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Harry Smith pointing finger upward

Outsider’s Outsider

At once famous and obscure, marginal and central, Harry Smith anticipated and even invented several important elements of Sixties counterculture.
by J. Hoberman via New York Review of Books on February 28, 2024
A stylized drawing of Bill Erquitt.

The Death of a Relic Hunter

Bill Erquitt was an unforgettable character among Georgia’s many Civil War enthusiasts. After he died, his secrets came to light.
by Charles Bethea via The New Yorker on November 26, 2023
Two American soldiers and farmer Olof Öhman posing with a supposed Viking runestone.

Why Americans Simply Love to Forge Viking Artifacts

No, roving bands of medieval Scandinavians did not visit West Virginia. (So far as we know.)
by Martyn Whittock via Slate on November 11, 2023
Collage of plantation logbooks superimposed over photos of enslaved people.

A Racist Scientist Commissioned Photos of Enslaved People. One Descendant Wants to Reclaim Them.

There's no clear system in place to repatriate remains of captive Africans or objects associated with them.
by Jennifer Berry Hawes via ProPublica on October 9, 2023
Texas Mission bell.

A Bell's Journey Through Texas History

For those in later years, the bell’s value lay not in its powerful sound, but in its visual representation.
by Kristin Dutcher Mann via Commonplace on October 3, 2023
A portion of the author’s music collection; bootleg cassette tapes and CDs. Photo by Maya Walker.

The Pirate Preservationists

When keeping cultural archives safe means stepping outside the law.
by Jesse Walker via Reason on September 10, 2023
Common black rat in nest.

In Colonial Williamsburg, Thieving Rats Save History

Historians owe a debt of gratitude to these furry pilferers.
by Amy Crawford via Atlas Obscura on August 10, 2023
Illustration by Kat Brooks of Stephanie Gilbert and her great grandfather Oliver Cromwell Gilbert and his home.

She Cherished the Home Where Her Family Fled Slavery. Then a Stranger Bought It.

Would the new owner of Richland Farm let a Black woman continue to visit to pay tribute to her enslaved ancestors?
by Sydney Trent via Washington Post on August 5, 2023
Archaeologists digging at the Jones-Miller site.

Why Store 41,000 Bison Bones?

An archaeologist explains why a museum keeps so many bones from the Jones-Miller site, an ice age bison kill on the North American plains.
by Bridget Alex via Sapiens on July 18, 2023
Visitors sit before the Benin plaques exhibit (known as the Benin Bronzes) at the British Museum in London.

Museum Reparations

Should museums only exhibit work of their own culture, or should they bring the world to visitors?
by Katrina Gulliver via Law & Liberty on June 7, 2023
California assemblyman and member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe James Ramos, Governor Gavin Newsom, and tribal leaders.

Reclaiming Native Identity in California

The genocide of Native Americans was nowhere more methodically savage than in California. A new state initiative seeks to reckon with this history.
by Ed Vulliamy via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023
A painting of a Victorian-style room with an ornate bookshelf and books sitting on a table.

A Degenerate Assemblage

How Charles Lamb and his collection of well-loved books inspired a generation of American collectors.
by Anthony Grafton via London Review of Books on April 13, 2023
A Metropolitan Museum official hands over a 13th-century wooden strut to Nepal’s archaeology department last year. Photograph: Aryan Dhimal/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock.

New York’s Met Museum Sees Reputation Erode Over Collection Practices

An investigation identified hundreds of artifacts linked to indicted or convicted traffickers. What does this mean for the future of museums?
by Spencer Woodman, Maria Politzer, Delphine Reuter, Namrata Sharma via The Guardian on March 20, 2023
Scientists carrying a log by using straps around their heads.

1,000 Years Ago, Ancient Puebloans Built a Mysteriously Vast City. We May Finally Know How.

High up on the Colorado Plateau, in what is today the state of New Mexico, sit the remains of what was once a city of epic proportions.
by Carly Cassella via ScienceAlert on February 27, 2023
The door and interior tunnel of the Nantucket fallout shelter.

Inside JFK's Secret Doomsday Bunker

The president's Nantucket nuclear fallout shelter could become a National Historic Landmark—but efforts to preserve its history have stalled.
by Jenn Morson via Smithsonian on February 6, 2023
Men standing around an archaeological site.

