History

Workers remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va., in July. Initial plans to remove the statue four years ago sparked the infamous Unite the Right rally where 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed.

National

Charlottesville's statue of Robert E. Lee will soon be melted down into public art

1:52pm December 07, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

The Swords Into Plowshares project, led by the Jefferson School American Heritage Center, a local Black-led nonprofit, involves the statute at the heart of the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017.

National

Marking the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor

7:21am December 07, 2021

by Casey Harlow

A small group of the remaining survivors of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor return to Hawaii for remembrances after the pandemic canceled them last year.

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Art Montagne in Honolulu, 1940; his letter to his mom, December 1941; and the American destroyer USS Shaw exploding during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

National

My dad witnessed the horror of Pearl Harbor firsthand. But his letters never let on

5:00am December 07, 2021

by Renee Montagne

This is the story of a young sailor, his best friend, and the girl he fell in love with just days before the Pearl Harbor attack that changed everything.

A small lineage of artisans is reviving the ancient art of pigeon whistles in Beijing

4:52pm December 06, 2021

by Emily Feng

For centuries, owners tied lightweight whistles to their pet pigeons in China. The art of making pigeon whistles almost faded away in Beijing, but a small group of artisans is bringing it back.

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This 1775 revolutionary-era rifle was Thomas Gavin's undoing.

Thomas Gavin might be America's most prolific artifact thief — but the jig is up

1:23pm December 05, 2021

Thomas Gavin went on a tear in the '60s and '70s, hitting nearly a dozen museums on the East Coast. He mostly stole antique firearms and stashed them in his hideout — a barn in rural Pennsylvania.

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New technique uncovers the history of a painting through the paint used

5:18pm December 03, 2021

By analyzing white lead paint in Dutch paintings from the 1600s, including works by Rembrandt and Rubens, scientists were able to devise a new line of evidence for dating and authenticating paintings.

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National

'Colorization' explores the history of Black artists in Hollywood

4:51pm December 01, 2021

by Mallory Yu

A new book Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World unpacks the lens through which Black characters have been seen. Will Haygood, the author, explores this using three movies.

Researchers used treats to coax young black bears to walk on their hind legs through mud to get footprints to compare to the fossils.

Science

Ancient footprints mistakenly attributed to bears were made by early humans

4:33pm December 01, 2021

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

A new look at nearly 3.7 million-year-old fossil footprints uncovered in Tanzania shows that multiple species of early humans lived together at the same time.

Josephine Baker poses in Paris in the 1930s.

Josephine Baker is the first Black woman to be inducted into France's Pantheon

4:07pm November 30, 2021

by Eleanor Beardsley

The trailblazing U.S.-born star and civil rights activist was given France's highest honor on Tuesday when she was inducted into the Pantheon. She first achieved fame in Paris in the 1920s.

Arts

Alaskan museum uncovers unique art from the indigenous Tlingit tribe

8:13am November 27, 2021

by Scott Simon

The registrar of the Haines Sheldon Museum in Haines, Alaska, discovers important artifacts of the Tlingit tribe, stored in old, weathered boxes.

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