Articles by Edwards Park from Smithsonian Magazine

In 1838, 104,960 sovereigns from the bequest of a learned Englishman were reminted in the U.S. to fund the "increase and diffusion of knowledge"

Updated: August 10, 2017
Originally Published: May 1996

Graduating from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland--or Santa Fe, New Mexico--guarantees a place in the Republic

February 1, 2001

This month we present the down under travel experiences of longtime editor Edwards Park

January 1, 2001

It's the star-spangled banner; the anthem it inspired plays on as a musical salute to the stars and stripes

July 2000

Armed with easel, palette and pencil, George Catlin went west in the 1830s to paint the real "Wild West"

May 2000

A Smithsonian anthropologist digs for victims of a West Virginia mob murder

March 2000

A masterpiece in porcelain replays old struggles between Bolshevik and Czarist opponents

July 1999

February 1999

In 1918, a hopeful France gave Mrs. Wilson a peace brooch, but peace eluded her husband and the world

February 1998

The Smithsonian Secretary assembled a devoted team, a remarkable engine and a plane that wouldn't fly

November 1997

How two brothers in an old Curtiss Robin set a record that's stood for 62 years

September 30, 1997

A long-lost daguerrotype, made by a black artist in 1847, has lately come to rest at the Smithsonian

August 1997

A bejeweled box from a sorely beset emperor leads to a Yankee dentist, and how he rescued the beautiful empress Eugénie from a Paris mob

March 1997

How an upside-down biplane on a 24-cent stamp, at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, seemed to jinx early attempts at carrying the mail by air

July 1996

The incredible world of computers was born some 150 years ago, with a clunky machine dreamed up by a calculating genius named Charles Babbage

February 1996

There was a time when a cane was the exclamation point to a gentleman's attire, but canes have also been put to a remarkable range of uses

October 1995