Art & Artists

More than 50 artifacts from the September 11 attacks, including Fire Truck Door, 2001, will be displayed at the American History Museum.

What's Up

Skateboarding pioneer Tony Hawk recently donated his 1986 pro model Powell-Peralta deck with truck and wheels to the National Museum of American History.

Q and A with Tony Hawk

The skateboarding champion talks about the growth and evolution of his sport

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Letters

Roller Rover is a definitive example of the work that has made William Wegman one of the world's most widely known conceptual artists.

Fay Ray: The Supermodel Dog

As photographer William Wegman tells it, his cinnamon-gray Weimaraner wasn't content to just sit and stay

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831-1833, oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Samuel Morse's Other Masterpiece

The famous inventor's painting of Gallery of the Louvre is as much a fascinating work of art as a 19th century history lesson

Elis the pedlar, a Welsh packman working the villages around Llanfair in about 1885.

The Last of the Cornish Packmen

An encounter on a lonely road in the furthest reaches of the English West Country sheds light on the dying days of a once-ubiquitous profession

Ned Kahn's Rain Oculus is a 70-foot-wide whirlpool at the Marina Bay Sands complex in Singapore. The huge whirlpool can circulate 6,000 gallons of water per minute and funtions as a kinetic sculpture, skylight and waterfall.

Ned Kahn: The Limits of the Knowable

By channeling the elements of wind and water, the environmental sculptor’s designs inspire awe and curiosity in museum visitors

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Letters

Readers Respond to the May Issue

"The most hated show of the year" is how a critic described Eggleston's landmark 1976 exhibition.

William Eggleston's Big Wheels

This enigmatic 1970 portrait of a tricycle took photography down a whole new road

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Dazzling Displays: 8th Annual Photo Contest Winners

Out of more than 50,000 photographs submitted, editors – and readers – picked seven showstoppers

Before there were fruit patents, there were pictures. Shown here is The Red Astrachan apple.

How to Trademark a Fruit

To protect the fruits of their labor and thwart "plant thieves," early American growers enlisted artists

Beginning July 23, at Natural History, see examples of technologies that endow researchers with X-ray vision. Shown here is Selene vomer by David Johnson, 2008.

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Wernher von Braun would come to personify NASA's space exploration program.

Wernher von Braun's V-2 Rocket

Although the Nazi "vengeance weapon" was a wartime failure, it ushered in the space age

One of the larger pieces of Yapese stone money. Quarried in Palau, these giant coins were transported to Yap on flimsy outrigger canoes at considerable human cost – until O'Keefe took over their manufacturing.

David O’Keefe: The King of Hard Currency

The Irish American immigrant made a fortune by supplying the giant stone coins prized by Yap islanders

Since 1999, Richard and Judith Lang have found countless ways to turn their huge collection of beach debris into extraordinary art.

Making Beautiful Art out of Beach Plastic

Artists Judith and Richard Lang comb the California beaches, looking for trash for their captivating, yet unsettling work

Birdshot + jello

Law and Order: Jell-O Gelatin Unit

From drunk driving to acts of Cold War espionage, here's a look at how Jell-O has sprung up in our criminal justice system

After 28 months, Vincenzo Perugia was arrested for the theft of the Mona Lisa. Shown here is the transfer of the painting from the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction to France.

Stolen: How the Mona Lisa Became the World’s Most Famous Painting

One hundred years ago, a heist by a worker at the Louvre secured Leonardo’s painting as an art world icon

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Letters

Readers Respond to the April Issue

Barbara Morgan's portrait of Martha Graham may be the most famous photo ever taken of an American dancer.

An Unforgettable Photo of Martha Graham

Barbara Morgan's portrait of the iconic dancer helped move modern dance to center stage

Hu Jiusi's Orchid and Fungus-of-Immortality by a Torrent, 1838 and other works by Chinese painters at the Sackler Gallery until July 17.

What's Up

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