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Arts & Culture
Eyes of the Forest
The art of making captivating Peruvian textiles has traditionally been anonymous work. But at 75, Sara Flores is making a name for herself with hypnotic abstractions
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The ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’ Sank Half a Century Ago. We’re Still Fascinated
A massive freighter carrying thousands of tons of iron ore disappeared in Lake Superior, setting shipping on a new course
Smart News
Can Visiting an Art Gallery Lower Your Stress Levels and Improve Your Health?
This Massive Web—Home to More Than 100,000 Spiders—Found in a Cave in Europe Could Be the World’s Largest
In an Out of This World Observation, a Museum Curator Filmed the Moon Getting Struck by Meteors—Twice
109-Year-Old Messages in a Bottle Written by Soldiers Heading to Fight in World War I Discovered on Australian Beach
Chimpanzees Weigh Evidence to Make a Smart Choice, in a Process Resembling Human Rationality
Latest Features
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History
‘Norfolk Must Be Destroyed’
Blaming the British for the destruction helped persuade some wavering colonists to back the fight for independence. But the source of the inferno was not what it seemed
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Travel
Into the Great Beyond
Cemeteries that inspired parks serve as unlikely tourist attractions in the City of Light and prove that the end of the line is just the start of a new story
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Most Popular
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Special Report
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America’s 250th Anniversary
To mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding on July 4, 1776, Smithsonian magazine is highlighting the people, places and events that shaped the United States’ fight for independence from Great Britain
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Photo of the Day
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Podcast
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.
Latest Episodes
The ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’ Sank Half a Century Ago. We’re Still Fascinated.
November 6, 2025 | 28 minutes
History
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The True Story Behind ‘Nuremberg,’ a WWII Drama About Hermann Göring’s Cat-and-Mouse Game With an American Psychiatrist
Starring Russell Crowe as the high-ranking Nazi and Rami Malek as Army officer Douglas M. Kelley, the film dramatizes the intense dynamic between its central characters during the Nuremberg trials
Science
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How El Jefe, the Lone Arizona Jaguar Who Captivated a Nation in 2016, Became a ‘Rock Star’
Once called “America’s last jaguar,” the solitary male wandered across the southern border in 2011 and became the centerpiece of a campaign to protect habitat in the Santa Rita Mountains
Innovation
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This 16-Year-Old Invented an A.I. Tool to Help Cool Down the World’s Hottest Cities
Isaque Carvalho Borges experiences the urban heat island effect in his home of Palmas, Brazil, and he wants to do something about it
Travel
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How Shawarma Became a Soul Food of Syria’s Diaspora in Berlin
The popularity of the humble street food is a testament to cultural survival for the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who arrived in Germany as refugees and asylum seekers in 2015
Arts & Culture
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This Forgery Ring Tried to Sell a Fake Rembrandt for $150 Million. The Real Painting Is Hanging in an Amsterdam Museum
The conspirators claimed that their canvas was the original, while the Rijksmuseum’s was an inferior copy. They also marketed forgeries of works by Picasso, Frida Kahlo and more
At the Smithsonian
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How Far American Women Astronauts Have Soared Since Sally Ride Took Her Historic Spaceflight
In 1978, Ride and five other women became the first group of female astronauts in the U.S. A new book by a longtime curator of spaceflight artifacts explores the nearly five-decade history of women in the space program