Ellen Wexler

Ellen Wexler

 

Ellen Wexler is Smithsonian magazine’s assistant digital editor, humanities.

An early Remington typewriter featuring the QWERTY keyboard

The QWERTY Keyboard Will Never Die. Where Did the 150-Year-Old Design Come From?

The invention's true origin story has long been the subject of debate. Some argue it was created to prevent typewriter jams, while others insist it's linked to the telegraph

A group photo taken at what might have been a memorial or funeral service at the Florida School for Boys in the 1950s

The Real Story Behind 'Nickel Boys' and the Brutal Florida Reform School That Inspired the Film

Based on a Colson Whitehead novel, the Oscar-nominated movie dramatizes the story of the Florida School for Boys, which traumatized children as young as 5 for more than a century

Zora Neale Hurston wanted to tell the world about the "real ... historical Herod, instead of the deliberately folklore Herod."

Why Was Zora Neale Hurston So Obsessed With the Biblical Villain Herod the Great?

The Harlem Renaissance author spent her last years writing about the ancient king. Six decades after her death, her unfinished novel has finally been published for the first time

The weeklong exhibition showcases items submitted by members of the public.

The Museum of Bad Gifts Is a Celebration of Outlandish Objects, From Ceramic Clowns to Cat Nail Clippings

Presented like pieces of fine art, the peculiar presents are mounted on the walls of a gallery in Toronto. Many of them will ultimately be sold at auction

Works entering the public domain include The Sound and the Fury, the first recordings of Rhapsody in Blue, Popeye, Tintin and The Broadway Melody.

Happy Public Domain Day! Popeye, 'Rhapsody in Blue,' 'The Sound and the Fury' and Thousands of Other Captivating Creations Are Finally Free for Everyone to Use

On January 1, 2025, copyrights will expire for books, films, comic strips, musical compositions and other creative works from 1929, as well as sound recordings from 1924

A sonar image taken on November 1 shows a rock formation.

Researchers Thought They Found Amelia Earhart's Missing Plane. It Turned Out to Be a Plane-Shaped Pile of Rocks

Months after capturing a promising sonar image, they learned that the blurry object was nothing more than a rock formation that resembled the aviator's Lockheed 10-E Electra aircraft

As the story goes, the makers of the first talking board asked the board what they should call it; the name “Ouija” came through.

The Ouija Board Can't Connect Us to Paranormal Forces—but It Can Tell Us a Lot About Psychology, Grief and Uncertainty

The game was born from Americans' obsession with Spiritualism in the 19th century. Since then, it's functioned as a reflection of their deep-seated beliefs and anxieties for more than a century

The memorial artwork hadn't been seen since the 1970s, when it was placed on a replica of Kennedy's gravesite in Upperville, Virginia.

A Secret Sculpture Built for John F. Kennedy's Grave Vanished in the 1970s. Half a Century Later, the Mystery Has Been Solved

The bronze wreath immortalized the moment when the members of the Honor Guard removed their hats and placed them on the president's grave during his burial

Agafia Lykova was born while her family was living alone in the wilderness. She is the only surviving member of the family.

This Russian Family Lived Alone in the Siberian Wilderness for 40 Years, Unaware of World War II or the Moon Landing

In 1978, Soviet geologists stumbled upon a family of five in the taiga. They had been cut off from almost all human contact since fleeing religious persecution in 1936

The Prometheus tree once stood in this grove on a mountain in Nevada.

How One Researcher Accidentally Killed One of the Oldest Trees in the World

In 1964, a graduate student cut down a bristlecone pine in Nevada. The tree, now known as Prometheus, turned out to be nearly 5,000 years old

After inheriting the flag from his grandfather, Scott Stein decided to return it to the descendants of its original owner.

A Japanese Soldier's Son Receives a Memento of His Father, Who Was Killed During World War II

The so-called good-luck flag, which hung on an American veteran's wall for many years, returned home last month after nearly eight decades

Napoleon in Burning Moscow, Adam Albrecht, 1841

To Strike Fear Into Napoleon's Occupying Army, These Retreating Soldiers Burned Down Their Own City

When the blaze in Moscow subsided on September 18, 1812, the French—who had traveled hundreds of miles into Russia—were left without vital resources as a brutal winter approached

The exterior of the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery in London. The controversial columns stood inside the ground-floor foyer.

Workers Find Mysterious Letter Hidden Inside a Concrete Column at London's National Gallery

John Sainsbury hoped the note would be found when the "unnecessary columns" were finally demolished

The front of the postcard features a print of The Challenge (1844) by English artist Edwin Henry Landseer.

See a Mysterious Postcard That Was Delivered 121 Years Late

The handwritten note, which bears a 1903 postmark, recently arrived at a building society in Wales

Robert C. Weaver Building houses the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Washingtonians Love to Hate Brutalist Architecture. But What If We Could Fix It?

An exhibition at the National Building Museum investigates the history and future of the much-maligned architectural style

An aerial photograph of Lahaina's banyan tree taken on August 3, 2024. A wildfire devastated the town in August 2023.

One Year After a Devastating Fire, Lahaina's 151-Year-Old Banyan Tree Is Healing

Arborists didn't know if the historic tree would survive, but they've been working to give it the best possible odds

An 1838 illustration of Pindar, the lyric poet from ancient Greece, reciting one of the Olympian odes

Poetry Was an Official Olympic Event for Nearly 40 Years. What Happened?

Pierre de Coubertin hoped the modern Games would encourage the ancient Greek notion of harmony between "muscle and mind"

Benjamin Franklin lived in London for much of the time between 1757 and 1775.

Why Were There So Many Skeletons Hidden in Benjamin Franklin's Basement?

During restorations in the 1990s, more than 1,200 pieces of bone surfaced beneath the founding father's London home

The Dolphin Hotel is a historic structure dating in Southampton, England.

Inside the Controversial Plan to Turn a Hotel Where Jane Austen Attended Balls Into Student Dorms

Devoted readers are worried about the fate of the historic Dolphin Hotel in southern England

The blade, known as Durandal, was embedded in rock more than 30 feet above the ground.

Fabled Sword From Medieval French Folklore Disappears

Known as the "French Excalibur," the blade is said to have hung from a rock face in the village of Rocamadour for 1,300 years

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