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Latest Features

This year, sixteen bakers delivered on the challenge.

ARTS & CULTURE

This Museum Is Asking People to Remake Famous Artworks With Cake

The House of Slaves on Senegal’s Island of Gorée is one of 284 significant African coastal sites included in a recent assessment of climate risk.

SCIENCE

Climate Change Threatens Important African Coastal Sites

According to author Christopher A. Thomas, the dedication "was a microcosm of the strained race relations of its day, marked by the rhetoric of good intentions and the behavior of bigamy."

HISTORY

A Century Ago, the Lincoln Memorial's Dedication Underscored the Nation's Racial Divide

Tom Cruise revives his Top Gun role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the new film arriving in theaters May 27.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

'Top Gun' Is Back. But Is the Elite Navy Fighter Pilot School Really Like the Movies?

The archive of written work and speeches delivered by suffragists simply doesn’t indicate that abortion was at the forefront of discussions about women’s rights during the mid-19th to early 20th centuries.

HISTORY

What Did the Suffragists Really Think About Abortion?

In August 1994, Cuba's leader Fidel Castro announced a reprieve in the enforcement of laws governing emigration (above: a homemade raft sets off from the coast near Havana on August 22, 1994) and as a result nearly 35,000 left the island.  

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

A Makeshift Raft Speaks to the Risks Cubans Took to Escape Their Homeland

A 3-D animation put together using data from lidar shows the urban center of Cotoca.

SCIENCE

Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air

The Blue-Haired Fairy and the Talking Cricket try to make Pinocchio drink a medicine in an illustration for the children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi (1826-1890).

ARTS & CULTURE

Who Was Pinocchio's Mysterious Blue-Haired Fairy?

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine June 2022 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Smart News

This Man Was Encased in Volcanic Ash in Pompeii. Here’s What His DNA Reveals

The adult man’s genome is the first to be fully sequenced from remains found in the ancient city

2.

Science

Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air

Mapping technology cut through the canopy to detect sprawling urban structures in Bolivia that suggest sophisticated cultures once existed

3.

Smart News

NASA Snaps Photos of Underwater 'Sharkcano' Erupting

Kavachi, a submarine volcano in the southwest Pacific Ocean, is home to several species of sharks and fish that can withstand the extreme environment

4.

Travel

The Real Story of Pinocchio Tells No Lies

Forget what you know from the cartoon. The 19th-century story, now in a new translation, was a rallying cry for universal education and Italian nationhood

5.

Smart News

Scientists Map Yellowstone’s Underground ‘Plumbing’

The new survey could be useful for everything from microbiology to thermal energy

Smithsonian Voices
National Museum of the American Indian

Max Hiroshi Yamane: Initiating Relationships with Native People

National Museum of American History

Before Memorial Day, Learn the Language of Flowers

National Museum of Natural History

Ancient Pollen Offers Clues to How Plants Adapted to Climate Change in the Past — and Potentially the Future

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Can Humans and Jaguars Coexist? A Wildlife Biologist Uses Technology and Education to Reduce Conflict

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

Exploring the Origins of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

National Museum of the American Indian

Ka Mo‘olelo o Au Hou ma Wakinekona, D.C. | The Story Behind the Hawaiian Canoe in Washington, D.C.

See All

Special Report
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The Future of Mental Health

As the isolation and anxiety caused by the pandemic put a renewed focus on our brain's ability to cope with trauma, Smithsonian magazine brings you stories about the latest advancements in treatments and understanding of mental illness

View Full Report

Why Psychedelic Drugs May Become a Key Treatment for PTSD and Depression

Kids as Young as Eight Years Old Should Be Screened for Anxiety, Task Force Says

Negative Effects of Social Media May Impact Adolescent Girls and Boys at Different Ages

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Smithsonian Channel

Preview thumbnail for video 'An Energetic Dog Is Best Friends With an Orphan Raccoon

An Energetic Dog Is Best Friends With an Orphan Raccoon

Play
Preview thumbnail for video 'A Vervet Monkey Befriends Some Hostile Dogs

A Vervet Monkey Befriends Some Hostile Dogs

Preview thumbnail for video 'How the Meaning of Thanksgiving Has Changed

How the Meaning of Thanksgiving Has Changed

Photo of the day

A light beamed through Antelope Canyon. Light Through

History

According to author Christopher A. Thomas, the dedication "was a microcosm of the strained race relations of its day, marked by the rhetoric of good intentions and the behavior of bigamy."

