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Juliette Gordon Low by Edward Hughes, 1887

The Girl Scouts Celebrate 100 Years — Learning More About Juliette Gordon Low

“Once a girl scout, always a girl scout” is the defining motto of an exhibition devoted to the founder of the organization

Now celebrating its 100-year history, the Girl Scouts is the largest educational organization for girls in the world, with 3.3 million current members.

The Very First Troop Leader

A new biography tells the story of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts

Halo 2 is a first-person shooter game that allows for multiple players as well as online competition. According to video game designer Kellee Santiago, "The music, the visuals, the character designs—they were all taken to a whole new level."

The Essentials: Video Games

Designer Kellee Santiago picks five artful video games that tell the history of the medium

The 20 Best Food Trucks in the United States

The food truck revolution is in full force as mobile restaurants around the country dish out tacos, BBQ and other great eats

President William Howard Taft and his sons, Robert, right, and Charles Phelps.

When the Country’s Founding Father Is Your Founding Father

The descendants of American presidents are the athletic trainers, lawyers, salesmen and executives of everyday life

The Godfather Effect looks at how the film saga portrays Italian-Americans and what that has meant to author Tom Santopietro, the film industry and the country.

What is The Godfather Effect?

An obsessed film buff (and Italian-American) reflects on the impact of Francis Ford Coppola’s blockbuster trilogy

The Martin Agency has created the jingles for Freecreditreport.com, "Peggy," the worthless customer service agent for Discover Card and the caveman, shown here, for Geico.

What Makes an Ad Successful?

With over 30 years of experience in the industry, John Adams shares what it takes to make a great Super Bowl advertisement

Author Charles Dickens is best known for his memorable cast of characters, including Ebenezer Scrooge, David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, shown here.

The Essentials: Charles Dickens

What are the must-read books written by and about the famed British author?

terra cibus no. 4: fortune cookie

A Closer Look at What You Eat

A photographer uses a scanning electron microscope to zoom in on everyday foods—and makes art

John Kress, a Smithsonian botanist, suggests Dominica's Morne Trois Pitons National Park for an evolution vacation.

A Smithsonian Botanist Suggests an Evotourism Site

We turned to John Kress, an expert on how plants and birds co-evolved over time, for his pick for an evolution vacation

In 2007, cartoonist Kate Beaton, pictured on the right in a self-portrait, launched her webcomic "Hark! A Vagrant," which features spoofs on historical and literary characters.

Finding the Humor in History

The irreverent take on the giants of literature, science and politics could only have come from the brain of cartoonist Kate Beaton

Three-toed horses such as Cormohipparion occidentale were adapted to forests prior to 12 million years ago. As the climate dried, one-toed horses became prevalent.

Evolution World Tour: Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska

Prehistoric rhinoceroses and horses died of volcanic ash inhalation 12 million years ago – their fossils are studied now as an example of natural selection

Matthew Carrano, a paleontologist with the National Museum of Natural History, recommends Dinosaur State Park in Connecticut for those evotourists interested in dinosaurs.

A Smithsonian Paleontologist Suggests His Evotourism Sites

For even more ideas on where to take an evolution vacation, we turned to one of our own dinosaur experts

Articles about beer and web memes are featured in our top 10 but which article is the most popular?

Our Top 10 Stories of 2011

From Civil War mustaches to Mayan lost cities to myths about the brain, here are the most-read stories of the year

Curator Carlene Stephens, on left, and collections manager Shari Stout look at a glass disc containing a sound recording from the 1880s.

From the Collections, Sound Recordings Heard for the First Time

The National Museum of American History recovers sound from recordings that have been silenced for over a century

Secretary of State William Seward, far right, with British Minister Lord Lyons, sitting third from right, and other international diplomats at Trenton Falls in New York.

The Unknown Contributions of Brits in the American Civil War

Historian Amanda Foreman discusses how British citizens took part in the war between the Union and the Confederacy

As curator of the White House, William G. Allman is responsible for studying and preserving the 50,000 pieces of art and décor in the residence's permanent collection.

Q and A With William G. Allman

The curator of the White House talks about the history of the President’s mansion and how to protect the collections from tipsy visitors

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-400 D

Airplanes, Suspended in Time, at the Air and Space Museum

In his photographs, now on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Jeffrey Milstein bares the bellies of airplanes

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart Entertains at the Smithsonian

Marc Pachter, of the NMAH, will be interviewing the queen of domesticity this Thursday night. But we had a few words with her first

Laetitia Plaisance searches for crustaceans in a piece of dead coral.

Corals Crawling With Crustaceans

Smithsonian scientist Laetitia Plaisance talks about her recent study and its finding that coral reefs support even more biodiversity that we thought

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