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Latest Features

Consumer products made from carbon capture can't undo the damage we’ve done to our planet—but each of them exists thanks to innovations that could. 

INNOVATION

Little Luxuries Made With Captured Pollution Hint at Big Frontiers in Climate Science

Patrons at the Eldorado, a popular LGBTQ cabaret in Berlin during the Weimar years

HISTORY

New Research Reveals How the Nazis Targeted Transgender People

Why can't we stop anthropomorphizing our animal friends and foes?

SCIENCE

Are Wild Animals Really Just Like Us?

BirdCast’s newest advances provide detailed flight forecasts of millions of birds.

SCIENCE

Four Amazing Impacts of This A.I.-Powered Bird Migration Tracker

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is on the grounds of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

TRAVEL

How an Ohio Cow Pasture Gave Rise to a Monument to Aviation History

An artist’s illustration of Quetzalcoatlus flying

SCIENCE

How Pterosaurs Might Inform the Next Generation of Flight

Outdoor pool at The Pines in So. Fallsburg, NY, 1979.

TRAVEL

The Borscht Belt Was a Haven for Generations of Jewish Americans

On September 18, 1873, an investment bank owned by Jay Cooke, who financed the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway, went bankrupt, sparking a multiyear financial crisis.

HISTORY

How One Robber Baron's Gamble on Railroads Brought Down His Bank and Plunged the U.S. Into the First Great Depression

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine September/October 2023 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Travel

The Borscht Belt Was a Haven for Generations of Jewish Americans

A new exhibition examines the more than 1,000 resorts and hotels that dotted New York's Catskills Mountains and provided relaxation, dancing and laughs

2.

Smart News

Why the National Zoo Is Saying Goodbye to Its Giant Pandas

Staff remain hopeful that members of the threatened species will be back in Washington in the near future

3.

Smart News

Mysterious 3,800-Year-Old Canaanite Arch and Stairway Unearthed in Israel

Researchers don't know the purpose of the brick arch, which leads to a set of stairs descending deeper underground

4.

Smart News

Human Cells Display a Mathematical Pattern That Repeats in Nature and Language

New research suggests adult humans have between 28 trillion and 36 trillion cells, which follow a commonly seen distribution of size and mass

5.

Smart News

Alleged Alien Corpses Displayed to Mexican Congress Did Not Convince Scientists

Self-described UFO expert Jaime Maussan, whose claims of extraterrestrials have been debunked in the past, said the specimens were "non-human"

Smithsonian Voices
Smithsonian Books

Protecting Our Ocean Planet with the National Marine Sanctuary System

National Museum of Natural History

I Spy… A Giant Squid Eye

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

A High-Tech Approach to Giraffe Conservation

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

Drawn to Art Returns With Ten New Digital Comics About Inspiring Women

National Museum of Natural History

Meet the Smithsonian Scientist Untangling the Branches of Hawaii’s Evolutionary Tree

Smithsonian Books

Remembering Johnny Cash's Activism 20 Years After His Death

See All

Special Report
The Smithsonian's Race and Our Shared Future: Reckoning With Our Racial Past initiative centers on six pillars.

Race in America

To mark the Smithsonian's multi-year initiative, Our Shared Future: Reckoning With Our Racial Past, which will confront the history and legacy of race and racism through live and virtual events, pop-up exhibitions, digital resources, and other offerings, Smithsonian magazine has compiled this collection of relevant coverage.