A Century Ago, the Lincoln Memorial's Dedication Underscored the Nation's Racial Divide

Seating was segregated, and the ceremony's only Black speaker was forced to drastically revise his speech to avoid spreading "propaganda"

The archive of written work and speeches delivered by suffragists simply doesn’t indicate that abortion was at the forefront of discussions about women’s rights during the mid-19th to early 20th centuries.

What Did the Suffragists Really Think About Abortion?

The first two panels of "Nazi Death Parade," a six-panel comic depicting the mass murder of Jews at a Nazi concentration camp

The Holocaust-Era Comic That Brought Americans Into the Nazi Gas Chambers

Science

A 3-D animation put together using data from lidar shows the urban center of Cotoca.

Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air

Mapping technology cut through the canopy to detect sprawling urban structures in Bolivia that suggest sophisticated cultures once existed

As of 2019, doctors can prescribe an FDA approved ketamine-based antidepressant for treatment-resistant depression.

The Past, Present and Future of Using Ketamine to Treat Depression

Like a regular sail uses wind to navigate across an ocean, solar sails use the pressure exerted by sunlight to move through space. (Pictured: a conceptual illustration of a diffractive solar sail)

NASA’s New Solar Sail Could Soon Navigate in Space

Innovation

A taxidermied Cumulina holds a block of toy cheese.

The Mouse That Squeaked Its Way Into Scientific History

Forget Dolly the Sheep. The birth of a mouse named Cumulina 25 years ago launched a genetic revolution

Haribo products are available in more than 100 countries, with 160 million Goldbears leaving factory floors around the world every day.

The Colorful History of Haribo Goldbears, the World's First Gummy Bears

AIM users could log on and instantly ping messages back and forth, remotely chatting with friends, colleagues and loved ones.

In the 25 Years Since Its Launch, AOL Instant Messenger Has Never Been 'Away'

Arts & Culture

Hieronymus Bosch, The Last Judgment, circa 1515

Inside Hieronymus Bosch's Surreal Visions of Heaven and Hell

A new exhibition in Budapest features almost 90 works by the Dutch artist and his peers

Painted to inspire a sense of patriotism among 19th-century Americans, Washington Crossing the Delaware still has cultural sticking power today. 

'Washington Crossing the Delaware' Sails Toward the Auction Block—and Could Fetch $15 Million

In the ancient Roman world, sexual pleasure was a cause for celebration rather than a source of shame.

Why Was Erotic Art So Popular in Ancient Pompeii?

Travel

The Great Hall boasts works by nearly 50 American painters and sculptors.

What Makes the Library of Congress a Monument to Democracy

The world’s largest book repository has expanded far beyond its original scope to include sound recordings and digitized collections

Red ocher has served many history, from painting cave walls to tanning hides.

This 12,000-Year-Old Wyoming Quarry Could Be North America's Oldest Mine

Some 1,500 rhesus macaques live a mile off the eastern shore of Puerto Rico on Cayo Santiago.

The Puerto Rican Island Where 1,500 Monkeys Rule

At the Smithsonian

Tom Cruise revives his Top Gun role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the new film arriving in theaters May 27.

'Top Gun' Is Back. But Is the Elite Navy Fighter Pilot School Really Like the Movies?

The Smithsonian’s Chris Browne flew the much-feared F-14, and as a former TOPGUN student, knows well the power of a Navy-trained fighter pilot

In August 1994, Cuba's leader Fidel Castro announced a reprieve in the enforcement of laws governing emigration (above: a homemade raft sets off from the coast near Havana on August 22, 1994) and as a result nearly 35,000 left the island.  

A Makeshift Raft Speaks to the Risks Cubans Took to Escape Their Homeland

This commemorative sculpture by an Edo artist is one of 29 objects the Smithsonian is proposing to repatriate to Nigeria. 

Why the Smithsonian Adopted a New Policy on Ethical Collecting