While no prediction tool is 100 percent accurate, experts have developed interactive maps to guide your leaf-peeping activities.

Leaf-Peeping Season Is Almost Here. These Interactive Maps Can Help You Figure Out When Fall Foliage Will Peak in Your Area

From the magnificent mountains of New England to the desert landscape of northern New Mexico, the tools can help you make the most of nature's upcoming wardrobe change

Soumya Sagar

Man on the Moon (Portrait of an Astronaut), Norman Rockwell, oil on canvas, 1967

At the Smithsonian

To Capture the Beauty and Wonder of Flight, These Celebrated Artists Created Spectacular Visions of Astronauts, Aviators, Rocket Launches and the Moon

September 3, 2026 7:00 a.m.

Smart News

Scientists Recreated the Long-Lost Chirps of Jurassic Insects. Listen to the Simulated Soundscape of 165 Million Years Ago

September 3, 2026 4:08 p.m.

A Lake in Canada Got a Mysterious New Island. Then, It Disappeared—and Now It’s Back

September 3, 2026 3:15 p.m.

A Mysterious Decagon Unexpectedly Appeared Around Saturn’s South Pole. The Ten-Sided Shape Seems to Be a Wave in the Atmosphere

September 3, 2026 3:01 p.m.

Historic Trove of Monets, Renoirs and Other Impressionist Masterpieces Expected to Fetch Up to $50 Million on Auction Block This Fall

September 3, 2026 1:16 p.m.

Leaf-Peeping Season Is Almost Here. These Interactive Maps Can Help You Figure Out When Fall Foliage Will Peak in Your Area

September 3, 2026 10:00 a.m.

More Smart News

Latest Features

Palaka represents the many cultures that have come to create the Hawaiian Islands of today through their traditions and hard work.

Travel

A Signature Hawaiian Textile With a Rich History Is Making a Splash in the Fashion World

September 3, 2026 11:27 a.m.

A diagram of David Bushnell's Turtle submersible

History

To Defeat the Royal Navy During the American Revolution, a Rebel Inventor Designed a Secret Weapon: a Bomb-Carrying Submarine

September 3, 2026 7:45 a.m.

At the Smithsonian

To Capture the Beauty and Wonder of Flight, These Celebrated Artists Created Spectacular Visions of Astronauts, Aviators, Rocket Launches and the Moon

September 3, 2026 7:00 a.m.

The white-headed duck is “one of the true eccentrics of the waterfowl world because almost everything about it seems unusual,” says waterfowl expert Nicky Petkov.

Science

Spain’s White-Headed Ducks Have a Signature Color Right in the Name. And That Isn’t Even Their Most Remarkable Hue

September/October 2026

In loud conditions, a tokay gecko adjusts its call, which is typically used to find a mate or defend territory.

Science

Reptiles Make a Surprising Amount of Noise. Here’s What Those Sounds Might Mean, From Pops to Hoots to Bellows

September 2, 2026

Dice from the now-closed Southern Club, established in 1893.

Travel

Before Vegas Became Vegas, Hot Springs Was America’s Sin City. Now the Arkansas Spa Town Embraces Its Colorful and Seedy History

September/October 2026

Uncovering the past. Understanding the present. Informing the future.

Give a Gift Renew

September/October 2026

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

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

Most Popular

Smart News

1,800 Volunteers Pull a 400-Ton Japanese Castle Keep Back Toward Its Original Location After a Decade of Restoration Work

Smart News

Historical Pollution, Not Current Industrial Emissions, Damaged the World’s Largest and Oldest Collection of Ancient Rock Art, Study Suggests

History

The Prehistoric Paintings on the Walls of Caves Have Always Been Moving. But With the Right Kind of Light, Some Actually Seem to Move

Smart News

Why Was This 17th-Century Polish Woman Buried With a Padlock on Her Toe and an Iron Sickle Across Her Neck?

Smart News

When Fruit Is Scarce, These Monkeys Hunt Animals. The Behavior May Offer Clues About the Origins of Humans’ Meat-Eating Habits

Special Report

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

A Smithsonian magazine special issue in celebration of the nation's 250th

View Full Report

Featured Stories

Arts & Culture

Georgia O’Keeffe Ignored Advice to Mimic Great European Masters. Her Goal Instead Was to Be a Great American Painter

O’Keeffe’s New Mexico studio Ghost Ranch. Opposite, a 1918 photo portrait by future husband Alfred Stieglitz.

History

Born in 1810, Margaret Fuller Was Labeled a Child Prodigy. She Later Used Her Intellect to Ask Important Questions About Women’s Role in America

A portrait of Fuller, inspired by her 1845 Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which argued for equality of the sexes. The book’s opening illustration featured mystical symbols of harmonizing opposites, including the Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail.

History

The American Revolution’s Overlooked Influence? Physics. How ‘Common Sense’ Spelled Out Astronomical Expectations for a New Nation

After Isaac Newton, above, revolutionized celestial mechanics, admirers such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Paine, left, saw in Newton’s natural laws a model for democratic self-government.

Photo of the Day

Red fox kit laying outside of their den.

Just Chillin

By Glen Strickey

Get the Photo of the Day directly to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter.

Sign Up

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.

Listen In

Latest Episodes

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

April 23, 2026 | 34 minutes

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

April 9, 2026 | 32 minutes

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

March 26, 2026 | 31 minutes

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

March 12, 2026 | 28 minutes

History

Records uncovered by researcher Christopher Moore indicate that stones from Sandown Castle were repurposed in a Victorian-era extension of Constable's Gate at Dover Castle (pictured here).

Stones From One of Henry VIII’s Fortresses Spent More Than a Century Hidden in Plain Sight. New Research Suggests the Victorians Repurposed Them as Building Materials

Recently discovered archival records indicate that workers constructing an extension of the Constable’s Gate at Dover Castle in the late 19th century reused fragments of the Tudor-era Sandown Castle

September 1, 2026

Why Was This 17th-Century Polish Woman Buried With a Padlock on Her Toe and an Iron Sickle Across Her Neck?

August 27, 2026

This American Commando Parachuted Behind Enemy Lines in Both the European and Pacific Theaters of World War II

August 27, 2026

More History

Science

Reptiles Make a Surprising Amount of Noise. Here’s What Those Sounds Might Mean, From Pops to Hoots to Bellows

Scientists are realizing that turtles, lizards and crocodilians communicate vocally more than they once thought

September 2, 2026

Tennis Matches Are Heating Up, Literally. Here’s How the Court Became a Living Laboratory for Managing Extreme Temperatures

August 27, 2026

Spain’s White-Headed Ducks Have a Signature Color Right in the Name. And That Isn’t Even Their Most Remarkable Hue

September/October 2026

More Science

Innovation

Why Gen Z Is Learning to Paint Like 19th-Century Artists

Paint groups are popping up in parks. Art schools are seeing a surge in applications. The rise of A.I. has people turning to more traditional art forms

August 18, 2026

The Global Web of Subsea Cables That Connects the World Can Now Detect Whales—Even When They’re Silent

August 13, 2026

Australia’s Social Media Ban for Teens May Not Be the Best Solution, But It’s Certainly Getting People Talking

August 17, 2026

More Innovation

Travel

At its peak, the movement grew to include more than 130 participating restaurants. Today, 111 authentic trattorias still promote regional cuisine in this special way.

In Some Trattorias in Italy, Diners Can Enjoy a Meal and Take the Plate It Was Served on Home as a Souvenir

The Piatti del Buon Ricordo, or “Plates of Good Memories,” tradition dates back to 1964, when a clever marketer came up with it to encourage Italians to travel across the country and taste regional dishes

August 25, 2026