Smithsonian Magazine: Explore History, Science, Arts & Culture

After a trolley conductor accused Alice Stebbins Wells of using her husband's police badge to avoid paying for public transit, the Los Angeles Police Department allowed her to wear a more feminine uniform of her own design, along with a special “Policewoman’s Badge No. 1.”

Armed With Just a Badge, Los Angeles' First Policewoman Protected the City's Most Vulnerable in the Early 20th Century

Appointed in 1910, Alice Stebbins Wells patrolled dance halls, skating rinks, penny arcades and movie theaters, keeping these public spaces free of vice and immorality

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

Smart News

These Were the Most—and Least—Visited National Parks in 2024

March 17, 2025 4:50 p.m.

Could This Prehistoric Burial Site Have Influenced the Construction of Stonehenge?

March 17, 2025 2:25 p.m.

James Webb Space Telescope Reveals That Most Galaxies Rotate Clockwise

March 17, 2025 12:21 p.m.

Restoration Reveals the Secrets of One of Winston Churchill's Most Beloved Paintings

March 17, 2025 11:29 a.m.

Avian Flu Is Rapidly Spreading Across Antarctica

March 17, 2025 10:46 a.m.

A Hunter Was Out Looking for Deer in West Texas. He Found a Rare Mammoth Tusk Instead

March 17, 2025 7:00 a.m.

Latest Features

A gold-green sweat bee lands on a common boneset flower in Hull, Massachusetts. The bee is a pollen generalist, visiting a wide range of plants.

This Intrepid Team of Bee Lovers Are Doing Everything They Can to Save Rare Native Species From Extinction

April/May 2025

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

March 17, 2025 10:38 a.m.

The statue Brooklyn by Daniel Chester French being hoisted at the Brooklyn Museum in 1964

Over the Last 200 Years, a Small Library Became One of New York City’s Biggest Museums. A New Showcase Tells the Story of Its Unique Legacy

March 14, 2025

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

March 14, 2025

During conversations, interjections act as vital traffic signals.

Huh? Interjections Are Critically Important to Communication

March 14, 2025

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

March 13, 2025

After a trolley conductor accused Alice Stebbins Wells of using her husband's police badge to avoid paying for public transit, the Los Angeles Police Department allowed her to wear a more feminine uniform of her own design, along with a special “Policewoman’s Badge No. 1.”

Armed With Just a Badge, Los Angeles' First Policewoman Protected the City's Most Vulnerable in the Early 20th Century

March 13, 2025

Reno’s downtown, where paved surfaces gather heat and buildings block cooling breezes, can feel stifling on a hot summer day.

Citizen Scientists Are Hitting the Streets of the Country's Fastest-Warming Cities to Collect Detailed Temperature Data

March 12, 2025

Current Issue
March 2025

Smithsonian magazine March 2025 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Clay Puppets With Open Mouths and Detachable Heads That 'Resemble Modern Toy Dolls'

The figurines were discovered in a largely unexcavated site in El Salvador. Some 2,400 years ago, they were controlled by strings that passed through their necks

2.

Man Discovers Message in a Bottle Hidden Above a Historic Scottish Theater's Stage, Untouched for Nearly 120 Years

A theater patron found the glass bottle behind a decorative crown positioned 40 feet above the stage. The note was dated 1906, the year the King's Theater opened in Edinburgh

3.

Is Corned Beef Really Irish?

The rise and fall and rise of the traditional St. Patrick's Day meal

4.

The Mystery of the World's Oldest Writing System Remained Unsolved Until Four Competitive Scholars Raced to Decipher It

In the 1850s, cuneiform was just a series of baffling scratches on clay, waiting to spill the secrets of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia

5.

See the New Tartan Pattern Created to Honor Women Accused of Witchcraft in Scotland Between 1563 and 1736

The black, red, gray and pink design honors the thousands of individuals—mostly women—who were persecuted under the Scottish Witchcraft Act

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

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10 Fun Facts About Jellyfish

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The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

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10 Enchanting Butterfly Facts Revealed!

Photo of the day

Here you see a basketball court at a local playground. A rainy, foggy day it was and
no one is out playing. I am not a fan of bouncing a basketball on a wet court.

Rainy Day On the Court

History

A statue of Clementina Rind, a trailblazing publisher and printer who took over the Virginia Gazette after her husband's death, is featured in the Virginia Women's Monument.

Newly Discovered Letters Illuminate the Life of a Female Printer Who Published Revolutionary Texts and Pushed the Colonies Toward Independence

As Virginia's first female newspaper publisher, Clementina Rind emphasized women's viewpoints and collaborated with prominent politicians like Thomas Jefferson

The president of Poland, the senior United States senator from Illinois and much of the Chicago political machine gathered beneath this painting, Pulaski at Savannah, on the first Monday in March.

Discover the Short Life and Long Legacy of Casimir Pulaski, a Polish Cavalry Officer Who Became an American Revolutionary Hero

Gertrud Eysoldt as Salome in a Berlin production of Oscar Wilde's notorious play, circa 1902

Why Oscar Wilde's Play About a Biblical Temptress Was Banned From the British Stage for Decades

Science

Before taking samples, students carefully examined the environment.

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

The budding scientists collected the tiny water bears in a massive citizen science project that involved almost 30,000 participants

Individual Antarctic krill are small, but the animals live in gigantic groups that can be seen from space.

Tiny Antarctic Krill Benefit the Planet in Big Ways, but Face a Barrage of Threats

Don’t let the placid and bland surface fool you—Uranus is a singularly dynamic planet.

The Six Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Uranus

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

A view of "The Sims 4" during the EA press conference for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) on June 9, 2014, in Los Angeles, California

'The Sims' Turned Mere Mortals Into Gods. Twenty-Five Years Later, the Addictive Computer Game Is Still Going Strong

The audience for the trailblazing life simulation game has stuck around through new editions, expansion packs and designs to keep playing

Works like Tissot's The Convalescent (1872), pictured here, reflect a sense of unease over a modernizing society that was sweeping women up in its fray.

These Stunning 19th-Century Artworks Reveal the Contradictions of the Modern Woman

Zora Neale Hurston wanted to tell the world about the "real ... historical Herod, instead of the deliberately folklore Herod."

Why Was Zora Neale Hurston So Obsessed With the Biblical Villain Herod the Great?

At the Smithsonian

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

In a new book release, two scientists combine forces to explain the discoveries, developments and theories made in the realm of the densest objects in space

A group of women sewing a quilt on the porch of a property in Georgia, May 1939

From the Antebellum South to the Civil Rights Movement, Black American Women Have Long Told Their Stories Through Quilts

A view of the exhibition “Tsedaye Makonnen—Sanctuary :: Mekdes” at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art

These Seven Stunning Towers Memorialize Lost Black Lives With Mirrors, Light and Ethiopian Cross Designs