America’s Biggest Museums Fail to Return Native American Human Remains

The remains of more than 100,000 Native Americans are held by prestigious U.S. institutions, despite a 1990 law meant to return them to tribal nations.
by Logan Jaffe, Mary Hudetz, Ash Ngu, Graham Lee Brewer via ProPublica on January 11, 2023
Footprints dated to 23,000-21,000 years ago at the White Sands National Park, New Mexico.

The First Americans – A Story of Wonderful, Uncertain Science

Archaeology and genetics can’t yet agree on when humans first arrived in the Americas. That’s good science, and here’s why.
by Jennifer Raff via Aeon on December 22, 2022
Ancient language symbols or hieroglyphics

Collecting for Salvation: American Antiquarianism and the Natural History of the East

The outlines of “salvation antiquarianism”—with the emphasis on “saving”—appears particularly clearly in the AAS’s inaugural 1813 address.
by Christen Mucher via Commonplace on October 26, 2022
Divers examine an iron anchor underwater.

What a Spanish Shipwreck Reveals About the Final Years of the Slave Trade

Forty-one of the 561 enslaved Africans on board the "Guerrero" died when the illegal slave ship sank off the Florida Keys in 1827.
by Simcha Jacobovici, Sean Kingsley via Smithsonian on October 17, 2022
Illustration of an archaeologist digging through artifacts.

The Bodies in the Cave

Native people have lived in the Big Bend region of west Texas for thousands of years. Who should claim their remains?
by Rachel Monroe via The New Yorker on October 3, 2022
Harriet Powers patchwork pictorial quilt.

How the Survivors of Slavery Used Material Objects to Preserve Intergenerational Wisdom

On the importance of material ownership in the context of Black history.
by Tiya Miles via Literary Hub on September 26, 2022
Visitors at the National Museum of Natural History in D.C. take in the exhibits.

Human Bones, Stolen Art: Smithsonian Tackles its ‘Problem’ Collections

The Smithsonian’s first update to its collection policy in 20 years proposes ethical returns and shared ownership. But will it bring transformational change?
by Peggy McGlone via Washington Post on July 27, 2022
Photo of Joseph Smith

Mormon Founder Joseph Smith's Photo Discovered by Descendant After Nearly 180 Years

A great-great-grandson of Joseph Smith Jr. found the Mormon prophet’s photo tucked inside a locket passed down for generations.
by Jana Riess via Religion News Service on July 21, 2022
illustration of Civil War soldier carrying sack of gold

A Lost Trove of Civil War Gold, an FBI Excavation, and Some Very Angry Treasure Hunters

“I’m going to find out what the hell the FBI did and I’m going to expose it to the world.”
by Chris Heath via The Atlantic on June 17, 2022
Painting of Patent Office in 1855

A Sea of “Savage Islands”: How Antebellum Americans at Home Imagined the Pacific World

When most U.S. nationals in the early republic thought of the Pacific Ocean, they conjured lands instead.
by Michael A. Verney via The Panorama on June 13, 2022
Illustration of a giant tree in a swamp

The Hidden and Eternal Spirit of the Great Dismal Swamp

For nearly all of its modern existence, the Great Dismal Swamp has been excluded from U.S. history. Now there’s a push to bring its significance to light.
by Lex Pryor via The Ringer on March 30, 2022
Diver holding stone

The Search for Lost Slave Ships Led This Diver On An Extraordinary Journey

Explorer Tara Roberts took up diving to learn about the human side of a tragic era. She wound up connecting with her family’s inspiring past.
by Tara Roberts via National Geographic on February 2, 2022
“Our first camp.” Vado de Piedra, Chihuahua, Mexico. January 26, 1921.

The Photo Album That Succeeded Where Pancho Villa Failed

The revolutionary may have tried to find my grandfather by raiding a New Mexico village—but a friend’s camera truly captured our family patriarch.
by Stacey Ravel Abarbanel via Zócalo Public Square on February 2, 2022
Image of an older, decorative ash tray.

Mementos Mori

What else is lost when an object disappears?
by Sophie Haigney via The Baffler on January 27, 2022
1862 newspaper photo, "The Rebel Lady’s Boudoir,” shows a woman and child using human bones as decor.

Sullivan Ballou’s Body: Battlefield Relic Hunting and the Fate of Soldiers’ Remains

Confederates’ quest for bones connects to a bizarre history of the use, and misuse, of human remains.
by James J. Broomall via Commonplace on November 30, 2021
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