Mexican Murals Reveal Art's Power
University of ChicagoNew research by UChicago art historian Claudia Brittenham examines the mysterious and magnificent murals at the ancient site of Cacaxtla in present-day Mexico.
New research by UChicago art historian Claudia Brittenham examines the mysterious and magnificent murals at the ancient site of Cacaxtla in present-day Mexico.
Six official clay seals found by a Mississippi State University archaeological team at a small site in Israel offer evidence that supports the existence of biblical kings David and Solomon.
The Ku Klux Klan’s failure to defeat the black civil rights moment is well documented, but the group’s lesser-known legacy may be its lasting impact on the U.S. political system, according to a new study.
Vikings are known for raiding and trading, but those who settled in Iceland centuries ago spent more time producing and feasting on booze and beef — in part to gain political clout in a place very different from their homeland, says a Baylor archaeologist.
The first presidential portraits created from 3-D scan data are now on display in the Smithsonian Castle. The portraits of President Barack Obama were created based on data collected by a Smithsonian-led team of 3-D digital imaging specialists and include a digital and 3-D printed bust and life mask. A new video released today by the White House details the behind-the-scenes process of scanning, creating and printing the historic portraits.
American presidents spend their time in office trying to carve out a prominent place in the nation's collective memory, but most are destined to be forgotten within 50-to-100 years of their serving as president, suggests a study on presidential name recall released today by the journal Science.
With the arrival in the United States earlier this week of several manuscripts from the Sacred Convent of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, a Creighton University theology professor and specialist in St. Francis, has her own tale to tell about encountering these 700-year-old documents.
For 13 centuries, the Virupaksha Temple in Pattadakal has been one of the most recognizable landmarks in Indian art—a towering layer cake of elaborate, hand-carved friezes populated by a bevy of Hindu deities and symbols. Now Cathleen Cummings, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UAB Department of Art and Art History who specializes in Asian art history, has shown that these figures are more than just architectural decoration.
In The Ragged Road to Abolition, historian James J. Gigantino II demonstrates how deeply slavery influenced the political, economic and social life of blacks and whites in New Jersey.
Villanova History Professor Shares Thoughts Regarding the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
During arguably one of the more difficult times in American history — the Great Depression — artists were commissioned to help inspire the nation. "Ink, Paper, Politics: WPA-era Printmaking from the Needles Collection," on display at the DePaul University Art Museum in Chicago, provides a window into the 1930s — a time of economic hardship and struggle.
Forensics expert Greg McDonald discusses the disorders that gave rise to the myths of Dracula and the Wolfman.
Sabertooth cats (e.g., Smilodon fatalis) have long inspired the imagination of paleontologists and the public alike. With their powerful forelimbs and enormous upper canines, these now-extinct cats were formidable predators that thrived for millions of years. But how did they kill their prey?
William Aylward, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of classics, recently completed a synthesis of the epic archaeological rescue excavation of Zeugma before its inundation beneath the waters of a reservoir. “Excavations at Zeugma,” the three-volume work edited by Aylward, gathers the descriptions and interpretations of nearly 30 scholars involved in either the rescue work or the decade-long analysis of the objects and buildings unearthed at the city.
Air strikes never fully succeed in winning a war, says military historian John C. McManus, a professor of history and political science at Missouri University of Science and Technology. He says American troops on the ground have proven throughout recent history to be the crucial difference between victory and defeat.
The Smithsonian invites the public to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 to Oct. 15) through a series of vibrant performances, lectures, family activities and exhibitions at various museums around the Institution. All programs are free unless otherwise indicated.
On Aug. 26, 1920, with the formal adoption of the 19th Amendment, women won the right to vote. Now, a newly discovered collection of Susan B. Anthony letters will help show how.
A copper awl, the oldest metal object found to date in the Middle East, was discovered during the excavations at Tel Tsaf.
The common use of anesthetic agents came of age during the American Civil War, as battlefield medicine translated to civilian use.
The records of the Chicago Board of Trade and the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange are available for research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
For close to 180 years, Charles Darwin’s library aboard HMS Beagle during his expedition around the world in the 1830s remained lost. The library was dispersed at the end of the voyage. Today, the library has been electronically re-constructed in its entirety and made freely available online.
Food and the Fourth of July have long been an American tradition, according to Jane Marshall, a culinary historian and food writing instructor at Kansas State University.
As we approach Independence Day, Thomas Slaughter, the Arthur R. Miller Professor of History at the University of Rochester, shares three little known facts about the American Revolution for you to bring to your 4th of July picnic.
On the Fourth of July 75 years ago, legendary first baseman Lou Gehrig – afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS – stepped to the microphone at Yankee Stadium and said goodbye to baseball. Read our Q & A with a Rutgers ALS expert that describes both the progress and frustration in treating this fatal nerve disorder.
935 LIES: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity, a new book by professor and journalist at AU’s School of Communication Charles Lewis, examines the consequences of decades of deception from the government and corporation.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passenger pigeon’s extinction, when the last individual, named Martha, died Sept. 1, 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo. Martha is now at the Smithsonian. In this photo, Martha and a fellow male passenger pigeon are getting a touch up by exhibits specialist Megan Dettoria before becoming the centerpiece of the new exhibit “Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America.” The exhibit opens June 24 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
June 28 marks the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, triggering the start of World War I. Five historians with expertise in WWI-related areas are available to share their perspectives.
A widespread pattern of human-caused environmental degradation and related flood-mitigation efforts began changing the natural flow of China’s Yellow River nearly 3,000 years ago, setting the stage for massive floods that toppled the Western Han Dynasty, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.
The next installation of the National Portrait Gallery’s “One Life” series considers the lives of generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee as they were intertwined during the Civil War. Open July 4 through May 31, 2015, “One Life: Grant and Lee” explores the rivalry between the two generals as one of the most memorable in American military history.
In March, Rutgers Today reported on “445 Portraits of a Man,” a haunting collection of 445 photobooth images a single individual took of himself from the 1930s through the 1960s on exhibition at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Those who viewed the images learned a lot about how this man aged. What they didn’t know is who he was and why he took and kept so many photos of himself.
Stony Brook University congratulates Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the 40th anniversary of the publication of “All the President’s Men," a recollection chronicled in today's interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, entitled "Woodward And Bernstein Recall Their Watergate Scoops, And Mistakes." Inskeep's interview with iconic authors Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein -- who is now a Visiting Presidential Professor at Stony Brook University in New York -- recalled "connecting what was originally dubbed a ‘third-rate burglary’ at the Watergate complex to the president of the United States."
After exploring the environmental impact of the American obsession with green lawns in his last book, Case Western Reserve University historian Ted Steinberg now has turns his attention to the environmental footprint of one of the world’s most iconic cities: New York. A native New Yorker, Steinberg titled his new book Gotham Unbound: The Ecological History of Greater New York. Simon & Schuster released the book June 3. Steinberg, , the Davee Professor of History and Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve, adopted ground-up approach to Greater New York’s transformation over the past 400 years, an ecological transformation so vast he characterizes it as “one of the most creative acts of vandalism ever perpetrated on a natural landscape.” Gotham Unbound follows the massive changes to land and water that began in the wake of Henry Hudson’s adventure to New York Harbor in 1609. The book examines the ecological consequences for wetlands and water quality of dense, urban
The cofounder and lead singer of the new wave punk band Blondie, Deborah Harry carved a path for female rockers with her good-meets-bad fusion of haughty detachment and streetwise style. This 1978 photo is part of the “American Cool” exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery through Sept. 7, 2014.