https://www.smithsonianmag.com/rss/history/RSS feed for HistoryenMon, 29 Jan 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-sensation-novelist-who-exposed-the-plight-of-victorian-women-wilkie-collins-180983649/Wilkie Collins drew on his legal training to dramatize the inequality caused by outdated laws regarding marital and property rightsMon, 29 Jan 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-descendants-of-holocaust-survivors-are-replicating-auschwitz-tattoos-180983648/Those who choose to put the numbers on their bodies hope the act will spark conversation about the Holocaust and pay tribute to loved ones who survivedThu, 25 Jan 2024 11:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-masters-of-the-air-and-the-100th-bomb-group-180983629/The long-awaited follow-up to "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" centers on an American aerial group nicknamed the "Bloody Hundredth"Tue, 23 Jan 2024 17:54:38 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-couple-who-fell-in-love-in-a-nazi-death-camp-helen-spitzer-david-wisnia-auschwitz-180983603/A new book chronicles the unlikely connection between Helen Spitzer and David Wisnia, both of whom survived AuschwitzMon, 22 Jan 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/as-empires-clashed-during-world-war-i-a-global-media-industry-brought-the-conflicts-horrors-to-the-public-180983605/An exhibition at LACMA traces the roots of modern media to the Great War, when propaganda mobilized the masses, and questions whether the brutal truths of the battlefield can ever really be communicatedThu, 18 Jan 2024 15:45:18 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-united-states-accents-and-dialects-180983591/Migration patterns, cultural ties, geographic regions and class differences all shape speaking patternsWed, 17 Jan 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-newly-digitized-records-reveal-about-the-tuskegee-syphilis-study-180983568/The archival trove chronicles the extreme measures administrators took to ensure Black sharecroppers did not receive treatment for the venereal diseaseFri, 12 Jan 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-archaeologists-are-unearthing-the-secrets-of-the-bahamas-first-inhabitants-180983548/Spanish colonizers enslaved the Lucayans, putting an end to their lineage by 1530Thu, 11 Jan 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/genealogical-records-taught-me-about-family-180983457/For millions of enslaved people, bondage stole more than freedom—it severed a link to the past. Now their descendants are recovering their heritageWed, 10 Jan 2024 13:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-old-cave-paintings-spain-cova-dones-180983456/With help from a now-extinct bear, archaeologists have unlocked the mysteries of Spain’s Cova DonesFri, 05 Jan 2024 14:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-the-zone-of-interest-and-rudolf-hoss-180983531/Jonathan Glazer's new film uses the Auschwitz commandant and his family as a vehicle for examining humans' capacity for evilThu, 04 Jan 2024 18:21:03 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-american-soldier-whose-fear-of-fighting-in-vietnam-led-him-to-defect-to-north-korea-he-stayed-there-for-40-years-180983530/During his time in the repressive country, Charles Robert Jenkins married a Japanese abductee, taught English at a school and appeared in propaganda filmsThu, 04 Jan 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/george-washington-tent-kept-revolution-alive-180983450/The general's war tent, an iconic part of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, carries as much symbolism now as it did thenWed, 03 Jan 2024 13:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-the-language-we-use-to-describe-japanese-american-incarceration-during-world-war-ii-matters-180983444/A descendant of concentration camp survivors argues that using the right vocabulary can help clarify the stakes when confronting wartime traumaThu, 28 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/our-top-ten-stories-of-2023-180983492/From the world's oldest dog to the real history behind "Oppenheimer," these were the magazine's most-read articles of the yearWed, 27 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/117-fascinating-finds-revealed-in-2023-180983491/The year's most exciting discoveries included a stolen Vincent van Gogh painting, a hidden medieval crypt and a gold-covered mummyTue, 26 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-a-labyrinth-of-pneumatic-tubes-shuttled-mail-beneath-the-streets-of-new-york-city-180983472/Powered by compressed air, the system transported millions of letters between 1897 and 1953Fri, 22 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-women-of-the-north-platte-canteen-fed-six-million-soldiers-during-world-war-ii-180983441/Volunteers based out of a Nebraska train station offered American troops encouragement and free food, including birthday cakes and popcorn ballsWed, 20 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-a-dozen-lesser-known-christmas-characters-from-mr-jingeling-to-uncle-mistletoe-180983427/Created as department store marketing tools, many of these seasonal figures became beloved holiday traditionsMon, 18 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-many-myths-of-the-boston-tea-party-180983399/Contrary to popular belief, the 1773 protest opposed a tax break, not a tax hike. And it didn't immediately unify the colonies against the BritishFri, 15 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-schindlers-list-transformed-americans-understanding-of-the-holocaust-180983408/The 1993 film also inspired its director, Steven Spielberg, to establish a foundation that preserves survivors' storiesThu, 14 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-your-great-great-great-grandfather-is-a-civil-war-hero-180983426/Can recreating photographs from the 19th century connect a family to its lost heritage?Thu, 14 Dec 2023 12:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/descendants-black-civil-war-heroes-wear-heritage-pride-180983397/A bold new photographic project asks modern-day Americans to recreate portraits of their 19th-century ancestors in painstakingly accurate fashionWed, 13 Dec 2023 12:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lionel-licorish-vestris-black-sailor-heroic-shipwreck-instant-celebrity-of-the-roaring-twenties-180983385/Lionel Licorish earned accolades for rescuing as many as 20 passengers from the wreckage of the S.S. "Vestris"Thu, 07 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unraveling-ulysses-s-grants-complex-relationship-with-slavery-180983360/The Union general directly benefited from the brutal institution before and during the Civil WarTue, 05 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kohoutek-comet-of-the-century-failed-to-impress-but-it-wasnt-such-a-disaster-after-all-180983330/Highly anticipated before its arrival in late 1973, Kohoutek became an interplanetary punchline. But astronomers may have gotten the last laughMon, 04 Dec 2023 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/sandra-day-oconnor-compromise-supreme-court-smithsonian-180983353/The first woman justice to serve on the nation's highest court died on Friday at age 93Fri, 01 Dec 2023 17:29:48 +0000