https://www.smithsonianmag.com/rss/history/RSS feed for HistoryenMon, 10 Mar 2025 10:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/newly-discovered-letters-illuminate-the-life-of-a-female-printer-who-published-revolutionary-texts-and-pushed-the-colonies-toward-independence-180986184/As Virginia's first female newspaper publisher, Clementina Rind emphasized women's viewpoints and collaborated with prominent politicians like Thomas JeffersonMon, 10 Mar 2025 10:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-mystery-surrounding-the-grave-of-jfk-is-solved-180986178/A sculpture recognizing a spontaneous gesture of affection towards the slain president vanished into thin air more than half a century ago. Here’s the story of how it was just recently rediscovered.Thu, 06 Mar 2025 19:23:59 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/discover-the-short-life-and-long-legacy-of-casimir-pulaski-a-polish-cavalry-officer-who-became-an-american-revolutionary-hero-180986162/On the first Monday in March, Pulaski Day festivities at Chicago's Polish Museum of America honored the "Father of American Cavalry," 280 years after his birthThu, 06 Mar 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-a-leading-black-historian-uncovered-her-own-familys-painful-past-and-why-her-ancestors-stories-give-her-hope-180986152/Martha S. Jones' new memoir draws on genealogical research and memories shared by relativesWed, 05 Mar 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-oscar-wildes-play-about-a-biblical-temptress-was-banned-from-the-british-stage-for-decades-180986047/"Salome," a one-act tragedy by the Irish playwright, terrified the Victorian public with its provocative depiction of a teenage girl whose lust for a man quickly morphs into bloodlustTue, 04 Mar 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-a-stuffed-animal-named-billy-possum-triedand-failedto-replace-the-teddy-bear-as-americas-national-toy-180986072/In 1909, wealthy widow Susie W. Allgood marketed a plush marsupial inspired by President William Howard Taft. But children thought the toy looked "too much like a rat," and it sold poorlyMon, 03 Mar 2025 11:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/was-this-little-known-standoff-between-british-soldiers-and-colonists-the-real-start-of-the-american-revolution-180986105/On February 26, 1775, residents of Salem, Massachusetts, banded together to force the British to withdraw from their town during an oft-overlooked encounter known as Leslie's RetreatWed, 26 Feb 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-story-behind-nickel-boys-and-the-brutal-florida-reform-school-that-inspired-the-film-180986098/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 centuryMon, 24 Feb 2025 17:47:49 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-trailblazing-black-librarian-who-rewrote-the-rules-of-power-gender-and-racial-passing-180986074/Belle da Costa Greene, the first director of the Morgan Library, was a Black woman who passed as white in the early 20th centuryFri, 21 Feb 2025 13:52:31 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-britains-secret-decoy-ships-outfoxed-german-u-boats-during-world-war-i-180986044/Divers recently discovered the wreck of a German submarine and the Royal Navy Q-ship that sank it in February 1917Tue, 18 Feb 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/discover-the-aromas-of-ancient-egyptian-mummies-from-orange-peels-to-pine-to-incense-180986035/A new, first-of-its-kind analysis of the scents of nine mummies detected woody, spicy, herbal and rancid notes, among other odorsFri, 14 Feb 2025 00:02:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/talented-valiant-female-surgeon-joined-allied-forces-wwii-broke-barriers-along-way-180985952/Prohibited from serving with the U.S. Army as a medical officer, Barbara Stimson was commissioned by the British—and helped open the American military to female doctorsThu, 13 Feb 2025 13:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/canyon-of-the-ancestors-180985955/In the Arizona desert, researchers are learning so much more about the peoples who have inhabited this land since antiquityWed, 12 Feb 2025 12:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/born-enslaved-this-black-millionaire-attempted-to-colonize-mexico-and-aspired-to-be-the-emperor-of-ethiopia-180985998/William Henry Ellis masqueraded as a Mexican businessman, but he never shied away from his Black rootsTue, 11 Feb 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rifling-through-archives-legendary-historian-robert-caro-180985956/Reams of papers, revealing how the scholar came to write his iconic biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson, are preserved forever in New York. But his work is far from overTue, 11 Feb 2025 11:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mystery-worlds-oldest-writing-system-remained-unsolved-until-four-scholars-raced-decipher-it-180985954/In the 1850s, cuneiform was just a series of baffling scratches on clay, waiting to spill the secrets of the ancient civilizations of MesopotamiaMon, 10 Feb 2025 12:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/after-confederate-forces-captured-their-children-these-black-mothers-fought-to-reunite-their-families-180985994/During the Civil War, Confederates targeted free Black people in the North, kidnapping them to sell into slavery. After the conflict ended, two women sought help from high places to track down their lost loved onesThu, 06 Feb 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-spy-who-exposed-the-secrets-of-the-black-chamber-one-of-americas-first-code-breaking-organizations-180985947/In 1931, Herbert O. Yardley published a tell-all book about his experiences leading a covert government agency called the Cipher BureauTue, 04 Feb 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hundreds-died-when-this-steamship-sank-in-the-pacific-northwest-in-1875-with-gold-worth-millions-on-board-180985928/A century and a half later, the sinking of the S.S. Pacific remains one of the deadliest maritime disasters in the region’s historyThu, 30 Jan 2025 11:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this-heroic-dog-raced-across-the-frozen-alaskan-wilderness-to-deliver-life-saving-medicine-but-his-contributions-were-long-overlooked-180985905/Togo, not Balto, was the driving force behind the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, which found teams of mushers and sled dogs delivering antitoxin to children suffering from diphtheriaTue, 28 Jan 2025 18:20:38 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-enduring-mystery-of-a-plane-that-vanished-in-the-icy-canadian-wilderness-with-44-people-on-board-180985878/Seventy-five years ago, a Douglas C-54D Skymaster disappeared en route from Alaska to Montana. No trace of its crew and passengers, including a pregnant mother and her young son, has ever been foundThu, 23 Jan 2025 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-nations-first-madam-secretary-fought-to-save-jewish-refugees-fleeing-from-nazi-germany-180985850/A new book spotlights Frances Perkins' efforts to challenge the United States' restrictive immigration policies as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary of laborTue, 21 Jan 2025 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-was-zora-neale-hurston-so-obsessed-with-the-biblical-villain-herod-the-great-180985824/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 timeThu, 16 Jan 2025 17:07:34 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/these-stunning-19th-century-artworks-reveal-the-contradictions-of-the-modern-woman-180985827/A new exhibition spotlights James Tissot, whose paintings and prints reflected women’s ever-evolving roles in Victorian societyWed, 15 Jan 2025 12:15:00 +0000