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Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin at Harvard College Observatory

SCIENCE

A Century Ago, Pioneering Astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Showed Us What Stars Are Made Of

Sharad Purnima: The Autumn Full Moon, Nathdwara, Rajasthan state, India, opaque watercolor, tin and gold on cotton, possibly handwoven, late 19th century

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

See These Newly Restored Massive Paintings Devoted to a Hindu God

Astronaut Ed White conducts the first U.S. spacewalk on June 3, 1965

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Two Trailblazing Spacewalks in 1965 Opened the Door to Decades of Astronauts Pushing the Limits of Their Capabilities

The Barry Arm landslide in Alaska’s Prince William Sound

SCIENCE

Studying This Slow-Moving Alaskan Landslide May Help Avert Future Disaster

A gold-green sweat bee lands on a common boneset flower in Hull, Massachusetts. The bee is a pollen generalist, visiting a wide range of plants.

SCIENCE

This Intrepid Team of Bee Lovers Are Doing Everything They Can to Save Rare Native Species From Extinction

The Burren House in San Rafael, California, is one of the most recent projects of the Irish Pub Company, a Dublin-based design group that has created upwards of 2,000 pubs in more than 100 countries on every continent except Antarctica.

INNOVATION

How the Irish Pub Became One of the Emerald Isle's Greatest Exports

The statue Brooklyn by Daniel Chester French being hoisted at the Brooklyn Museum in 1964

ARTS & CULTURE

Over the Last 200 Years, a Small Library Became One of New York City’s Biggest Museums. A New Showcase Tells the Story of Its Unique Legacy

Completed in 2011, the Stuttgart City Library is one of the country’s most photographed locations.

ARTS & CULTURE

Discover These 15 Enchanting Libraries Sure to Thrill Any Book Lover

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine March 2025 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Smart News

Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Clay Puppets With Open Mouths and Detachable Heads That 'Resemble Modern Toy Dolls'

The figurines were discovered in a largely unexcavated site in El Salvador. Some 2,400 years ago, they were controlled by strings that passed through their necks

2.

Smart News

A Hunter Was Out Looking for Deer in West Texas. He Found a Rare Mammoth Tusk Instead

Discovered in the drainage area of a creek bed, the tusk was initially thought to be "just an old stump"

3.

Smart News

These Were the Most—and Least—Visited National Parks in 2024

America's national park sites saw a record number of visitors last year. Great Smoky Mountains, Zion and Grand Canyon national parks are perennial favorites among travelers

4.

Smart News

A Fisherman and His Son Noticed Strange Pieces of Wood on a Beach. They Turned Out to Be Fragments of a Polynesian Canoe

The boat, known as a waka, was unearthed in the Chatham Islands. Researchers say it could be one of the most significant discoveries of its kind

5.

Arts & Culture

Discover These 15 Enchanting Libraries Sure to Thrill Any Book Lover

Wall-to-wall books tell an interior design story without saying a word

Smithsonian Voices
National Museum of Natural History

15 Years Later, the National Museum of Natural History Is Still Asking What It Means to Be Human

National Museum of American History

When Algorithms Take the Field

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Why Do Shorebirds Stand on One Leg?

Office of Academic Appointments and Internships

Hawaiian Plant Lineage With an Identity Crisis

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

Talking With Our Hands: Nail Art Inspiration at the Smithsonian

Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

A Life in Folklore: Frank Proschan’s Community Work and New Internship Endowment

See All

Special Report
A brown bear launches into a river in Katmai National Park to try and catch one of the many sockeye salmon spawning in large numbers.

Alaska

Alaska is nicknamed "The Great Land," and for good reason: it is wild, rugged and expansive. In a series of articles, Smithsonian magazine explores the history, culture and natural wonders of the 49th state.

View Full Report

Featured Stories

Alps-Style Hut-to-Hut Travel Is On Its Way to Alaska

The World’s Most Grueling Race Journeys 1,000 Miles Down the Yukon

These Students Are Part of a 75-Year Study to Map Alaska’s Glaciers

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Smithsonian Videos

Preview thumbnail for video '10 Fun Facts About Jellyfish

10 Fun Facts About Jellyfish

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Preview thumbnail for video 'The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

Preview thumbnail for video '10 Enchanting Butterfly Facts Revealed!

