People visit the Trylon and Perisphere at the 1939 New York World's Fair

Color Photos of the 1939 New York World's Fair

Photographer Peter Campbell captured many scenes from the 1939 New York World's Fair in full color, both during the day and at night.

Civil War Soldiers’ Wet Dreams

Looking for traces of sexual fantasy in soldiers' letters home.

The Short, Sad Story of Stanwix Melville

Piecing back together the forgotten history of Herman Melville's second son.
Map showing the U.S. broken up into four countries, including an expansive Confederate States of America.

A Map of the Disunited States, "as Traitors and Tyrants Would Have It"

The U.S. divided into Pacific, Atlantic, Interior and Confederate States.
comet

A Civil War Soldier Reflects on the Comet of 1861

Private Charles F. Johnson of the 9th New York Volunteer Infantry ponders an unusual celestial phenomenon.

Trump Plans to Release JFK Assassination Documents Despite Concerns From Federal Agencies

What's still under wraps, and what it might tell us about Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mississippian funerary heads in the collection of Monticello.

“Kicked About”: Native Culture at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Kristine K. Ronan describes her discovery of two Native American statues at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.
Album with Che Guevara's hair, fingerprints, and photos of his body.

The Death of Che Guevara Declassified

A CIA memo shows that US officials considered his execution a crucial victory—but they were mistaken in believing Che’s ideas could be buried along with his body.

A Night at the Garden

Newly discovered footage of the time 20,000 American Nazis descended upon midtown Manhattan.
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A Refugee in Puerto Rico, 1942

Claude Lévi-Strauss and the burden of our personal archives.
Drawing of a Caribbean sugar plantation.

Stolen Relations: Recovering Stories of Indigenous Enslavement in the Americas

A tribal collaborative project that seeks to understand settler colonialism and its legacies through the lens of Indigenous enslavement and unfreedom.

What Planned Parenthood Looked Like in The 1940s

Following WWII, the birth control organization published illustrated pamphlets with authoritative guidance on family planning.

'I Want to Kick Ass' in 1862?

Evidence that the idiom could be 100 years older than was previously thought.

World War I: Immigrants Make a Difference on the Front Lines and at Home

Immigrants eagerly joined the war cause both by joining the military and working in important industry at home.
Stereograph titled 'The Toucans' depicting three toucans and a snake amid plants and rocks

Stereographs Were the Original Virtual Reality

The shocking power of immersing oneself in another world was all the buzz once before—about 150 years ago.

Keeper of the Secrets

Is there a special value in archives that are not digitized?
The New Bedford whaleship Plantina docked.

The American Whaling Industry

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

The Forced Absence of Slavery: Rare Letters to a Virginia Governor

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe is taking steps to commemorate enslaved people who worked for his predecessor nearly 200 years ago.

What Time Capsules, Meant for Future Americans, Say About How We See Ourselves Today

We used to fill our time capsules with fancy stuff. Now we put in junk.
Sketch of a horse and a bird.
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Excremental Empire

John Gregory Bourke’s "Scatalogic Rites of All Nations" and the American West.
Mountains on the cover of the Master Plan for Mount Rainier National Park.

The Early Master Plans for National Parks Are Almost as Beautiful as the Parks Themselves

In the 1930s, park planning was pretty.
Formal portrait photo of an African American wet nurse with a white child on her lap.

Historians Detail Charleston's Role in the Antebellum Market for Wet Nurses

Enslaved wet nurses were a valued purchase in the antebellum South.

Explore the Early Years of Technicolor Film in 40,000 Documents

The Technicolor Online Research Archive has newly digitized documents from 1914 to 1955, chronicling the development of Technicolor film.

Fannie Quigley, the Alaska Gold Rush's All-in-One Miner, Hunter, Brewer, and Cook

She used mine shafts as a beer fridge and shot bears to get lard for pie crusts.
Petroglyphs at Chaco Canyon.

This New Mexico Petroglyph Might Reveal an Ancient Solar Eclipse

In 1097, a Pueblo artist may have etched a rare celestial event into the rock for all of posterity
Walt Whitman's death mask with his eyes closed.

Out From Behind This Mask

A Barthesian bristle and the curious power of Walt Whitman’s posthumous eyelids.
Advertisement for Art War Relief during the First World War

Edith Magonigle and the Art War Relief

Called Art War Relief, members from a group of art societies formed a coalition under the auspices of the American Red Cross.
Abraham Lincoln and John C. Calhoun

The Great Lengths Taken to Make Abraham Lincoln Look Good in Portraits

One famous image of the president features a body that isn't his.

John Quincy Adams Kept a Diary and Didn’t Skimp on the Details

On the occasion of his 250th birthday, the making of our sixth president in his own words.
Cover of pamphlet entitled "Defense is First at Firestone"

Patriotism and Production in World War II Corporate Publications

A Lippincott Library collection shows how, during World War II, companies highlighted their war contributions via annual reports.