness was a secondary goal for the movement

A 2013 Romanian stamp features Cochran and her dishwasher.

This Time-Saving Patent Paved the Way for the Modern Dishwasher

Josephine Cochran just wanted to stop having broken dishes

Women dynamite workers at one of Alfred Nobel's factories in the 1880s.

The True Story of Mrs. Alford's Nitroglycerin Factory

Mary Alford remains the only woman known to own a dynamite and nitroglycerin factory

Often known as the redbird or common cardinal, the northern cardinal is a North American bird in the genus Cardinalis.

Five Things to Know About the Recently Changed Migratory Bird Act

A new rule prevents industry from being prosecuted for killing birds under the 100-year-old conservation law

Before the 1840s, women had no choice but to deliver children without anesthetic.

It Didn’t Take Very Long For Anesthesia to Change Childbirth

The unprecedented idea of a painless delivery changed women's lives

Carry A. Nation with her bible and her hatchet not long before she died in 1911.

Three Things to Know About Radical Prohibitionist Carry A. Nation

Nation was convinced she was on a mission from God

Evel Knievel's trademark red, white and blue leathers, with accompanying cape and boots, joined the Smithsonian's American history collection in the early 1990s.

This Woeful Wipeout Made Evel Knievel an Instant Legend

In 1967, a bone-shattering spill at Caesars Palace spawned a career in self-endangerment

Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery

Happy Holidays! The Smithsonian is Closed on Christmas Day

'Twas the Night Before Christmas' on the National Mall

Hugh Jackman in "The Greatest Showman."

P.T. Barnum Isn't the Hero the 'Greatest Showman' Wants You to Think

His path to fame and notoriety began by exploiting an enslaved woman, in life and in death, as entertainment for the masses

A 2010 picture of the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, which was removed from Health Sciences Park (formerly Nathan Bedford Forrest Park) in downtown Memphis last December.

Memphis Removes Two Confederate Statues

One was dedicated to Jefferson Davis, the other to Nathan Bedford Forrest

President Lincoln depicted on a Christmas card from the 1920s. Christmas wasn't as important of a holiday in Lincoln's time, but his personal Christmas story is worth telling.

President Lincoln’s Last Christmas

The character of American Christmas changed as a result of the Civil War

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