Smithsonian Magazine: August 2003
Features
Fire Fight
With forests burning, U.S. officials are clashing with environmentalists over how best to reduce the risk of catastrophic blazes
By Paul Trachtman
Guys and Molls
Bold, garish and steamy cover images from popular pulp-fiction magazines of the 1930s and '40s have made their way from newsstands to museum walls
By Doug Stewart
Rethinking Primate Aggression
Researcher Frans de Waal shows that apes (and humans) get along better than we thought
By Richard Conniff
Mesopotamian Masterpieces
Exquisite art and artifacts from the world's earliest civilization are dazzling visitors to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art
By Richard Covington
Chess Queen
At 22, Jennifer Shahade is the strongest American-born woman chess player ever
By Paul Hoffman
Benjamin Franklin Joins the Revolution
Returning to Philadelphia from England in 1775, the "wisest American" kept his political leanings to himself. But not for long
By Walter Isaacson
Shore Thing
In the new Boston Harbor Islands national park area, city dwellers can escape the madding crowds
By Doug Stewart
Departments
Indelible Images
Dream Assignment
Photographer Bob Adelman's picture of Martin Luther King, Jr., taken 40 years ago, captures one of the greatest speeches in American history
By Lucinda Moore
Points of Interest
Fakahatchee Ghosts
But no exorcisms, please these rare orchids are the stars of a hit movie and a best-selling book
By Jack McClintock
The Object at Hand
Wild Thing
For 100 years, Harleys have fueled our road-warrior fantasies
By Robert F. Howe
Presence of Mind
Why Lewis and Clark Matter
Amid all the hoopla, it's easy to lose sight of the expedition's true significance
By James P. Ronda
People File
To Touch the Heavens
Noreen Grice has given the visually impaired a feel for the universe
By David L. Chandler
From the Secretary
Baywatch
Smithsonian scientists' study of the Chesapeake may benefit a wider world
By Lawrence M. Small
