A Lost Work by Langston Hughes Examines the Harsh Life on the Chain Gang

In 1933, the Harlem Renaissance star wrote a powerful essay about race. It has never been published in English—until now.

A Gay First Lady? Yes, We’ve Already Had One, and Here Are Her Love Letters.

Rose Cleveland declared her passion for the woman she had a relationship with spanning three decades in letter after letter.
Glowing white "No" against a red background.

“Perhaps We’re Being Dense.” Rejection Letters Sent to Famous Writers

Some kind, some weird, some unbelievably harsh.

The Light of Battle Was in Their Eyes

The correspondence of Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and George C. Marshall leading up to D-Day.
A man holding a boy in a sailor outfit stand outside looking at a news ticker on D-Day.

A WWII Combat Photographer's Long-Lost Images of D-Day in NYC

News of the invasion spread quickly that morning. Phil Stern captured a city still processing the news—but his photos were lost for decades.
Women voters cast ballots at 57th Street and Lexington Avenue, in 1917.

New York’s First-Time Women Voters

A 1918 dispatch from a Yiddish newspaper documents the experiences of women legally voting for the first time.
Emma Grimes Robinson

These Photo Albums Offer a Rare Glimpse of 19th-Century Boston’s Black Community

Thanks to the new acquisition, scholars at the Athenaeum library are connecting the dots of the city’s history of abolitionists.
Hop Louie Restaurant in Los Angeles, California.

The Old Menus of New Chinatown

Retracing the history of Chinatown in Los Angeles using old Chinese restaurant menus as a guide.
Police car.
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What the Loss of the New York Police Museum Means for Criminal-Justice Reform

Without historical records, we lose key insights into how law enforcement works — and how it fails.

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.