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Latest Features

The rocky beach in Wrangell, Alaska, is decorated with more than 40 petroglyphs.

TRAVEL

The Mystery of This Petroglyph-Covered Alaskan Beach

Many of the reptiles that thrived during the Triassic were crocodile relatives that dinosaurs would later mimic through evolutionary happenstance, such as Postosuchus (back) and Desmatosuchus (front).

SCIENCE

Dinosaurs Were Evolutionary Copycats of These Long-Lost Look-Alikes

Picasso in Place Ravignan in Montmartre in 1904

HISTORY

Why French Authorities Placed a Young Pablo Picasso Under Surveillance

Wandering albatross pair in courtship in South Georgia. Researchers have found some birds have bolder personalities than others.

SCIENCE

Animal Personalities Can Trip Up Science

Salmon spread is a common snack across Alaska.

TRAVEL

Salmon Spread Might Just Be the Most Alaskan Food

Jews wearing yellow stars at the Kistarcsa concentration camp in Hungary in 1944

HISTORY

The Long History of Forcing Jews to Wear Anti-Semitic Badges

To collect a saliva sample, technicians instruct a person to tilt their head for two to five minutes and spit the accumulated saliva into a sterile tube. The saliva-filled tube is kept on ice and sent to the laboratory to test for the presence of biomarkers for cancer or other diseases.

INNOVATION

Is Saliva the Next Frontier in Cancer Detection?

“Spirit in the Dark: Religion in Black Music, Activism and Popular Culture,” (above: Nina Simone by G. Marshall Wilson, 1959) is on view at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture through November 2023.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Movements Capturing the Spiritual Roots of Black Culture

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine March 2023 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Smart News

The Mime Who Saved Kids From the Holocaust

Marcel Marceau is history’s most famous mime, but before that, he was a member of the French Resistance

2.

Smart News

Take a Virtual Tour of the 'Doomsday' Seed Vault

The impressive depository carefully preserves over one million seed samples in its Arctic location

3.

History

A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials

One town's strange journey from paranoia to pardon

4.

Smart News

Toxic Red Tide Is Back in Florida—Here's What to Know

Caused by an overgrowth of algae, the blooms can be harmful to humans, pets and marine wildlife

5.

Science

Ten Dazzling Celestial Events to See in 2023

Stargazers can look forward to watching a rare comet, a super blue moon and several spectacular meteor showers

Smithsonian Voices
Office of Academic Appointments and Internships

Of Cables and Serpents

Smithsonian Education

Ten Education Resources to Explore this Women’s History Month

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

David ​'Dave' Drake: Potter and Poet

National Museum of Natural History

A Bounty of Butterflies Arrives at the Smithsonian

Your IMPACT | Your Smithsonian

Beyond the Textbook

Your IMPACT | Your Smithsonian

On With The Show

See All

Special Report
The sun sets over the Susquehanna River in northern Pennsylvania.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

Scientists endlessly study lakes and rivers, historians document them, artists paint them, and travelers continue to explore them. In a series of articles, Smithsonian magazine highlights all that draws our eyes to our nation's fresh and coastal waters.

View Full Report

Featured Stories

How 'Daylighting' Buried Waterways Is Revitalizing Cities Across America

What Makes the Buffalo River the Jewel of the Ozarks

See Thousands of Sandhill Cranes Gather in Nebraska

Made Possible Through the Support of AQV_Horizontal_Logo_Red-Blk_RGB_TM 1 (1).png
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Smithsonian Channel

Preview thumbnail for video 'Unfathomable Cruelty at the Heart of Hitler’s Russian Invasion

Unfathomable Cruelty at the Heart of Hitler’s Russian Invasion

Play
Preview thumbnail for video 'African-Americans Came out of the Civil War and Ran into Jim Crow

African-Americans Came out of the Civil War and Ran into Jim Crow

Preview thumbnail for video 'Drones Now Play an Active Role in Sea Turtle Census

Drones Now Play an Active Role in Sea Turtle Census

Photo of the day

Bohar Snappers aggregate in massive schools for mating every summer in Ras Mohammed National Park in the Egyptian Red Sea. As this school grew and moved around, at one moment in time, they appeared to take the shape of a dragon, opening its mouth and facing the diver photographer. Whether the dragon smiled or frowned to the human, we will never know. Diver and Dragon

History

Picasso in Place Ravignan in Montmartre in 1904

Why French Authorities Placed a Young Pablo Picasso Under Surveillance

Police suspected the 19-year-old Spanish expatriate of harboring anarchist views

“Marie Antoinette,” a new series premiering in the United States on March 19, is the first major English-language television show to tell the French queen’s story.

