Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

A participant from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's

Smithsonian Education

Understanding the Power of Primary Sources through Home, Hand, and Heart

John Wanamaker, New York, NY. Spring & Summer Catalog (1915), front cover. (Smithsonian Libraries and Archives)

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

Looking at Leisure through Early 20th Century Trade Catalogs

Dom Pedro aquamarine was cut from a 100-pound crystal that was mined in the late 1980s. It weighs around 4.6 pounds, making it one of the largest aquamarine gemstones in the world. (Donald E. Hurlbert, Smithsonian)

National Museum of Natural History

How the World’s Largest Aquamarine Gem Came to Be

Photo courtesy of Alicia D. Williams

Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

How Alicia D. Williams Is Reviving Storytelling for Black Children

Smithsonian Summer Virtual Adventures will be held from June 21 through Aug. 27. (Smithsonian Associates)

Smithsonian Associates

Smithsonian Summer Virtual Adventures Offer Live Learning Experiences for Kids

Master basket weaver Arthur Petrosyan sits and works on a project. (Photo by Narek Harutyunyan, My Armenia Program)

Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

Travel the Sweetest Route through Vayots Dzor and Syunik, Armenia

Sylvester Musembi Musyoka, a Kenyan colleague and field crew leader, recording a large mammal fossil bone during a virtual field project to collect fossils in Kenyan excavation sites that were in danger of being damaged by severe weather. (Nzioki Mativo/Smithsonian)

National Museum of Natural History

How the Pandemic Changed Scientific Exploration

A quarantine sign used in Connecticut (NMAH)

National Museum of American History

How Failed Quarantines Led to 20th-Century Measles Outbreaks

Children participate in a hands-on science activity with the Smithsonian Latino Center for a Dia del Niño festival hosted by LA Plaza de Cultura y Arte in Los Angeles, California. (Smithsonian Latino Center)

Smithsonian Education

Bringing the Smithsonian to Learners Beyond the Museum

Foster mother, BD, feeds her adopted vampire bat pup in a captive bat colony at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa, Panama (surveillance camera image from Gerry Carter lab)

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Baby Vampire Bat Adopted by Mom's Best Friend

A female ruby-throated hummingbird sips nectar from a flower.

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

How Do You Weigh a Hummingbird?

(ILLUSTRATION Evan Keeling)

Your IMPACT | Your Smithsonian

Moments of Innovation

(IMAGE Deanna Luu)

Your IMPACT | Your Smithsonian

Building the Smithsonian

Luisa Moreno stands on a balcony in Mexico City, 1927 (NMAH)

National Museum of American History

The Case of Luisa Moreno

Bryophytes in the tropics are threatened due to lack of information and research. (Jorge Alemán, STRI)

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Tiny Plants in a Big Changing World

Barbara Dane with the Chambers Brothers at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. (Photo by Diana Davies, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives)

Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

How Barbara Dane Carries a Proud Tradition of Singing Truth to Power

Hopper and a colleague examine a sequence mechanism (NMAH)

National Museum of American History

Grace Under Pressure

Meet Sruthi, a National Geographic Young Explorer and aspiring eco-journalist.

Earth Optimism

Meet Sruthi Gurudev: Aspiring Eco-Journalist and Ocean Conservationist

Jessica Cox sitting in her Ercoupe. (Photo courtesy of Jessica Cox)

Smithsonian Affiliations

Jessica Cox Flies in the Face of Challenges

The cyanobacteria species that produces gatorbulin-1, tentatively identified as Lyngbya confervoides, forms these reddish-green, hair-like structures which are a collection of connected single cells rather than a true multicellular organism. (Raphael Ritson-Williams)

National Museum of Natural History

Scientists Find Blue-Green Algae Chemical with Cancer Fighting Potential