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Divers Recover More Than 350 Artifacts From the HMS ‘Erebus’ Shipwreck | Science

SmithsonianFebruary 24, 2020February 24, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 24, 2020February 24, 202003

Braving water temperatures that dipped below freezing, divers spent nearly four weeks off the coast of Nunavut in northern Canada last summer exploring the HMS Erebus. The ship sank during the doomed Franklin Expedition of the 1840s, when British naval captain Sir John Franklin and his crew searched for the......

History

How Winston Churchill Endured the Blitz—and Taught the People of England to Do the Same | History

SmithsonianFebruary 24, 2020February 24, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 24, 2020February 24, 202003

For 57 consecutive nights in 1940, Nazi Germany tried to bring England to its knees. Waves of planes pummeled cities with high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices as part of a campaign to break the English spirit and destroy the country’s capacity to make war. One man stood strong against the......

New York Post

15th Century children’s etiquette book tells kids not to be greedy with cheese

NYPostFebruary 22, 2020February 23, 2020

by NYPostFebruary 22, 2020February 23, 202004

New York Post – For more and to sign up click here Apparently, nose picking is (s)not just a bad habit of modern kids. Medieval children also needed to be warned not to go digging for gold, not to mention not to hog the cheese and, of course, burp like......

History

How the Smithsonian Is Documenting the Work of Immigrant Rights Activists | At the Smithsonian

SmithsonianFebruary 21, 2020February 21, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 21, 2020February 21, 202004

On November 12, 2019, curators from the National Museum of American History assembled at the U.S. Supreme Court as observers, and collectors, of history. That day, the justices heard three cases pertaining to the status of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Positioned both inside the courtroom and......

History

When the Greenbrier and Other Appalachian Resorts Became Prisons for Axis Diplomats | Travel

SmithsonianFebruary 21, 2020February 21, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 21, 2020February 21, 202003

In the 1930s, as the drumbeats of war in Europe and the Far East grew louder, Americans maintained their workaday lives and strived for business as usual—as did their employers. “At a traditionally famous hotel, the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia,” read one ad in the April 1938......

History

The History of the Hard Hat | Innovation

SmithsonianFebruary 21, 2020February 21, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 21, 2020February 21, 202004

During World War I, death occurred on an apocalyptic scale in the killing fields of Europe. The advent of continuous-fire machine guns and modern artillery with high-explosive shells obliterated millions of lives in an era of bloody trench warfare. One saving grace was the helmet. Countless soldiers were able to......

History

Angkor Wat Owes Its Existence to Catastrophe | History

SmithsonianFebruary 21, 2020February 21, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 21, 2020February 21, 202004

The empire controlled much of mainland Southeast Asia by the beginning of the 10th century A.D., but unclear rules of succession combined with a complicated web of royal family intermarriages led to a crisis. Jayavarman IV, a grandson of a previous king, contested the rule of the leaders in Angkor,......

CBS US News

Maryland school district revamps U.S. history curriculum after reviewing how topics like slavery are taught

CBS NewsFebruary 20, 2020February 20, 2020

by CBS NewsFebruary 20, 2020February 20, 2020011

CBS News – For more and to sign up click here A school district in Maryland revamped its eighth grade U.S. history curriculum after reviewing how it approached topics like slavery. Eighth graders at Montgomery County Public Schools, one of the largest districts in the nation, now mostly use primary......

History

Smithsonian Curators Help Rescue the Truth From These Popular Myths | At the Smithsonian

SmithsonianFebruary 20, 2020February 20, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 20, 2020February 20, 202007

Hollywood can’t resist depicting Dolley Madison saving a portrait of George Washington from the British army. Museum visitors love to gobble up the sticky confection known as astronaut ice cream, and Plymouth Rock has become a symbol of the national narrative, but like everything else, it’s complicated. Like a game......

History

As Popular in Her Day as J.K. Rowling, Gene Stratton-Porter Wrote to the Masses About America’s Fading Natural Beauty | Science

SmithsonianFebruary 20, 2020February 20, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 20, 2020February 20, 202005

My dear Girl:In the first place will you allow me to suggest that you forgethereafter to tack the “ess” on to “author”, because one who writesa book or poem is an author and literature has no sex.–Gene Stratton-Porter, letter to Miss Mabel Anderson, March 9, 1923 * * * Yellow......

History

Madam C.J. Walker Gets a Netflix Close-Up | History

SmithsonianFebruary 20, 2020February 20, 2020

by SmithsonianFebruary 20, 2020February 20, 202003

Madam C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove in Louisiana in 1867, was the most successful black wellness mogul of her day. Now a new Netflix series will show how this enterprising daughter of freed slaves empowered generations of black women to prosper. Breedlove was in her 30s when she began treating......

History

Library Treasures Featured in “Fearless: A Tribute to Irish American Women”

Library Of CongressFebruary 19, 2020

by Library Of CongressFebruary 19, 202004

The following guest post was written by Barbara Bair, curator of literature, culture and the arts in the Library’s Manuscript Division; Suzanne Schadl, chief of the Hispanic Division; Dani Thurber, reference librarian in the Hispanic Division; Melanie Zeck, reference librarian in the American Folklife Center; and John Fenn, head of research and......

History