Historical Speculation

US Population Density

The development of antimalarial drugs is fascinating – it is often driven by war and conquest. When human beings got busy trying to kill each other (during the era of colonial expansion, WWII, the Vietnam War), they often found themselves face to face with an even deadlier foe. 

Check out my animation that explores this incredible history.

“I went to Africa…for just the same reason that lots of girls settled down on Main Street back home—just to be with my husband,” explorer and filmmaker Osa Johnson was once quoted as saying in an article called “A Wife in Africa.”

But Johnson, who was also billed as “The Heroine of 1,000 Thrills,” and “the greatest woman explorer” didn’t just play the rule of dutiful assistant to her adventurer husband, Martin. As a team, the Johnsons led expeditions around the world in the 1920s and 1930s, producing 14 feature films, 37 educational shorts, and dozens of filmed lectures. Several of these pieces were commissioned by the Museum and presented to sold-out crowds as part of fundraising efforts for the Akeley Hall of African Mammals. Prints of some of the Johnsons’ films, including the 1928 Simba, King of Beasts, are held in the Museum’s archives.

A 1937 plane crash in California killed Martin and left Osa in a wheelchair, but after only a few months, she was back on her feet and leading an expedition to Africa. She had previously deferred to her husband’s cinematic talents but now declared, “I can grind a movie camera as well as any man.” She passed away in 1953, in the middle of planning another expedition.

Learn more about about women in science. 

Historic Black and White Pictures Restored in Color

Women Delivering Ice, 1918

Times Square, 1947

Portrait Used to Design the Penny. President Lincoln Meets General McClellan – Antietam, Maryland ca September 1862

Marilyn Monroe, 1957

Newspaper boy Ned Parfett sells copies of the evening paper bearing news of Titanic’s sinking the night before. (April 16, 1912)

Easter Eggs for Hitler, c 1944-1945 

Sergeant George Camblair practicing with a gas mask in a smokescreen – Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 1942

Helen Keller meeting Charlie Chaplin in 1919

Painting WWII Propaganda Posters, Port Washington, New York – 8 July 1942