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AT THE SMITHSONIAN

A Peculiar, Short-Lived Office at the Smithsonian Once Explored Reports of Bizarre Natural Phenomena

This portrait of Cristina Roccati (left) is by the contemporary Italian painter and engraver Matteo Massagrande. In the background is the only depiction of Roccati (right) from the 18th century.

SCIENCE

How an 18th-Century Female Physicist Broke Boundaries and Inspired the Generations Who Followed

 Pilgrims at the Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini offer candles on the lunar date celebrated as the Buddha’s birthday.

HISTORY

What Archaeologists Are Uncovering About the Buddha in His Legendary Nepali Hometown

Flannery O'Connor with peacocks in the driveway of her family home at Andalusia Farm in 1962

HISTORY

Flannery O'Connor Wanted to Shake Her Readers Awake. Her Family Wanted Her to Write the Next 'Gone With the Wind'

More than a third of endometriosis patients are misdiagnosed with mental health conditions.

SCIENCE

For Some Women With Serious Physical Ailments, Mental Illness Has Become a Scapegoat Diagnosis

Stonehenge casts shadows from the past in this aerial photo taken in 2006.

HISTORY

How Far Did Neolithic Britons Carry Stonehenge's Most Famous Boulder?

The Vicus Caprarius (City of Water), an underground museum that includes an ancient apartment complex, was discovered in 1999-2001.

TRAVEL

Explore Rome's Hidden Underworld, Where a City Lurks Beneath a City

Blue jeans poison dart frogs cannot be handled since their skin—not made of denim—is extremely toxic.  

SCIENCE

See Fantastic Frogs in 15 Fun Photographs

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine March 2025 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Smart News

This Painting of Lounging Lions Was Hanging in a Family's Living Room. It Turned Out to Be an Original Delacroix

Titled "Study of Reclining Lions," the previously unknown work by the renowned French Romantic painter has been owned by a family in France since the mid-1800s

2.

Travel

Explore Rome's Hidden Underworld, Where a City Lurks Beneath a City

A journey into the vast subterranean grounds preserved under Rome—from ancient aqueducts and apartment buildings to pagan shrines

3.

Science

For Some Women With Serious Physical Ailments, Mental Illness Has Become a Scapegoat Diagnosis

Patients with difficult-to-diagnose conditions like endometriosis are often sent home with diagnoses like anxiety or bipolar disorder

4.

History

How Far Did Neolithic Britons Carry Stonehenge's Most Famous Boulder?

In a find that provides insights into the remarkable abilities of these ancient humans, new research studying the chemical footprint of the rock identified the source to be more than 400 miles away

5.

Smart News

Discover the 14,000 Ancient Roman Artifacts Just Donated to the London Museum

Among the items are sandals, pottery and Britain's largest collection of Roman writing tablets, bearing IOU notes and gossip in stunningly well-preserved wax

Smithsonian Voices
National Museum of Natural History

How Do You Clean an 11-Ton Elephant? One Brushstroke at a Time

Office of the Secretary of the Smithsonian

This Stellar Smithsonian Program Will Bring the Wonders of the Universe to the Classroom

Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

Native American Women Warriors Protect Culture, Community and the Future

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

How Even the Smallest Organisms Can Shape Entire Ecosystems and Inspire Lasting Change

National Museum of American History

Museum Happenings This April: Jazz Appreciation Month, Events & More

Smithsonian Education

Unearthing Connections to Plants, Gardens and the Natural World Around Us

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

This is the morning autumn hour above Cascate del Mulino natural hot spring in Tuscany, Italy. Only the morning hours give the opportunity to take a bath not among the crowds but relatively free from them. The number of visitors inreases exponential in a daytime ;) Warm Bath

History

Flannery O'Connor with peacocks in the driveway of her family home at Andalusia Farm in 1962

Flannery O'Connor Wanted to Shake Her Readers Awake. Her Family Wanted Her to Write the Next 'Gone With the Wind'

This year marks the writer's 100th birthday. Through fiction anchored in her Southern background and Catholic faith, O'Connor revealed how candid confrontations with darkness lead to moments of reckoning

A 19th-century lithograph of Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death" speech

Discover Patrick Henry's Legacy, Beyond His Revolutionary 'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death' Speech

Mark Rylance (left) and Damian Lewis (right) as Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII in "Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light"

The Real Story Behind 'Wolf Hall' and the Fall of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's Most Controversial Adviser

Science

The Barry Arm landslide in Alaska’s Prince William Sound

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

If the landslide at the Barry Arm fjord collapses, its falling ice and rock could generate a devastating 650-foot-high tsunami

Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin at Harvard College Observatory

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

Before taking samples, students carefully examined the environment.

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

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