Lesbian relationships among government workers were seen as a threat to national security in the 1950s. But what constituted a lesbian relationship was an open question.

What role could a mythical animal play in our lives—centuries after its existence came into question?

Convicted and imprisoned for libeling the Prince Regent, Hunt capitalized on his incarceration by turning his prison cell into a newsroom and grand salon.

Reducing the gap between quantitative evaluation scores for male and female instructors may be as simple as changing a single number.

Freedmen’s Bureau courts provided a forum for newly emancipated people in the “uncertain legal landscape” of the defeated Confederacy.

Ancient DNA reveals how the Chesapeake Bay population changed over centuries.

As vital to the success of industrial New England as the mill girls who toiled in the factories were the women who oversaw their lodging.

In the twenty-first century, dictators are less likely than their predecessors to use violence to suppress dissent, cultivating instead “informational autocracies.”

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

Conrad’s celebration of imperial exploration is accompanied by an acknowledgment that such feats often go hand-in-hand with oppression and exploitation.