Why Marie Antoinette's Reputation Changes With Each Generation

Jews wearing yellow stars at the Kistarcsa concentration camp in Hungary in 1944

The Long History of Forcing Jews to Wear Anti-Semitic Badges

Science

A male (silver) and female (brown) common European adder meet prior to mating. Scientists are just beginning to understand female sexual anatomy in snakes.

Why Did Scientists Wait So Long to Study the Snake Clitoris?

The delay is representative of a major problem in biology: Female and intersex animals are understudied compared with their male counterparts

A cockatoo uses a sharp stick to poke through a membrane before using a scoop to fish out the cashew inside the box.

Like Humans and Chimps, Cockatoos Can Use a Set of Tools to Get a Meal

Industrialization changed Italy’s Bagnoli Bay. Analyzing the DNA that was trapped in sediment offers a record of what was lost—and a clue as to how to get it back.

DNA Buried in Sediment Helps Scientists Picture Past Ecosystems

Innovation

To collect a saliva sample, technicians instruct a person to tilt their head for two to five minutes and spit the accumulated saliva into a sterile tube. The saliva-filled tube is kept on ice and sent to the laboratory to test for the presence of biomarkers for cancer or other diseases.

Is Saliva the Next Frontier in Cancer Detection?

Scientists are finding tumor signals in spit that could be key to developing diagnostic tests for various types of cancer

A $25 million plan to uncover 1,100 feet of Jordan Creek and build three bridges is moving forward in Springfield, Missouri.

How 'Daylighting' Buried Waterways Is Revitalizing Cities Across America

The new suits will actually be all white, but Axiom Space showed off its prototype with a dark gray cover material.

See the New Moonwalk Spacesuit Designed for NASA's Artemis Program

Arts & Culture

Edward Brooke-Hitching's The Madman Gallery spotlights such artworks as John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame X, a statue of Glycon and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's Character Heads.

The Most Enigmatic Works in Art History

A new book highlights 100 artistic curiosities, from the nude "Mona Lisa" to portraits of a dog-headed saint

On the show, experts give contestants advice about Vermeer’s lost paintings.

Dutch Artists Compete to Paint Like Vermeer in New Reality Show

A 1903 photograph of Paul Laurence Dunbar

The Brief but Shining Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Poet Who Gave Dignity to the Black Experience

Travel

The rocky beach in Wrangell, Alaska, is decorated with more than 40 petroglyphs.

The Mystery of This Petroglyph-Covered Alaskan Beach

The 8,000-year-old rock carvings were likely created by the Tlingit

The sun sets over the Susquehanna River in northern Pennsylvania.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

More than 3,000 lunchboxes are on display inside the World's Largest Lunchbox Museum.

A Nostalgic Trip Awaits at the World's Largest Lunchbox Museum

At the Smithsonian

“A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China” (above: Chinese Landscape Series No. 3 by Huang Yan, 1999) continues at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. through January 7, 2024.

A Window Opens on China’s Avant-Garde With This Explosion of Photographic Art

The Hirshhorn Museum displays dynamic works of Chinese self-expression

During World War II, Executive Order 9066 authorized the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans (above: In Los Angeles in April 1942, dozens of families wait for a train to Manzanar War Relocation Center in Owens Valley, California).

Japanese American Artists Recall the Trauma of Wartime Incarceration

"The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist" premieres Friday, March 3 at 9 p.m. ET on MTV, and on the Smithsonian Channel Tuesday, March 7 at 9 p.m.

Behind the Scenes of the New Reality Series, ‘The Exhibit’