10 Enchanting Butterfly Facts Revealed!

Photo of the day

Here you see a basketball court at a local playground. A rainy, foggy day it was and no one is out playing. I am not a fan of bouncing a basketball on a wet court. Rainy Day On the Court

History

After a trolley conductor accused Alice Stebbins Wells of using her husband's police badge to avoid paying for public transit, the Los Angeles Police Department allowed her to wear a more feminine uniform of her own design, along with a special “Policewoman’s Badge No. 1.”

Armed With Just a Badge, Los Angeles' First Policewoman Protected the City's Most Vulnerable in the Early 20th Century

Appointed in 1910, Alice Stebbins Wells patrolled dance halls, skating rinks, penny arcades and movie theaters, keeping these public spaces free of vice and immorality

The mosaics date to the third century B.C.E.

Archaeologists Discover Mosaics of Two Fighting Cupids and a Mysterious Inscription at an Ancient Greek City Hall

A statue of Clementina Rind, a trailblazing publisher and printer who took over the Virginia Gazette after her husband's death, is featured in the Virginia Women's Monument.

Newly Discovered Letters Illuminate the Life of a Female Printer Who Published Revolutionary Texts and Pushed the Colonies Toward Independence

Science

Before taking samples, students carefully examined the environment.

Nine New Tardigrade Species Discovered Thanks to the Efforts of Danish Schoolchildren

The budding scientists collected the tiny water bears in a massive citizen science project that involved almost 30,000 participants

Individual Antarctic krill are small, but the animals live in gigantic groups that can be seen from space.

Tiny Antarctic Krill Benefit the Planet in Big Ways, but Face a Barrage of Threats

Don’t let the placid and bland surface fool you—Uranus is a singularly dynamic planet.

The Six Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Uranus

Innovation

The Burren House in San Rafael, California, is one of the most recent projects of the Irish Pub Company, a Dublin-based design group that has created upwards of 2,000 pubs in more than 100 countries on every continent except Antarctica.

How the Irish Pub Became One of the Emerald Isle's Greatest Exports

The Dublin-based Irish Pub Company has designed upwards of 2,000 pubs in more than 100 countries around the globe

Transplanting pig organs into people may soon become routine.

The Future of Transplanting Pig Organs in People

Surgeons operated on three patients in Canada.

Surgeons Are Conducting Rare 'Tooth-in-Eye' Surgeries to Restore Vision to Blind Patients in Canada

Travel

Ever since it debuted in 2008, the Running of the Reindeer has become one of the signature events of the Fur Rendezvous Festival.

Every March, Runners Race Reindeer Through the Streets of Anchorage

For three and a half blocks, athletes and ungulates share the road during the headlining event of Alaska's Fur Rendezvous Festival

Vietnam’s Hien Luong pedestrian bridge across the Ben Hai River is located along the 17th parallel, the former demarcation line between North and South Vietnam.

Former and Active DMZs Allow Visitors to Learn the Haunting History of These Landscapes

Completed in 2011, the Stuttgart City Library is one of the country’s most photographed locations.

Discover These 15 Enchanting Libraries Sure to Thrill Any Book Lover

Arts & Culture

Postman Joseph Roulin, Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Why Did Vincent van Gogh Paint 26 Portraits of a Postman and His Family While Staying in the South of France?

The artist met Joseph Roulin, a 47-year-old postal worker, in the late 1880s. The series of artworks will be reunited at upcoming exhibitions in Boston and Amsterdam

Completed in 2011, the Stuttgart City Library is one of the country’s most photographed locations.

Discover These 15 Enchanting Libraries Sure to Thrill Any Book Lover

None

See 60 Remarkable Finalists From the 22nd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

At the Smithsonian

Astronaut Ed White conducts the first U.S. spacewalk on June 3, 1965

Two Trailblazing Spacewalks in 1965 Opened the Door to Decades of Astronauts Pushing the Limits of Their Capabilities

Since those early steps, extravehicular activity has helped provide the solutions to many problems that astronauts face in space

Sharad Purnima: The Autumn Full Moon, Nathdwara, Rajasthan state, India, opaque watercolor, tin and gold on cotton, possibly handwoven, late 19th century

See These Newly Restored Massive Paintings Devoted to a Hindu God

This is the first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and released in 2022.

This Comprehensive Guide Will Answer the Questions You Have About Black Holes—and Spark Some New Ones