View Full Report

Featured Stories

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on Why the Smithsonian Is Talking About Race

158 Resources for Understanding Systemic Racism in America

The Relationship Between Race and Wellness Has Never Been More Pressing

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Smithsonian Channel

Preview thumbnail for video 'A Baby Seal's First Solo Venture Into the Water

A Baby Seal's First Solo Venture Into the Water

Play
Preview thumbnail for video 'A Rare Pair of Chicks for the Exotic and Endangered Takahe

A Rare Pair of Chicks for the Exotic and Endangered Takahe

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

Unfathomable Cruelty at the Heart of Hitler’s Russian Invasion

Photo of the day

Late afternoon fog over Sausalito, California. This image was taken while flying my plane. Waves of Fog

History

Patrons at the Eldorado, a popular LGBTQ cabaret in Berlin during the Weimar years

New Research Reveals How the Nazis Targeted Transgender People

Last year, a German court officially recognized the persecution of trans people by Adolf Hitler's regime

On September 18, 1873, an investment bank owned by Jay Cooke, who financed the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway, went bankrupt, sparking a multiyear financial crisis.

How One Robber Baron's Gamble on Railroads Brought Down His Bank and Plunged the U.S. Into the First Great Depression

A German general ordered his troops to “destroy Viannos and promptly execute all males beyond the age of 16, as well as everyone who was arrested in the countryside, irrespective of age or gender.”

When the Nazis Massacred Greek Civilians to Send a Warning to Those Who Resisted

Science

An Azores bullfinch feeds on the buds of a native tree on São Miguel Island in the Azores.

One of Europe’s Most Endangered Birds Is Bouncing Back

Twenty years of habitat restoration has helped the once critically endangered Azores bullfinch

Savannah elephants walk through tall grass in Tsavo, a region in south-eastern Kenya. Trouble often begins when elephants stray from a protected area into human-dominated landscapes.

Inside the Effort to Prevent Conflict Between Humans and Elephants in Africa

The female whale was found stranded in January on a beach near Palm Coast, Florida.

How an Orca Skeleton Made Its Way From Florida to the Smithsonian

Innovation

Lab-grown chicken produced by GOOD Meat

Lab-Grown Meat Can Be Kosher or Halal, According to Religious Authorities

The approvals bring cultivated meat one step closer to becoming a feasible alternative to traditional meat for a wider audience

Sholes and Glidden gussied up an early model with floral ornaments, in imitation of sewing machines.

Where Did the QWERTY Keyboard Come From?

Smoke from wildfires in Canada blankets the New York City skyline in a haze in July 2023.

New Satellite Tracking Air Pollution Releases Its First Images

Arts & Culture

Arthur Brand poses with The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1884.

Stolen van Gogh Painting Worth Millions Returned in an Ikea Bag

Arthur Brand, the "Indiana Jones of the art world," negotiated the recovery of an 1884 canvas taken from a Dutch museum in March 2020

As part of its ongoing support of Ukraine after the Russian invasion, the Metropolitan Opera has commissioned a work based on true stories of Ukrainian mothers rescuing their abducted children.

An Upcoming Opera Will Tell the Story of Ukraine's Kidnapped Children

Pia the Peacekeeper sits under the trees on Bainbridge Island in Washington.

See the Whimsical Trolls Taking Over the Pacific Northwest

Travel

Outdoor pool at The Pines in So. Fallsburg, NY, 1979.

The Borscht Belt Was a Haven for Generations of Jewish Americans

A new exhibition examines the more than 1,000 resorts and hotels that dotted New York's Catskills Mountains and provided relaxation, dancing and laughs

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is on the grounds of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

How an Ohio Cow Pasture Gave Rise to a Monument to Aviation History

This fall, Guernsey is celebrating the 140th anniversary of Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir's visit in 1883.

Five Places Worth Traveling to This Fall

At the Smithsonian

Tian Tian playing in the snow. Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and their son Xiao Qi Ji will return to China by December 7.

Why the National Zoo Is Saying Goodbye to Its Giant Pandas

Staff remain hopeful that members of the threatened species will be back in Washington in the near future

The female whale was found stranded in January on a beach near Palm Coast, Florida.

How an Orca Skeleton Made Its Way From Florida to the Smithsonian

Installation view of Jessica Diamond: Wheel Of Life at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2023. Acrylic and latex paint on wall.

The Painted Poetry of Jessica Diamond