Arts & Culture

Mobile, Alabama is considered by many to be the birthplace of Mardi Gras.

The Best Mardi Gras Parades Beyond New Orleans

You may think of the “Big Easy” on Fat Tuesday, but other towns throughout Louisiana and the wider Gulf Coast play host to raucous celebrations

Emma Mackey as Emily Brontë in Emily, a new film from Frances O'Connor

Based on a True Story

The Making of Emily Brontë

A new film imagines the events that inspired the notoriously private author to write "Wuthering Heights"

Left, Girl with Bicycle, in the Coombe, Dublin, 1966. The Photo Museum Ireland says Hofer’s work from her Dublin visit captures Ireland at a cultural turning point. Right, Queensboro Bridge, New York, 1964. “Hofer wanted to get under the skin of a city, to picture the essential characteristics of a place and its people,” says exhibition co-curator April Watson.

Photographer Evelyn Hofer’s Timeless Portraits Get a Second Look

Taken a half-century ago, her images strike a contemporary pose

Musk ox calves vie for grass on a farm near Palmer, Alaska.

Alaska

Author Jan Brett Pans for Creative Gold in Alaska

Trips to the 49th state inspired the characters in the writer-illustrator's latest children’s book "Cozy in Love"

Instead of transitioning between Latin and English, spoken Latin keeps the cognition all in one language.

Spoken Latin Is Making a Comeback

Proponents of the teaching method argue that it encourages engagement with the language and the ancient past

All but seven of the letters were previously thought to be lost.

Cool Finds

Code Breakers Discover—and Decipher—Long-Lost Letters by Mary, Queen of Scots

The deposed monarch wrote the 57 encrypted messages during her captivity in England

Skeletons adorn the walls and ceilings of the crypt, like 3D paintings.

Decorated With 4,000 Skeletons, This Roman Church Will Have You Pondering Your Own Mortality

The bones of long-deceased Capuchin friars are painstakingly displayed in a crypt beneath the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

The cabbage soup diet of the 1950s allowed the indulgence in as much cabbage soup as one could consume.

The Seesawing History of Fad Diets

Since dieting began in the 1830s, the ever-changing nutritional advice has skimped on science

“When an individual walks through this experience, they are a part of history, and now they can contribute to the future,” says the museum's Asantewa Boakyewa.

This Show Is Everything You Need for a Year of Meaningful Community Activism

The immersive exhibition, "The Utopia Project," at the Anacostia Community Museum is about setting high goals and the means for achieving them

Pablo Picasso in 1971

Follow Pablo Picasso's Footsteps Through Spain

A full slate of events honors the painter's life in timing with the 50th anniversary of his death

The cast of the 1983 film, from left to right: Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise

S.E. Hinton Is Tired of Talking About 'The Outsiders.' No One Else Is

The author reflects on her classic 1967 novel, its 1983 film adaptation and its legacy today

“People always liked and admired Colette, but after [World War I], with this need to consolidate French identity, Colette really becomes a classique,” says Kathleen Antonioli. 

Colette Revolutionized French Literature With Her Depictions of Female Desire

Born 150 years ago this week, the author was known for her incisive portrayals of women's everyday lives

Fall/Winter Sears catalog from 1957

Before Folding 30 Years Ago, the Sears Catalog Sold Some Surprising Products

The retail giant’s mail-order business reigned supreme for more than a century, offering everything from quack cures to ready-to-build homes

The installation Create to Free Yourselves: Abraham Lincoln and the History of Freeing Slaves in America by Georges Adéagbo (above) will be on view at President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, D.C. through February 15. ​​

At Abraham Lincoln's Cottage, Artist Georges Adéagbo Pays Homage to the Great Emancipator

The award-winning Beninese artist unveils a work dedicated to the president’s “generosity of heart”

C-3PO and R2-D2 from the 1983 Star Wars — Return of the Jedi takes center stage at the new exhibition "Entertainment Nation / Nación de Espectáculo" on long-time view at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The Stars Are Aligned at the National Museum of American History

Banged-Up, but Still Sassy, R2-D2 and C-3PO Are Back and Thrilling Fans

Actor Jimmy Vee says climbing inside the droid costume, now on view at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum, is like entering “your own world"

The stunning Sydney Modern Project is the modern leg of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia.

The Most Anticipated Museum Openings of 2023

Scheduled to launch this year are new institutions dedicated to punk rock, Amelia Earhart and robots

On January 12, 1928, Ruth Snyder was executed at Sing Sing prison for murdering her husband, Albert.

How a New York Tabloid Captured the First Photo of an Execution by the Electric Chair

In January 1928, Tom Howard of the "Daily News" smuggled a camera into Sing Sing, where he snapped a picture of Ruth Snyder’s final moments

Three Great Abolitionists: A. Lincoln, F. Douglass, J. Brown, c. 1945. The onetime expressionist saw his stark new style as “not a change but a development.”

William H. Johnson’s Art Was for His People

The painter’s entire “Fighters for Freedom” series is now on view for the first time in more than 75 years

In November 1955 at Carnegie Hall, Anderson performed Mozart, Schubert, spirituals and more.

How Marian Anderson Took the World by Storm

Her mighty contralto propelled her across color lines

Philip Pearlstein (above in his studio, June 1971) was "unwaveringly interested in the landscape of the body,” says Stephanie Stebich, the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

Philip Pearlstein Painted the Naked Truth

Smithsonian curators remember the celebrated artist, who died last month at 98, and who viewed humanity with biting realism

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