Smithsonian Magazine: October 2011
Features
The Jaguar Freeway
Conservationists have teamed up with an entrepreneur to connect populations of the big cat from Mexico to Argentina. The bold plan could mean the animal's salvation
By Sharon Guynup
What Became of the Taíno?
The people who greeted Columbus are long believed to have died out. But a journalist's search for their descendants turns up surprising results
By Robert M. Poole
Change Agent
Willem de Kooning redefined modern painting. Then he did it again. And again. A major new retrospective charts his seven-decade career
By Mark Stevens
The Passion of Madame Curie
Her profound dedication to science led to a new view of matter itself—and often made it difficult for outsiders to understand her
By Julie Des Jardins
Cocktails in Greenland
The ice that covers 80 percent of the island is melting. Which makes the place a hot destination for the latest travel trend: climate-change tourism
By Joseph Stromberg
The Great Pumpkin
No one takes backyard produce more seriously than competitive vegetable growers, who are closing in on the Holy Grail of extreme gardening—the one-ton squash
By Brendan Borrell
Departments
Indelible Images
Innocence Abroad
Ruth Orkin and Jinx Allen set out to produce a lighthearted photograph. The controversy would come later
By David Schonauer
Wild Things
Wild Things: Wildcats, Pigeons and More...
Sea monster mamas, bat signals and opossum versus viper
By T.A. Frail, Joseph Stromberg, Erin Wayman and Sarah Zielinski
Phenomena
Lucky Bird
High in the Tibetan plateau, a Buddhist monk is saving one of the world's rarest birds
By Phil McKenna
The Civil War
Scattered Actions: October 1861
While the generals on both sides deliberated, troops in blue and gray fidgeted
By David Zax
From the Castle
Secretary Clough on Jefferson's Bible
The head of the Smithsonian Institution details the efforts American History Museum conservators took to repair the artifact
By G. Wayne Clough
Around the Mall
Moving Images
"Whether it was TV or magazines, the world got changed one image at a time," says Maurice Berger, curator of a new exhibit at American History
By Arcynta Ali Childs
The Object at Hand
Ready for Her Close-Up
Needing a new image, China's last empress dowager summoned a photographer
By Owen Edwards
Q&A
Q&A: Al Worden
The astronaut talks about his lunar mission, the scandal that followed and the future of space missions
By Julie Mianecki
Presence of Mind
Crossing the Color Line
Fifty years ago, Black Like Me gave readers an unflinching view of the Jim Crow South. How has the book held up?
By Bruce Watson
The Last Page
Identity Crisis
What's my favorite dessert? Only my bank knows for sure
By Julia Anne Miller
