History, examined beyond the frame.

Four months after opening, Tacoma’s new suspension bridge collapsed. The photographs show its brief working life; the film reveals a failure often explained incorrectly.

The elephant in Thomas Nast’s famous cartoon was frightened, and the donkey was a newspaper. Reading the labels reveals the quarrel behind a lasting party symbol.

Anthony voted in Rochester to test whether citizenship carried the right to vote. Her arrest and trial exposed the limits of that argument—and kept it before the public.

Obama’s election made him the first Black president-elect. Inside the celebration, the financial crisis and the work of governing were already in view.

A divided party, a relentless railway campaign and a durable voter coalition carried Truman past Dewey on November 2, 1948.

Lincoln won a decisive Electoral College majority with less than 40 percent of the popular vote. Campaign images and election records reveal how that victory worked.