Feature Channels: History

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Gettysburg College prof. says African Americans had no friend in Lincoln ahead of Emancipation Proclamation anniversary.

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A team of University of South Carolina archaeologists dive, map and complete first survey of the prolonged Civil War naval battle that took place in Charleston Harbor in 1861 - 1865.

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This Smithsonian Snapshot celebrates the back-to-school season with an original pack of Crayola Crayons.

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The story of westward expansion in the United States is often told from the perspective of the men and women who crossed the Great Plains in search of a better life in the west. But a historian at Missouri University of Science and Technology is bringing to light the role settlers’ animals played in the westward migration of the mid-1800s.

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"The year was 1874, and the Hennepin Canal had achieved national significance and would be built as a federal waterway." Through this succinct declaration, the introduction section of Western Illinois University Geography Professor Emeritus Donald "Bill" Griffin's new book, "Voices of the Hennepin Canal: Promoters, Politicians, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," sets the stage for this historical account of how this waterway, located in Western Illinois and opened in 1908, was built and operated until 1951 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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Washington and Lee University historian Richard Bidlack used previously secret Soviet documents to paint a vivid picture of the 872-day siege of Leningrad by the Germans and Finns during World War II in his new book, “The Leningrad Blockade, 1941-1944.”

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The high-tech bicycles used in today's Tour de France have come a long way from the velocipede, the forerunner to the bicycle from the 1800s.

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Bucket lists are more than goals or accomplishments a person wants to achieve before dying. They are also a way for people to discuss death -- even though most of us probably would rather avoid doing so.

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When antiquities go MIA, sometimes the sleuthing of a network of scholars can lead to rediscovery . That's what happened recently at the American Geographical Society Library at the UW-Milwaukee.

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This Smithsonian Snapshot celebrates the July 4, 1776, U. S. independence from Great Britain. In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on this portable desk. It features a hinged writing board and a locking drawer for papers, pens and inkwell.

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In commemoration of the bicentennial of the start of the Revolutionary War, the United States went to great lengths to celebrate the war that led to the founding of an American nation. Events were planned across the country. Reenactments depicted battle scenes. Even anniversary coins were minted to celebrate 200 years since the Declaration of Independence. In 2012 however, none of those items are on the docket for the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Despite the similarities in foes, as the U.S. squared off against Great Britain for a second time, several circumstances have seemed to downgrade the War of 1812 into mediocrity in the minds of Americans today.

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This Smithsonian Snapshot highlights the 1881 Hapsburg Imperial Bridal Veil.

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This Smithsonian Snapshot marks the start of summer with this 1969 airline poster. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s collection of more than 1,300 posters focuses on advertising for aviation-related products and activities. In the mid 1900s, airline advertisements like this one from Continental Airlines promoted exotic travel destinations.

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The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian invites visitors to experience its newly opened imagiNATIONS Activity Center, which offers bilingual learning tools and hands-on activities highlighting the diversity, history, culture and contributions of tribes across the Western Hemisphere. Located on the third level and open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the imagiNATIONS Center is a sunny, 5,400-square-foot space lined with a wall of windows offering a stunning view of the Capitol and the National Mall. It features interactive games, storytelling programs and craft workshops throughout the year.

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This Smithsonian Snapshot marks the June 15, 1942, launch of Victory Mail or V-Mail, the overseas communication service used between military personnel, family and friends. During World War II, Army post offices, Fleet post offices and U.S. post offices were flooded with mail sent by service members and family. V-Mail was a solution to the volume of mail competing with essential wartime supplies for cargo space.

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The War of 1812, the first constitutionally declared war in the history of the United States and the first war to be fought in a modern democracy, was also a conflict fueled by family-oriented appeals, New York University historian Nicole Eustace writes in her new book, 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism, which examines the role of emotion in the making of war.

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The Statue of Liberty is arguably the most beloved and unifying of American symbols, but its history is a complicated one. In The Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story, NYU Professor Edward Berenson tells the little-known stories of the statue’s improbable beginnings, transatlantic connections, and meanings it has held for generations of Americans.

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Two geology professors have discovered tiny bits of shrapnel and other microscopic remnants of the D-Day invasion in samples of sand collected on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. The scientists were surprised that these tiny traces survived for decades despite the scouring action of sand and waves, and the rusting action of seawater.

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The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum has launched a new microsite, “RFD: Marketing to a Rural Audience,” telling the story of how an experimental mail service in the late 1800s created a new commercial market.

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This Smithsonian Snapshot celebrates the May 25, 1889, birthday of Igor Sikorsky, inventor of the world’s first mass-produced helicopter.

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“Operation Market Garden” may be one of World War II’s most ambitious battles, but it is also one of the least understood, particularly from an American perspective. In his latest book, Dr. John C. McManus tells America’s side of the story.

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This Smithsonian Snapshot marks the May 18, 1969, launch of the Apollo 10 mission with an astronaut's space meal from that mission.

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The Smithsonian is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts with displays, public programs, special discounts, blog posts and online programs across the Institution. A special website was designed to list all events and exhibitions related to the Girl Scouts anniversary: http://www.si.edu/Events/GirlScouts100.

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The War of 1812, the first constitutionally declared war in the history of the United States and the first war to be fought in a modern democracy, was also a conflict fueled by family-oriented appeals, New York University historian Nicole Eustace writes in her new book, 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism, which examines the role of emotion in the making of war.

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The oceans teemed with life 600 million years ago, but the simple, soft-bodied creatures would have been hardly recognizable as the ancestors of nearly all animals on Earth today.

