Eli Wizevich

Eli Wizevich

 

Eli Wizevich is a history correspondent for Smithsonian. He studied history at the University of Chicago and previously wrote for the El Paso Times.

The Struggle Against Terrorism, a 1,000-square-foot mural by Philip Gluston and Reuben Kadish, before the restoration

See a Controversial Anti-Fascist Mural From the 1930s Returned to Its Former Glory

Titled "The Struggle Against Terrorism," the 1,000-square-foot artwork suffered from neglect for 90 years. Now, conservators have unveiled the newly restored mural in Mexico

Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones) (1906-08), one of the highlights of the recent donation to the Harvard Art Museums

Sixty-Four Stunning Artworks by Famed 'Scream' Painter Edvard Munch Are Heading to Harvard

The extensive collection shows how the Norwegian painter tweaked his techniques and reworked his aesthetic sensibilities over and over again

The hunk weighs a whopping five pounds and measures more than six inches long.

A Five-Pound Hunk of the World's Oldest Known Synthesized Pigment Was Found in Nero's Palace

The discovery might illuminate the link between the blue pigment's ancient Egyptian roots and its rediscovery by Renaissance artists centuries later

The cache pit was discoverd on a hill overlooking the Knik Arm, a thin brach of the Gulf of Alaska.

Archaeologists Unearth Rare 1,000-Year-Old Food Storage Pit in Alaska

Initial findings suggest the cache was used to preserve moose and caribou meat in the harsh climate of southeastern Alaska

The 404 coins discovered in a muddy field near Bunnik, a village in the Netherlands, in 2023 and 2024

Two Metal Detectorists in the Netherlands Stumbled Onto Hundreds of Looted Coins From the Roman Conquest of Britain

The 404 coins, including 44 from Britain, are believed to be a mix of military pay and the spoils of war, stashed by a Roman soldier after he returned to the European continent

Edmond Dédé, a talented composer who is finally getting his due

One of the Oldest Surviving Operas by a Black American Composer Will Be Performed for the First Time—138 Years After It Was Written

Edmond Dédé's 1887 magnum opus "Morgiane"—billed as "the most important opera never heard"—will finally get its premiere after languishing in obscurity for more than a century

Seals with the signs and symbols of the Indus Valley civilization are waiting to be deciphered.

Officials Are Offering $1 Million to Anyone Who Can Decode This Ancient Script

The enigmatic Indus Valley civilization left behind a script that today's historians haven't yet deciphered. While amateur theories abound, scholars are increasingly relying on computer science to crack the code

The tokens are roughly the size of a half-dollar coin and feature markings etched into their surfaces.

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Tokens That Roman Soldiers Used to Play Strategy Games

The lentil-shaped objects were unearthed in Hadrianopolis, an ancient city in modern-day Turkey, that once hosted a Roman fortress

The marble head dates to Egypt's Ptolemaic period (305 to 30 B.C.E.), but it was found in a seventh-century C.E. house.

See the Haunting Stone Face of a Ptolemaic Statue Unearthed Near the Ancient Egyptian City of Alexandria

The statue was found at Taposiris Magna, an archaeological site where some researchers suspect Cleopatra and Mark Antony are entombed

The golden helmet of Coțofenești at the Drents Museum

Art Thieves Blew Up a Dutch Museum's Door to Steal an Ancient Golden Helmet From Romania

The blast took place in the middle of the night, allowing the burglars to abscond with four valuable objects connected to Romania's cultural heritage

The statue of Athena had been housed in William Weddell's estate in England since the 1700s.

See the Stunning Ancient Roman Statue of Athena That's Going on View for the First Time in Nearly 260 Years

After spending centuries on a British aristocrat's estate in North Yorkshire, the marble masterpiece will be unveiled in Chicago's Wrightwood 659 gallery later this week

One of the two recaptured lynx—another two are still on the loose

Four Lynx Have Been Illegally Released Into the Scottish Highlands. Officials Think ‘Guerrilla Rewilding’ Is to Blame

So far, only two of the four lynx have been recaptured, leaving authorities scrambling across the snowy woods to find the missing cats

The endangered Woodville Karst cave crayfish (Procambarus orcinus)

Freshwater Animals Are More Fragile Than Thought, With Nearly a Quarter Threatened With Extinction, Study Finds

Species in Lake Victoria, Lake Titicaca, Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone and the Western Ghats of India are particularly vulnerable to the effects of agriculture, human infrastructure and climate change, per the paper

Jimmy Carter tries to comfort 6-year-old Ruhama Issah at Savelugu Hospital in Ghana as a Carter Center technical assistant dresses Issah's Guinea worm wound. In May 2010, Ghana reported its last case of Guinea worm disease and announced it had stopped transmission a year later.

Jimmy Carter Worked to Eradicate the Vicious Guinea Worm Parasite, Slashing Cases by the Millions

The 39th U.S. president aimed to quash the debilitating water-based infection before he died. Through the Carter Center's work, he came tantalizingly close, lowering the number of yearly cases from 3.5 million to just 14

Though small, the snail darter has played an outsize role in American law, conservation and biology.

A Tiny, 'Endangered' Fish Delayed a Dam's Construction in the 1970s. Now, Scientists Say the Snail Darter Isn't So Rare After All

A lawsuit to protect the snail darter from the Tellico Dam in Tennessee offered the first real test of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. But a new study disputes the fish's status as a distinct species

The eruption at Zavaritskii volcano created a nearly two-mile-wide caldera with layers of red, black and white from previous eruptive deposits.

Scientists Find the Mysterious Source of the Massive 1831 Volcanic Eruption That Cooled Earth and Made the Sun Appear Blue

The climate-altering eruption came from the Zavaritskii volcano on an uninhabited island in the Pacific that once hosted a Soviet submarine base, according to a new study

By the time this crowd gathered on New Year's Eve, 1938, the Times Square ball drop had been an annual rite for decades

The First Ever Times Square Ball Drop Was Held Atop the New York Times Headquarters in 1907, Starting a Cherished Tradition

Time balls date back to the early 19th century, when they signaled the time to passing sailors. Now they’re part of the pomp and circumstance of the new year

The Iroquois Theater in 1903

A 1903 Fire at a Chicago Theater Killed 602 People, Prompting Enduring Safety Reforms

Officials thought the brand-new Iroquois Theater was fireproof and designed for maximum safety. The scope of the tragedy and the ensuing panic quickly proved them wrong

Dating from 1940, this photograph depicts a sign at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, South Dakota, where 250 American Indians were killed in 1890.

On This Day in 1890, the U.S. Army Killed Nearly 300 Lakota People in the Wounded Knee Massacre

The mass murder made sensational news at the time, but getting to the heart of the matter took a much deeper view of American history

Alexander Solzhenitsyn in West Germany following his deportation from the Soviet Union in February 1974

Discover the Story Behind a Legendary Exposé of the Brutality of the Soviet Union

Published on this day in 1973, "The Gulag Archipelago" drew on Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's experiences as a political dissident in a prison camp, but it left him deported and stateless for the next two decades

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