Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

How much do you know about water?

Smithsonian Science Education Center

How Much Do You Know About Water?

Members of a delegation from the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians read names of the signers of the Treaty of Fort Wayne of 1809 as the museum prepares to place the treaty on exhibit. From left: Tribal Council Member Wayne (Alex) Wesaw, Council Chairman John P. Warren, Council Elders Representative Judy Winchester, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer; Jason S. Wesaw, and Council Vice Chairman Robert (Bob) Moody, Jr. National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C., September 2017. (Kevin Wolf/AP Images for National Museum of the American Indian)

National Museum of the American Indian

The Treaty of Fort Wayne, 1809—a treaty that led to war—goes on exhibit

A nocturnal Swallow-tailed Gull sneaks in an afternoon nap, purposefully placing its beak atop its back and under its feathers to rest its neck and stay warm. (Matthew Williams)

Smithsonian Science Education Center

How Nature Keeps Cool and Handles the Heat

Ningiukulu Teevee, (Canadian [Cape Dorset], b. 1963),

National Museum of the American Indian

Smithsonian in New York and the Embassy of Canada in Washington celebrate Arctic art

Onboard science leads Drs. Chris Mah and Chris Kelley and NOAA Educational Partnership Program Intern Nikola Rodriguez discuss and take a closer look at deepwater habitats explored with remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer on Horizon Guyot. (Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2017 Laulima O Ka Moana)

National Museum of Natural History

Can Technology Bring the Deep-Sea to You?

Starfish and other echinoderms are extremely important to the biodiversity of our oceans. (Image: Comstock Images/Stockbyte/Thinkstock)

Smithsonian Science Education Center

All About Starfish

The swearing in of Wilma Mankiller as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Charlie Soap holds the Bible; the others are unidentified. Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Foundation.

National Museum of the American Indian

Just doing "what I could," Wilma Mankiller changed Native America

The Q'eswachaka Bridge has been rebuilt continuously since the time of the Inkas. (Doug McMains, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian)

National Museum of the American Indian

Q’eswachaka, the Last Inka Suspension Bridge

The 2016 Arctic sea ice summertime minimum, reached on Sept. 10, is 911,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average minimum sea ice extent, shown here as a gold line (NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/C. Starr).

National Museum of Natural History

Can Science Help Policymakers Create the Arctic Policies We Need Right Now?

From left to right: Zack “Doc” Battiest, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, and Spencer Battiest in the music video

National Museum of the American Indian

Musician Spencer Battiest talks heritage, motivation, and Standing Rock ahead of museum concerts

A new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History will dive deep into the Arctic world of narwhals to explore what makes this mysterious animal and its changing ecosystem unique and important. “Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend” will present Inuit perspectives on their relationship with narwhals and the latest scientific knowledge about these animals, while illuminating the interconnectedness among narwhals, people and their ecosystems (Smithsonian Institution).

National Museum of Natural History

Narwhals, Narwhals, Swimming in the...Smithsonian?

Michelle Tovar during her LMSP fellowship in 2015, viewing the Dolores Huerta exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

National Museum of the American Latino

Michelle Tovar Works to Incorporate Local Narratives in the Telling of Bracero Program History

Native artists sharing experiences and their thoughts on design and inspiration. From left: Fashion and textile historian Regan Loggans, fashion designer Patricia Michaels, fashion designer Niio Perkins, fashion designer and multimedia artist Loren Aragon, artist and apparel designer Jared Yazzie, fashion model Jade Willoughby, and editorial hair stylist Amy Farid.

National Museum of the American Indian

Makers + Mentors: Hands-on with leaders of Native fashion

Ginkgo biloba leaves could be the key to reconstructing past changes in carbon dioxide and climate (Rich Barclay, Smithsonian).

National Museum of Natural History

Can You Help Us Clear The Fossil Air?

Visitors to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., viewing the Removal Act of 1830. Photo for the National Archives by Jessica Deibert

National Museum of the American Indian

Thinking about the Indian Removal Act, at the National Archives Museum and National Museum of the American Indian

A 1948 Indian Chief motorcycle, a loan from the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, is on view in the atrium of the museum. When Americans opens in the fall, the motorcycle will be moved to the exhibition gallery.

National Museum of the American Indian

The exhibition Americans, opening in October, previews with a 1948 Indian Chief motorcycle

Before its residence at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, this pressed plant (Cyananthus macrocalyx subspecies spathulifolius) was housed at London's Natural History Museum where it survived a bombing during World War II (Photo Credit: Ingrid P. Lin, Smithsonian).

National Museum of Natural History

Are Pressed Plants Windows Into World History?

Poet and spoken word artist Autumn White Eyes. (Angel White Eyes for Red Cloud School)

National Museum of the American Indian

Writing as Cathartic Practice and with Intention toward the Audience: Autumn White Eyes on Poetry

Will the Blue Marble Stay Blue? This famous Earth photo, known as The Blue Marble, was taken on December 7, 1972 by astronauts on the Apollo 17 spacecraft – the last manned lunar mission that provided humans with such an opportunity. Beautiful and fragile, the Blue Marble became a symbol of the environmental movement and part of the official Earth Day flag (Photo credit: NASA).

National Museum of Natural History

This Earth Day, the Planet’s Health is Your Health

Each species of tinamou—a nearly-flightless bird from South and Central America—lays a different color of glossy egg. The males build the nest and incubate the eggs, while the females nest-hop, laying eggs in multiple nests. Visit our #ObjectsofWonder exhibit to see the eggs of tinamous and other bird species (Photo Credit: Paul Fetters for the Smithsonian).

National Museum of Natural History

This Easter, Forget Everything You Know About the Egg Hunt