If our conception of hell was absent from Christianity at the time the religion was born, whence exactly does it hail?

American music teacher Frances E. Clark helped the Victor Corporation bring recorded music into classrooms, overcoming educators’ distrust of the technology.

Well-researched stories from Smithsonian Magazine, The Conversation, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Beijing’s hutongs are disappearing quickly. Is there a way create safe housing, preserve historic buildings, and meet the city's financial needs?

Nancy Clem was a Gilded Age con artist whose swindles eventually turned deadly. Her crimes would test the era’s assumptions about class, gender, and criminality.

Maintaining healthy and good relationships with coworkers may help mitigate the risks of workplace burnout.

A fungus in the genus Cordyceps has us running scared. But some of its species are worth more than their weight in gold.

Canadian-born George Chaffey was instrumental in bringing irrigation and the consequent development of the “agriburb” to California…and Australia…and Israel.

United States President Lyndon B. Johnson’s televised announcement that he would not run for re-election shocked a nation divided by the Vietnam War.

Explore two centuries of printmaking—from Hokusai and Hiroshige through Hiratsuka—in this online collection shared by Boston College.