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The canoe is submerged 15 feet deep in Wisconsin’s Pewaukee Lake.

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A Diver Volunteered to Clean Up Trash From a Wisconsin Lake. He Discovered a 1,000-Year-Old Dugout Canoe at the Bottom Instead

Indigenous communities near present-day Milwaukee hand-carved the white-oak vessel before shaping it with fire between roughly 992 and 1049 C.E.

Sarah Kuta

Mickey Mantle appears on Topps card number 311 (1952), sometimes called the Holy Grail for baseball card collectors. In 2022, one in mint condition sold for $12.6 million, a record.

At the Smithsonian

In 1952, You Could Buy a Pack of Baseball Cards That Included This Mickey Mantle at a Corner Store. Today, You Would Probably Have to Go to an Auction House

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Smithsonian magazine September/October 2026 issue cover
Anahuacalli Museum-Opener
Travel The Marvelous Museums of Mexico City
The ancient capital has plenty of artwork and fossils, if that’s what you like. Or tour the writing rooms of a Nobel winner, the fortified home of an exiled Russian revolutionary and towers of skulls
OPENER - A giant Atlantic cockle lies open on the beach in Fort Myers, Florida, while a beachcomber searches for shells in the background.
Science Who Dwells in a Shell?
Before they become sandy souvenirs, the baubles in the bubbles of the shoreline serve as a veritable fortress for creatures like clams, mussels and conchs
A sample of cerebrospinal fluid
Innovation Solving the Long Covid Puzzle
Long Covid saps the strength and vitality of patients, who have little recourse to fight it. A team of specialists—including an afflicted researcher working mostly from her bed—is looking for answers
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A Shark Was Spotted Swimming Through the Flooded Streets of New Jersey During the Nor’easter

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A New Exhibition Spotlights 4,500 Years of Broken, Shot-Up and Degraded Artworks to Explore the ‘Power of the Fragment’

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See the Hilarious Animal Shenanigans Captured in Photos and Videos Shortlisted for the 2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

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Meet This Year’s Chonky Champion of Fat Bear Week: Backpack, a Laid-Back 20-Year-Old Male Who’s a ‘Stoic Presence on the River’

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England’s Beloved Sycamore Gap Tree Is Showing Signs of Life, Three Years After Vandals Chopped It Down

Photo of the Day

A perfect symbiosis of sea and city, nature and civilization, Amsterdam is the best of both worlds, and many more.

Sea in the City

By Miles Astray

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Preview thumbnail for video 'The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

Preview thumbnail for video 'A Photographer's Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

A Photographer’s Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

Preview thumbnail for video 'The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams' 'Remember the Ladies' Letter

The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

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Smithsonian Podcast: There’s More to That

Smithsonian magazine covers history, science and culture in the way only it can — through a lens on the world that is insightful and grounded in richly reported stories. In There’s More to That, meet the magazine’s journalists and hear how they discover the forces behind the biggest issues of our time.

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The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

April 23, 2026 | 34 minutes

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A Photographer’s Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

April 9, 2026 | 32 minutes

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The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

March 26, 2026 | 31 minutes

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Venomous Snakes Represent a Serious Public Health Problem. Scientists Are Biting Back With a Groundbreaking Antidote

March 12, 2026 | 28 minutes

History

The tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt

Mysterious ‘Anomalies’ Have Been Detected Beyond King Tut’s Tomb. Could They Be Secret Passageways Leading to the Long-Lost Remains of Queen Nefertiti?

Geophysical surveys provide new evidence for a theory that the Egyptian pharaoh was interred in the outer rooms of an existing burial complex. Researchers are trying to get approval to investigate for themselves

Who Wrote Elizabeth I’s Most Scathing Letters? New Research Suggests the Tudor Queen’s Male Secretaries Revised Her Correspondence to Emphasize Her Temper

Hitler Had an Intense, Mysterious Relationship With His Half-Niece. New Research Suggests His Alibi for Her Murder Might Not Hold Up

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Science

Pottery fragments from Etowah in Georgia, where people of the Mississippian culture built large earthen mounds

Ancient Pottery Reveals the Earliest Known Traces of Chocolate East of the Mississippi, Painting a Picture of Connection in the Americas

A new archaeological discovery suggests that people in present-day Georgia have feasted with cacao for 1,000 years

Is More Protein Always Better? Despite the Craze Around the Nutrient, Research-Backed Evidence About Its Benefits Is Complicated

Archaeologists Are Reconstructing the ‘Invisible’ Technologies of the Stone Age, From Rope to Thread and Twine

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Innovation

The user, if pregnant, will feel raised bumps on both sides of the flat lollipop—a reaction to hCG, a hormone that the body produces during pregnancy.

This Lollipop Could Help Blind Women Independently Detect Pregnancy

Design student Sneha Rao is developing Tact, an edible pregnancy test that allows people with vision impairment to feel its results on their tongues

The Humble History of the Bedpan

This Brain Implant Allows People With Paralysis to Speak and Gesture at the Same Time Via a Mind-Controlled Virtual Avatar

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Travel

All of the sites on the Shikoku Pilgrimage are associated with Kobo Daishi, a Japanese monk who lived during the ninth century and founded Shingon, a major school of Buddhism that focuses on the attainment of enlightenment during a practitioner’s lifetime.

Japan’s Smallest and Least-Populated Major Island Is a World of Pilgrimages, Delicious Food and Plenty of Forest Bathing

Each year, more than 100,000 people hike at least part of a 750-mile route on Shikoku that connects 88 Buddhist temples and other sacred sites

Seven Places in Europe That Legends Say Were Built by Giants, Devils or Dragons

These 15 Wonderful Photographs of Kenya’s World-Class Wildlife Will Have You Booking a Flight to the Savanna

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Arts & Culture

Iris, Claude Monet, oil on canvas, 1924-25

Claude Monet’s Long-Hidden ‘Iris’ Is About to Become the Most Expensive Painting Ever Auctioned in France

The artwork reflects the famed Impressionist’s later, abstract style. Sotheby’s estimates that it will sell for $25 million to $34 million

For Years, the Smithsonian Strove to Bring the African American History and Culture Museum to the National Mall. Now, It Celebrates a Decade as a Beacon of Understanding, Community and Resilience

Kermit the Frog Was Just Trying to Put on a Variety Show. Fifty Years Later, the Muppets Are Some of the Biggest Stars in Television History

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At the Smithsonian

The Icebergs, Frederic Edwin Church, oil on canvas, 1861

‘The Icebergs’ Is One of Frederic Edwin Church’s Most Spectacular Paintings. For Decades, No One Knew Where It Was

In the 1970s, the administrator of a boys’ home in England wound up finding the missing 19th-century piece and bringing it back into the spotlight

These Small, Stealthy Bats Use High-Frequency Vocalizations to Keep Their Chatter Out of the Range of Predators and Prey

For Years, the Smithsonian Strove to Bring the African American History and Culture Museum to the National Mall. Now, It Celebrates a Decade as a Beacon of Understanding, Community and Resilience

More At the Smithsonian