Smithsonian Magazine: July 2003
Features
Korea: A House Divided
Fifty years after the armistice, the two Koreas' legacy of conflict underlies a deepening crisis.
By Jonathan Kandell
Egypt's Crowning Glory
New Kingdom customs rise triumphantly from the dead in "The Quest for Immortality," a dazzling display of treasures from the tombs of the pharaohs
By Doug Stewart
Making Sense of Robert E. Lee
"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."
— Robert E. Lee, at Fredericksburg.
By Roy Blount, Jr.
Close Encounters of the Sneaky Kind
When it comes to mating, the brawny guy is supposed to get the girl, but biologists are finding that small, stealthy suitors do just fine.
By Richard Conniff
Riddles of the Anasazi
Toward the end of the 13th century, something went terribly wrong among the Anasazi. What awful event forced the people to flee their homeland, never to return?
By David Roberts
Olmsted's Triumph
One hundred and fifty years ago this month, the New York State legislature set aside the land that would become Central Park. By 1876, landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux had transformed the swampy, treeless 50 blocks between Harlem and midtown Manhattan into the first landscaped park in the United States. Here's to New York City's 843-acre backyard!
By Witold Rybczynski
On the Trail of the West Nile Virus
Some scientists race to develop vaccines against the scourge while others probe the possible lingering effects of the mosquito-borne infection.
By Stephen S. Hall
Departments
Indelible Images
Ruling the Roost
Before the advent of factory farms and supermarkets, the self-made kings of New York City's butter and egg trade lived extra large
By Michael Shapiro
The Object at Hand
Here's Looking at You, Kids
For three decades, the fluoroscope was a shoe salesman's best friend
By Karen Larkins
Points of Interest
Batteries Included
Let's hear it shhhh, not so loud for electric boats
By Lance Morrow
From the Secretary
Lighthouse of the Skies
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory probes the universe for the unimaginable
By Lawrence M. Small
Books
Heroes of the Underground Railroad
A groundbreaking chronicle sheds new light on one of the most dramatic chapters in American history
By Smithsonian magazine
The Last Page
Haute Tomato
I can forgive the French for almost anything. Except dessert
By Edith Pearlman
