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Carter G. Woodson’s unpublished work was discovered in 2005 by a Howard University history professor.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.

In Found Audio, a Forgotten Civil Rights Leader Says Coming Out Was an Absolute Necessity

Though Bayard Rustin, close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr., was gay, his legacy is not well known in the queer community.
Map of U.S. in pastels, with Benjamin Harrison and the words "Protection to American Labor" at the center.

These 'Persuasive Maps' Aren't Concerned With the Facts

A digital collection shows how subjective maps can be used to manipulate, rather than present the world as it really is.
A drawing of a beaver collecting branches.

A History of Flavoring Food With Beaver Butt Juice

No, castoreum is not a cheap substitute for strawberries; it’s luxe, artisanal secretions from a beaver's rear end.
Aerial view of ships in Pearl Harbor.

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor

What the immediate aftermath of the bombing looked like from the cockpit of a Japanese plane.
Political cartoon of the liberation of a slave by going to a free state.

The Mystery of William Jones, an Enslaved Man Owned by Ulysses S. Grant

Looking for traces of the last person ever owned by a U.S. president.
Malcolm X.

The Missing Malcolm X

Our understanding of Malcolm X is inextricably linked to his autobiography, but newly discovered materials force us to reexamine his legacy.
Map of the United States from 1828.

In Its First Decades, The United States Nurtured Schoolgirl Mapmakers

Education for women and emerging nationhood, illustrated with care and charm.
Howard University librarian Dorothy Porter with a student in the 1950s.

Cataloging Black Knowledge

How Dorothy Porter assembled and organized a premier Africana research collection.
Bearded civil war soldier.

Who’s Behind That Beard?

Historians are using facial recognition software to identify people in Civil War photographs.
Illustration of a man who operates the Euphonia in its female form

Mr. and Mrs. Talking Machine

The euphonia, the phonograph, and the gendering of nineteenth century mechanical speech.
Two nurses standing beside a soldiers bed during World War 1.

The Surprising Origins of Kotex Pads

Before the first disposable sanitary napkin hit the mass market, periods were thought of in a much different way.
The inside of the CIA museum.

Notes from the Attic

Displaying the material history of the CIA.
Hand-carved headstone.

The Hidden History of African-American Burial Sites in the Antebellum South

Enslaved people used codes to mark graves on plantation grounds.

Ancestry.com Is In Cahoots With Public Records Agencies, A Group Suspects

A nonprofit claims its request for genealogical records from state archives was brushed aside in favor of Ancestry’s request.

The Internet’s Keepers?

Wayback Machine Director Mark Graham outlines the scale of everyone's favorite archive.
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Mum’s the Word

In the height of the Cold War, the NSA created a series of posters to keep its secrets from leaking. They're both wonderful and creepy.
Black dolls.

What the Black Dolls Say

These rare survivors of early African-American art can illuminate much about our difficult history.

How Maps Reveal, and Conceal, History

What one scholar learned from writing an American history consisting of 100 maps.
45 rpm records of Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" and "Crazy."

I Fall to Pieces

The author of "Homeplace" shares a note from Patsy Cline.

Rediscovering a Founding Mother

Just-discovered letters herald the significance of an unsung Revolutionary woman, Julia Rush.

A Conservative Activist’s Quest to Preserve all Network News Broadcasts

Convinced of rampant bias on the evening news, Paul Simpson founded the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.