top of page
_edited.jpg)
About
Ellen Wexler
Ellen Wexler is a journalist based in Washington, D.C. Since 2022, she has been the assistant digital editor, humanities at Smithsonian Magazine. Before that, she was the managing editor at Moment Magazine.
Clips
Selected Work
Tattered Pages Discovered in Storage Reveal an Enslaved Man’s Daring Bid for Freedom—and His Second Life at Sea
Smithsonian Magazine
A Secret Sculpture Built for John F. Kennedy’s Grave Vanished in the 1970s. Half a Century Later, the Mystery Has Been Solved
Smithsonian Magazine
Flannery O’Connor Wanted to Shake Her Readers Awake. Her Family Wanted Her to Write the Next ‘Gone With the Wind’
Smithsonian Magazine
Before He Rose to Power, Adolf Hitler Staged a Coup and Went to Prison
Smithsonian Magazine
‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ Demonstrates the Limits of Holocaust Fiction
Smithsonian Magazine
Before Meditation Apps, Listeners Were Hooked on Whale Songs, Rain Sounds and the ‘Scream of the Southern Leopard Frog’
Smithsonian Magazine
The Real Story Behind ‘Nickel Boys’ and the Brutal Florida Reform School That Inspired the Film
Smithsonian Magazine
The 150-Year-Old Comstock Act Could Transform the Abortion Debate
Smithsonian Magazine
The Real Story Behind ‘The Bikeriders’ and the Danny Lyon Photography Book That Inspired It
Smithsonian Magazine
Why Was Zora Neale Hurston So Obsessed With the Biblical Villain Herod the Great?
Smithsonian Magazine
Without the First Folio, Half of Shakespeare’s Plays Would Have Been Lost to History
Smithsonian Magazine
The Real History Behind Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre’s Marriage in ‘Maestro’
Smithsonian Magazine
Meet Vivian Maier, the Reclusive Nanny Who Secretly Became One of the Best Street Photographers of the 20th Century
Smithsonian Magazine
The Making of Steven Spielberg
Smithsonian Magazine
Paul Revere Wasn’t the Only Midnight Rider Who Dashed Through the Darkness to Warn the Patriots That the British Were Coming
Smithsonian Magazine
Poetry Was an Official Olympic Event for Nearly 40 Years. What Happened?
Smithsonian Magazine
Mickey Mouse and Many Other Beloved Creations, Including Peter Pan and ‘Mack the Knife,’ Are Now in the Public Domain
Smithsonian Magazine
These Descendants Never Forgot the Story of the Last American Slave Ship
Smithsonian Magazine
A Brief History of the Mug Shot
Smithsonian Magazine
The True History Behind Netflix’s ‘Shirley’ Movie
Smithsonian Magazine
How Emmett Till’s Mother Galvanized the Civil Rights Movement
Smithsonian Magazine
After the Cyber Storm
Moment Magazine
Debra Katz: Ahead of Her Time
Moment Magazine
Alan Alda and His Scientific Universe
Moment Magazine
Is This Mysterious Language Hebrew?
Moment Magazine
bottom of page