Artifacts
The Colors of Childhood
Crayola crayons take us all back with their fondly remembered look, scent and feel on paper
November 1999 |
By Beth Py-Lieberman
Reds versus Whites
A masterpiece in porcelain replays old struggles between Bolshevik and Czarist opponents
July 1999 |
By Edwards Park
Moving Down the Line
It's pulled and jimmied, tied and lifted but the 20-ton Jupiter engine finally reaches its new home
April 1999 |
By Michael Kernan
A Wizard's Scribe
Before the phonograph and lightbulb, the electric pen helped spell the future for Thomas Edison
August 1998 |
By Bruce Watson
The History of the Doughnut
A look back at the men, women and machines that made America’s favorite treat possible
March 1998 |
By David A. Taylor
A Symbol That Failed
In 1918, a hopeful France gave Mrs. Wilson a peace brooch, but peace eluded her husband and the world
January 1998 |
By Edwards Park
John Brown's Picture
A long-lost daguerrotype, made by a black artist in 1847, has lately come to rest at the Smithsonian
August 1997 |
By Edwards Park
The Object at Hand
From a forest that flourished 207 million years ago, the Sherman Logs bear stony witness to a general's curiosity--and life in an age gone by
June 1997 |
By Adele Conover
The Object at Hand
A bejeweled box from a sorely beset emperor leads to a Yankee dentist, and how he rescued the beautiful empress Eugénie from a Paris mob
March 1997 |
By Edwards Park
The Object at Hand
A young war-horse helped Phil Sheridan win the day in the Shenandoah Valley and, made famous by a poem, helped Abraham Lincoln win re-election
November 1996 |
By John Fleischman
The Object at Hand
All but two of 104,960 sovereigns from a learned Englishman with no birthright were reminted here to fund the kind of institution he had in mind
May 1996 |
By Edwards Park
Around the Mall & Beyond
Protecting museum treasures - paintings by the masters, antique furniture, the delicate wings of a tropical beetle - requires the strictest climate control, right? Maybe not, say these scientists
March 1996 |
By Michael Kernan
The Object at Hand
There was a time when a cane was the exclamation point to a true gentleman's attire, but canes have also been put to a remarkable range of uses, quite a few antisocial
October 1995 |
By Edwards Park
The Dying Tecumseh
A sculpture in the Smithsonian collection reveals much about how the Indians of the West were viewed in the early ages of the United States
July 1995 |
By Bil Gilbert