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Eighty-five years after the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, a faculty member at Missouri University of Science and Technology answered one of maritime sleuths’ burning questions about the disaster: Was the steel used to build the ship at fault?

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As the 150th anniversary of the DC Emancipation Act approaches, scholars have transcribed and published online hundreds of documents showing who the District’s slaves were, how they lived and how slavery and emancipation changed their lives.

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In the 100 years that have followed the Titanic disaster, there have been countless disasters in war and in peacetime. But it is the Titanic we remember. It is both a morality tale and a lesson about the faith we often put into technology, when deep down we know that anything can go wrong in an instant.

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Process of urban soil being studied, Detroit offers natural laboratory setting.

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A Binghamton University historian is contributing to new ideas about the Civil War and its consequences. Diane Miller Sommerville’s latest project, “Aberration of Mind: Suicide, the South and Civil War,” shines new light on an under-examined topic.

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In the 18th and 19th centuries, something rather fascinating occurred. The part of the world we typically call “the West” suddenly showed tremendous growth in population, change in technology and production of wealth. Boise State University professor Rick Moore is available to discuss this phenomenon.

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Western Europe has long been held to be the “cradle” of Neandertal evolution since many of the earliest discoveries were from sites in this region. But when Neandertals started disappearing around 30,000 years ago, anthropologists figured that climactic factors or competition from modern humans were the likely causes. Intriguingly, new research suggests that Western European Neandertals were on the verge of extinction long before modern humans showed up. This new perspective comes from a study of ancient DNA carried out by an international research team. Rolf Quam, a Binghamton University anthropologist, was a co-author of the study led by Anders Götherström at Uppsala University and Love Dalén at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

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On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, marine forensics expert Richard Woytowich will present a paper re-interpreting the statements made by survivors at the 1912 official inquiries into the disaster.

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Did Shakespeare work as an attorney before achieving immortality at the Globe Theatre? Researchers speculated on that theory after using advanced imaging to compare a known Shakespeare signature with another one on a well-known legal treatise.

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In the first new book on Hoover in 25 years, Glen Jeansonne concludes the blame the president took for the Great Depression was undeserved. Hoover was the first president to pit government action against the economic cycle, setting precedents and spawning ideas employed by his successor and all future presidents.

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Peter Hirtle, an archivist and senior policy advisor in the Cornell University Library, highlights the exciting new business model behind the upcoming public release of the 1940 Census, which will provide one of the most intimate glimpses into American lives during the Great Depression.

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Presidents have consistently sought to bolster the country’s role overseas, stretching from Europe to Asia to South America during the post-WWII era. But, despite the appearance of consensus across presidential administrations, U.S. policy has been fiercely debated behind closed doors. In The Dissent Papers: The Voices of Diplomats in the Cold War and Beyond, Hannah Gurman explores the overlooked opposition of U.S. diplomats to American foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century, beginning with the Cold War and concluding with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

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Katherine Howe is a Cornell University lecturer in American Studies and author of “The House of Velvet and Glass,” an upcoming novel set during the aftermath of the Titanic sinking. She compares the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic to the Occupy movement, and discusses some of the ship's lasting effects on society and its laws.

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This year a series of events around the world will celebrate the work of Alan Turing, the father of the modern computer, as the 100th anniversary of his birthday approaches on June 23. Mathematician Robert Soare now proposes that Turing’s achievement was artistic as well as scientific.

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Diaries belonging to a Civil War soldier who witnessed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln have been digitized and published by UC Merced's Kolligian Library.

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A group of American University students fascinated by the scandal produced a website: Nixon Detached for “Watergate: A Constitutional Crisis,” a class offered at American University’s School of Public Affairs each fall, taught by adjunct professor Don Fulsom, a former White House correspondent and a Washington bureau chief for United Press International who covered the Watergate scandal.

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A new book by Washington and Lee University historian Molly Michelmore traces the development of taxing and spending policy over the course of the 20th century

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Since George Washington's death on Dec. 14, 1799, Americans have struggled to establish his place in the national consciousness, says Edward Lengel, editor of the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia.

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In Confronting America: The Cold War between the United States and the Communists in France and Italy, University of Arkansas historian Alessandro Brogi uses newly opened archives to examine the complex relationship between the U.S. and European allies during the Cold War.

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Sherman Hall at Western Illinois University (formerly the Western Illinois State Normal School) opened its doors for classes Sept. 23, 1902. At least since 1907, a janitor's closet on the third floor in this building has been the place for janitors to sign -- in ink, pencil or etching -- for the benefit of posterity.

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A Southeastern Louisiana University police investigator has released an hisotrical novel of love and war based at the historic Battle of New Orleans. "Battle Kiss" incorporates three points of view from American, British and Creole angles.

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Dr. Darrell Newton of Salisbury University’s Communication Arts Department examines the influence of West Indian immigrants and others on the British Broadcasting Corporation in his new book, Paving the Empire Road: BBC Television and Black Britons.

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It was “a date which will live in infamy.” Early on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes and submarines attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, sinking or severely damaging 30 ships and killing some 2,400 military personnel and civilians. Now, as Americans prepare to mark the 70th anniversary of that attack, a Florida State University historian and scholar is prepared to offer his expertise on a war that altered the course of history.

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Millions of people across the United States will sit down Nov. 24 to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, potatoes, squash, corn and cranberries. These foods have become synonymous with Thanksgiving, but how did they end up on tables from Maine to California? According to Bruce Smith, senior scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, much of what is eaten at Thanksgiving today came from Mexico and South America.