History Investigations

What would Amelia Earhart’s Instagram account have looked like? American Experience decided to find out.

#HustleAndFly: Amelia Earhart on Instagram | American Experience | PBS

A walk through a cemetery when researching ancestors can be a haunting, yet beautiful and reflective experience. Aside from names, birthdates, and death dates, gravestones are often decorated with symbols and icons.

These majestic, weather-worn stone carvings were popularized by those cipher-loving Victorians (from 1839 to 1920) and are more than pure decoration. They mean something; a virtue the person exemplified, a value they held dear, or a nod to how they earned their living.

The Hidden Meanings of Common Gravestone Symbols Gravestone symbols can contain clues about your ancestor’s life and death. Discover the meaning behind common (and several uncommon!) gravestone symbols.

When emptying my deceased aunt’s home to prepare it for sale, we didn’t have the time to go through all the contents of her closets and drawers. A brief look showed that over the years, important documents and photos had been layered with household receipts, brochures, junk mail, bill stubs and random bits of paper.

I transferred individual drawers to boxes and brought everything home to examine more closely. The first box I sorted showed me that this had been a wise decision. Mixed in with free notepads from the local realtor, I found two cabinet card photographs of my grandmother when she was an infant and toddler. These treasures could have been lost forever.

7 Tech Tools to Organize Your Family History Collection

How to Organize Your Family Keepsakes and Collections Create and organize a family archive of heirlooms and old photos that future generations will cherish.

Vasa was the world’s most high-tech warship when it set sail. Today, it’s a resource for naval historians and archaeologists–and a cautionary tale for those who seek to design technology.

The story of what happened to the ship has gone down in history: despite being one of the Swedish navy’s biggest achievements and among “the most spectacular warships ever built,” according to Eric H. Kessler, Paul E. Bierly III and Shanthi Gopalakrishnan in The Academy of Management Executive, Vasa sank within twenty minutes of setting sail, on this day in 1628.

The Bizarre Story of 'Vasa,' the Ship That Keeps On Giving 'Vasa' sunk in front of horrified onlookers on this day in 1628, claiming 30 lives