History

The human body has not changed significantly during recorded history—we share sensory faculties, metabolism, sexuality, aging, and mortality with even our distant ancestors. Concepts of body and self, on the other hand, evolve as cultural and historical...

In A Fool’s Errand (Smithsonian, 2019), Lonnie Bunch shares the vision and leadership he brought to the realization of the National Museum of African American History and Culture—a dream shared by many generations of Americans. Bunch’s deeply personal...

The destruction of iconic images and monuments—iconoclasm—carried out today by extremists representing a wide range of political and religious views, makes many recoil in horror. This response, however, is in part derived from the fact that our Western...

Diving with a Purpose is an organization dedicated to the documentation and protection of African slave trade shipwrecks and the maritime history and culture of African Americans. Jay Haigler, Albert José Jones, and Erik Denson share the organization’s...

Food is an indispensable part of culture and a symbol of profound socialand political realities. Using Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own as a jumping point, Barbara Haber and Lydia Shire will discuss the connections among culinary history, women...

The earliest European explorations in the Pacific region sparked speculation about the origins of Pacific Islanders. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, several archaeological studies were made in Polynesia, Micronesia, Island Melanesia...