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Various photos of Dylan.

One Fan’s Search for Seeds of Greatness in Bob Dylan’s Hometown

The iconic songwriter has transcended time and place for 60 years. What should that mean for the rest of us?

by T. M. Shine via Washington Post Magazine on April 18, 2022

Glowing icon of an app among cobwebs. Designed by Alex Castro.

Inside The Fight to Save Video Game History

Video game history is lost faster than we can preserve it.

by Ash Parrish via The Verge on March 21, 2022

A cemetery with a dusting of snow.

Safer Than Childbirth

Abortion in the 19th century was widely accepted as a means of avoiding the risks of pregnancy.

by Tamara Dean via The American Scholar on March 4, 2022

Marie Bankhead Owen sitting for portrait picture with title "State of Denial" printed next to her

How a Confederate Daughter Rewrote Alabama History for White Supremacy

Marie Bankhead Owen led campaigns to purge anti-Confederate lessons from Southern classrooms, and all but erased Black history from the Alabama state archives.

by Kyle Whitmire via al.com on February 16, 2022

“Our first camp.” Vado de Piedra, Chihuahua, Mexico. January 26, 1921.

The Photo Album That Succeeded Where Pancho Villa Failed

The revolutionary may have tried to find my grandfather by raiding a New Mexico village—but a friend’s camera truly captured our family patriarch.

by Stacey Ravel Abarbanel via Zócalo Public Square on February 2, 2022

Finger pointing to a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of Sojourner Truth

State Archives Find Sojourner Truth’s Historic Court Case

A document thought lost to history shows how Sojourner Truth became the first Black woman to successfully sue white men to get her son released from slavery.

by Kenneth C. Crowe II via Times Union on February 1, 2022

Harold Washington on a button

Primary Sources are a Vibe

Historian Melanie Newport turns to eBay.

by Alexis Coe, Melanie Newport via Study Marry Kill on November 10, 2021

Collage: a pair of arms wraps around collections of newspapers reporting on AIDS and plays guitar strings.

An AIDS Activist's Archive

June Holmes was in her late twenties, working as a social worker on Long Island, when she first heard about “this thing called AIDS.”

by Scott Wasserman Stern via New York Review of Books on October 29, 2021

Label of 16″ transcription disc of the March 13, rehearsal of “Who Knows? Bill Cook Collection, Library of Congress.

Who Knows? Radio and the Paranormal

A radio drama series from 1941 based on Dr. Hereward Carrington's case records of psychic phenomena.

by Matthew Barton via Now See Hear! on October 27, 2021

Color block image of two people sharing a book.

Queer History Should Focus on Queer People

Sexless, impersonal academic approaches tell us little about the lived experiences of the LGBT community.

by Jim Downs via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 22, 2021

A selection of newspaper covers from the Reveal Digital American Prison Newspapers collection

Introducing American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

This overlooked corner of the press provided news by and for people incarcerated. A newly available archive shows it worked hard to reach outside audiences too.

by Kate McQueen via JSTOR Daily on September 22, 2021

Artwork by Alanna Fields of an enslaved individual.

The Dark Underside of Representations of Slavery

Will the Black body ever have the opportunity to rest in peace?

by Latria Graham via The Atlantic on September 16, 2021

Hungerford Deed

New Analysis Reveals More Details About Smithsonian Founder's Illegitimate Family Tree

The newly recovered 1787 Hungerford Deed, detailing a contentious squabble over property and prestige, can now be viewed in a new virtual exhibition.

by Alice George via Smithsonian on August 10, 2021

shovels stuck in black scribbles representing dirt

Eating Dirt, Searching Archives

There are many black afterlives that are yet to be unearthed.

by Endia Hayes via Southern Cultures on July 16, 2021

Astronaut John Glenn surrounded by piles of mail

Sexism in the Early Space Program Thwarted the Ambitions of Women

John Glenn's fan mail shows many girls dreamed of the stars.

by Roshanna P. Sylvester via The Conversation on July 13, 2021

Destruction from the Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921.

Reflections on the Artifacts Left Behind From the Tulsa Race Massacre

Objects and documents, says the Smithsonian historian Paul Gardullo, offer a profound opportunity for reckoning with a past that still lingers.

by Paul Gardullo via Smithsonian on May 24, 2021

Illustration of Henry Brown in a box

Rare Ephemera Shows Legacy of Henry "Box" Brown

In his day, Brown was a celebrated stage magician who incorporated performance into his lectures on abolitionism in the United States and England.

by Eric Colleary via Ransom Center Magazine on May 6, 2021

African American men in suits, sitting outside of a drugstore

The Game Is Changing for Historians of Black America

For centuries, stories of Black communities have been limited by racism in the historical record. Now we can finally follow the trails they left behind.

by William Sturkey via The Atlantic on May 4, 2021

Illustration from the 1919 catalogue of the Library Bureau depicting women working at desks and filing cabinets.

The Filing Cabinet

The filing cabinet was critical to the information infrastructure of 20th-century nation states and financial systems.

by Craig Robertson via Places Journal on May 1, 2021

Embarkation of the Pilgrims.

Puritanism as a State of Mind

Whatever the “City on a Hill” is, the phrase was not discovered by Kennedy or Reagan.

by Glen A. Moots via Law & Liberty on April 30, 2021

Police aiming guns at unarmed black people

Police and the License to Kill

Detroit police killed hundreds of unarmed Blacks during the civil rights movement. Their ability to get away with it shows why most proposals for police reform are bound to fail.

by Matthew D. Lassiter via Boston Review on April 28, 2021

A graphic featuring art and archival storage.

NFTs and AI Are Unsettling the Very Concept of History

Non-fungible tokens and artificial intelligence make tracing the origins of a digital object more fragile. What are the world’s archivists to do?

by Rick Prelinger via Wired on April 20, 2021

Photo of the 1870 U.S. Census, with lines highlighted in orange, yellow, and green

The Strange Case of Booker T. Washington's Birthday

If Booker T. Washington never knew when he was born, how are we so sure about it now?

by Bill Black via Contingent on April 5, 2021

The Mystery of ‘Harriet Cole’

Whose body was harvested to create a spectacular anatomical specimen, and did that person know they would be on display more than a century later?

by Jessica Leigh Hester via Atlas Obscura on March 18, 2021

An old hospital room

“I Assumed It Was Urgent”: Helen Hurd’s Story

The story of medical sterilization, which in many cases was disguised as a routine appendectomy surgery.

by Caryn Radick via Nursing Clio on March 16, 2021

Roundabout at the George Floyd memorial, at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.

George Floyd and a Community of Care

At E. 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, a self-organizing network explores what it means to construct and maintain a public memorial.

by G. E. Patterson via Places Journal on March 1, 2021

Why Martha Washington's Life Is So Elusive to Historians

A gown worn by the first First Lady reveals a dimension of her nature that few have been aware of.

by Alexis Coe via Smithsonian on February 17, 2021

Photograph of a newsstand selling magazines

What Are Magazines Good For?

The story of America can be told through the story of its periodicals.

by Nathan Heller via The New Yorker on February 16, 2021

Photograph of a former slave interviewed by the Federal Writers' Projects

Stories of Slavery, From Those Who Survived It

The Federal Writers’ Project narratives provide an all-too-rare link to our past.

by Clint Smith via The Atlantic on February 9, 2021

Colorized photograph of formerly enslaved family outside of their cabin

The Color of Freedom

This collection of colorized portraits transforms ex-slave narratives into freedom narratives in order to better remember the individuals who survived slavery.

by Lee Hedgepeth via Scalawag on February 5, 2021

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