Smithsonian Magazine

When a Photographer Turned His Focus on Social Injustice, It Helped Usher in the First Child Labor Laws

Lewis Hine didn’t consider his job as taking pictures; it was “detective work.” Sometimes gaining access with ruse and ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Theodore Roosevelt Survived an Assassination Attempt Because a Speech Tucked Inside His Pocket Slowed the Bullet. He Insisted on Delivering His Remarks Anyway

"I am very much uninterested in whether I am shot or not," he told an audience in Milwaukee. Newly discovered documents shed ...
Smithsonian Magazine

At a Pivotal Moment of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass Delivered a Speech That Reframed What Was at Stake if Slavery Stood

In “The Mission of the War,” America’s incomparable orator helped turn public sentiment in favor of the Union and Abraham ...
Smithsonian Magazine

David W. Blight

David W. Blight is a professor of American history at Yale, He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2018 biography, Frederick ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Sam Green

At a Pivotal Moment of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass Delivered a Speech That Reframed What Was at Stake if Slavery Stood ...
Smithsonian Magazine

How Did Stonehenge Get Its Altar Stone? New Research Adds to the Debate Between Human Effort and Glacier Transport

Ice flow modeling and geological analyses suggest it's possible that glaciers carried the stone part of the way during the ...
Smithsonian Magazine

In a First, NASA’s Experimental X-59 Plane Flew Faster Than the Speed of Sound, Setting the Stage for ‘Quiet’ Supersonic Aircraft

The United States banned supersonic flights over its land in 1973 due to their ear-splitting sonic booms. Experts are ...
Smithsonian Magazine

These Italian Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School. They Found Ancient Roman Ruins Hidden in the Basement

Students at a high school in Rome stumbled upon a well-preserved villa that dates to the mid-second century C.E. Eventually, ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Harriet Beecher Stowe Wrote a Work of Fiction That Seemed So Real That It Changed the History of the Country

To fight against slavery, the author collected true stories then picked up a pen and distilled them into “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Rediscovered Drawings John Lennon Helped Create for the Beatles Became One of Rock ’n’ Roll’s First Music Videos

An English collector who acquired ten of the drawings at an auction loaned them to the Liverpool Beatles Museum for a temporary exhibition ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Trail Camera Photos Capture Rare Antelopes in a Kenya Forest Where Conservationists Once Feared They Had Vanished

Fewer than 100 mountain bongos are thought to live in the wild, and the new discovery reveals a crucial habitat for the critically endangered creatures ...
Smithsonian Magazine

The First President Gives Notice

George Washington's announcement that he wouldn't seek a third presidential term helped define modern statesmanship: The Republic had no need for a king, even an American one. Writing from Europe, ...