In 1996, historian Anthony Cohen embarked on an 8-week, 1,200-mile journey tracing the Underground Railroad from Maryland to Canada. Traveling by foot, boat, and rail across five states, he visited towns, safehouses, African American communities, and Quaker sanctuaries, documenting freedom stories through artifacts, documents, and oral accounts. In 2026, marking the 30th anniversary of his walk and the nation’s 250th celebration, Cohen retraces his trek, sharing memories, images, and aspirations for a renewed journey of remembrance.

A quirky 18th-century international dispute over natural history quickly took on political overtones. Thomas Jefferson wanted to refute a French naturalist’s theory that all life in America was degenerate and weak, so he asked that a large dead moose be shipped to France. The theory, however, continued to have scientific, economic, and political implications for 100 years. Evolutionary biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin highlights this fascinating tale.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, America’s first common carrier, was a pioneer in many components of railroading. None was more important than its innovations in propulsion. Rail historian James Reeves leads an exploration of more than a century of locomotive history at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore. A Smithsonian Affiliate, the museum houses an outstanding collection of 19th-century locomotives—including an array on loan from the Smithsonian Institution.

Smithsonian Associates speaker Paul Glenshaw returns to the Art + History series to look at great works of art in their historical context. This majestic landscape, created in 1868, is Bierstadt’s personal expression of his joyful first sight of the Sierra Nevada and a scene he thoroughly invented. The painting, along with Bierstadt’s many similar works, was a powerful lure for immigrants and settlers drawn by the promise of the American West, yet it also reveals the complicated legacy of Manifest Destiny. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

The American War of Independence freed the 13 British colonies in North America from Crown rule and set the stage for the United States’ bold experiment in self-government. Drawing on primary sources, historian Christopher Hamner traces the war from its roots in the crises of the 1770s through the opening campaigns of the conflict, culminating in the American victories at Trenton and Princeton and an examination of British strategy in a springtime series. This session focuses on Dunmore's Proclamation of November 1775.

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage made 13 trips throughout the country to visit museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn and argue about our history. Gage shares her experiences at locations such as Mound Bayou, Mississippi; Medora, North Dakota; and Dearborn, Michigan. She also examines key moments that define America’s greatest successes and challenges.

This spring, 55 colorful carved horses—plus one dragon—will again canter in circles on the National Mall when the Smithsonian Institution’s historic carousel returns after two years of restoration work. Built in 1947, the carousel was moved to the National Mall in 1981. After the Smithsonian purchased it in December 2022, restoration and fabrication experts Carousels and Carvings disassembled the carousel to begin repairing and restoring it. Company owner and president Todd Goings illuminates the intricate process of refurbishing the carousel.

William T. Sherman, famed Civil War general, and his brother John Sherman, long-serving U.S. senator, experienced the war as a defining event in their lives. The conflict became a true "brothers’ war" as each relied on the other during some of its darkest moments. Historian Bennett Parten discusses how the two Shermans navigated the Civil War together, with both rising to personal and professional heights.

Henry David Thoreau is widely known for Walden and “Civil Disobedience,” but he was also a pioneering environmentalist, an influence on nonviolence movements, and a geologist, botanist, inventor, poet, and early Darwinian thinker. Scholar Randall Fuller reexamines Thoreau as a figure shaped by post-Revolutionary America—an engaged artist-scientist who in many ways embodied the promise of a “new” citizen in the early Republic.

Historically, the Eastern Theater of the Civil War has dominated public and scholarly attention due to major battles, political visibility, and the presence of figures like Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Military historian Kevin Weddle argues, however, that the Western Theater—stretching from the Appalachians to the Mississippi—was equally vital. In his overview, he highlights the region’s strategic importance, key campaigns, influential leaders, and the decisive role Western operations played in shaping the war’s ultimate outcome.