Smithsonian Magazine: April 2003
Features
To Fly!
A new book traces the Wright brothers' triumph 100 years ago to an innovative design and meticulous attention to detail
By James Tobin
Fabricating Art
Laura Breitman fashions photo-realist collages out of whole cloth
By Ann Wilson Lloyd
Bear Trouble
Only hundreds of miles from the North Pole, industrial chemicals threaten the Arctic's greatest predator
By Marla Cone
Mr. Lincoln's Washington
The house where the conspirators hatched their heinous plot now serves sushi, and the yard where they were hanged is a tennis court.
By Christopher Buckley
Degas and His Dancers
A major exhibition and a new ballet bring the renowned artist's obsession with dance center stage
By Paul Trachtman
Growing Up Maya Angelou
The famed writer discusses her childhood, her writing and the importance of family"
By Lucinda Moore
Westward Ho!
When Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, he altered the shape of a nation and the course of history
By Joseph Harriss
The Curse of Count Dracula
The prospect of a tourist bonanza from a Dracula theme park in Transylvania excites some Romanians, but opponents see only red
By Rudy Chelminski
Departments
Phenomena & Curiosities
Bringing Up Baby
Scientists zero in on the caring and cunning ways of a seldom-seen waterbird
By Valerie Jablow
Indelible Images
Manhattan Bound
A new book of photographs by octogenarian Helen Levitt charts her amused view of an ever-evolving New York
By Molly Roberts
Points of Interest
Hewed From History
In Charleston, South Carolina, shipwrights re-create a 19th-century schooner
By T. Edward Nickens
The Object at Hand
Power Balls
Out of the park: signed balls soar into the stratosphere
By Ed Leibowitz
Presence of Mind
The Stuff of Genes
Fifty years after the discovery of DNA's structure, the payoff hasn't matched the hype. But really, we've only just begun
By Horace Freeland Judson
From the Secretary
Particulars of Context
There's art in the history at the Archives of American Art
By Lawrence M. Small
Books
Journal of the Plague Years
Two courageous pioneers showed how a fearsome scourge could be defeated
By Smithsonian magazine
