Women in Jamestown and Early Virginia

A conversation with the curator of an exhibit about the oft-overlooked lives of women in early colonial Virginia.

New Online: The AP Washington Bureau, 1915-1930

Wire service reporting from the capital provided much of the nation with coverage of federal government and politics.
Men detained during anti-government demonstrations in Buenos Aires in 1982.

Secret Archives Show US Helped Argentine Military Wage ‘Dirty War’ That Killed 30,000

The archives narrate the human rights abuses committed by Argentina’s military government, often with the assistance of the US.
Postcard sent to a South Carolina clergyman who counseled women on pregnancies.

“Our Moral Obligation:” The Pastors That Counseled in Pre-Roe South Carolina

Before the Roe decision, at least 68 South Carolina clergymen actively counseled women on where they should receive abortions.
Upset students surround a victim of the Kent State shooting.

49 Years After Kent State Massacre, New Photos Revealed

Getty Images has released new photos of the Kent State shootings, 49 years after they happened.
Internet Archive servers.

Data Overload

How will the historians of the future manage the massive archival data our society has begun to compile on the internet?

‘Anyone Ever Seen Cocaine?’ What We Found in the Archives of Bernie Sanders’s TV Show.

What a forgotten trove of videotapes reveals about the man who rewrote America’s political script.
"Trip to the Moon" map, depicting a collage of the Moon, spacecraft, astronauts, and other space-related imagery.

During the Space Race, Gas Stations Gave Away Free Maps to the Moon

Standard Oil was not about to be left earthbound.

How John Hersey Revealed the Horrors of the Atomic Bomb to the US

Remembering "Hiroshima," the story that changed everything.
White Citizens' Council logo

Hate in the Air

Newly released recordings of 'Citizens’ Council Radio Forum' show white supremacy’s evolution through the civil rights era.
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The World According to the 1580s

A newly digitized map offers a rare glimpse at the way Europeans conceived of the Americas before British colonization.

A Map of the Internet from May 1973

The modern internet has come a long way.
A drawing of Civil War soldiers toasting each other around a table as death, in the form of a skeleton, waits outside the tent (c. 1863).

Understanding Trauma in the Civil War South

Suicide during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Spying on Tesla

Looking at a scientist’s FBI file.

The Challenge of Preserving the Historical Record of #MeToo

Archivists face a battery of technical and ethical questions with few precedents.
Malcolm X

The Explosive Chapter Left Out of Malcolm X’s Autobiography

Its title, 'The Negro', seemed innocuous enough. But Malcolm X intended it to invoke a much harsher meaning.
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How America Thought About Refugees 70 Years Ago

And other gleanings from the 1949 run of the Saturday Evening Post.
Fugitive slave ad taken out by Thomas Jefferson.

Freedom on the Move

A database of fugitives from American Slavery.

A Lost and Found Portrait Photographer

What remains of Hugh Magnum's work documents how much was shared in common by people who racist laws treated as separate.
Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface with flag during Apollo 11.

50 Years Ago in Photos: A Look Back at 1969

Looking back at the year of the moon landing, Woodstock, and more.
Painting depicting Cherokee people riding, walking, and driving wagons on the Trail of Tears.

“Work of Barbarity”: An Eyewitness Account of the Trail of Tears

A missionary's account of the atrocities perpetrated against Cherokees shows that the Trail of Tears is no laughing matter.
Unnamed Black girl.

An Unnamed Girl, a Speculative History

What a photograph reveals about the lives of young black women at the turn of the century.
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Why It’s Shocking to Look Back at Med School Yearbooks from Decades Ago

They offer jaw-dropping examples of the sexism and racism that shaped professional cultures.

“My Dear Master”: An Enslaved Blacksmith’s Letters to a President

This document is the rarest of items in the Library of Congress's manuscript collections: a letter written by an enslaved person.

How the Founder of Black History Month Rebutted White Racism in a Forgotten Manuscript

Carter G. Woodson’s unpublished work was discovered in 2005 by a Howard University history professor.
American Progress painting by John Gast.

Getting Out of the White Settlers’ Way

Re-telling the arrival of settlers on the prairie.

The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson's Archives

On a presidential paper trail.

An Itinerant Photographer's Diverse Portraits of the Turn-of-the-Century American South

A new exhibit features photos by Hugh Mangum, whose glass plate negatives were salvaged from a North Carolina barn.
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The Drunkard’s Progress

Two hundred years ago, it was hard for Americans to miss the message that they had a serious drinking problem.

Traveling While Negro

In the days of Jim Crow segregation, the "Green Book" that listed locations friendly to black travelers was essential to many.