National Museum of Natural History

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has hundreds of scientists, researchers, curators and collection managers who connect people everywhere to life’s unfolding story. Here is a sampling of the unique voices that make up the chorus of ideas at the museum.

While this year’s Arctic sea ice extended further than last year’s, there still wasn’t as much of it as there was only two decades ago. Thinner and younger sea ice in winter and less ice in the summer are two of the many elements of the Arctic’s new reality. (Credit: Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard. Public domain.)

Climate Change Redefines What 'Normal' Means in the Arctic

June 3rd, 2021, 6:00AM

/ BY Abigail Eisenstadt

These walrus ivory carvings were collected in the mid-1880s. They were featured in a catalogue for the exhibition

How Arctic Anthropologists are Expanding Narratives about the North

January 26th, 2021, 6:00AM

/ BY Abigail Eisenstadt

The Chaco Canyon chocolate-drinking jars have a distinct shape, with connections to similarly shaped Mayan vessels. After testing distinguishable jar fragments from an excavated trash pile in in the canyon, archaeologists determined all of the drinking jars were used to consume cacao. (A336494, A336499, A336493, James Di Loreto, Smithsonian)

What Chocolate-Drinking Jars Tell Indigenous Potters Now

July 7th, 2020, 11:49AM

/ BY Abigail Eisenstadt

“Vai” is one of more than 20 films celebrating language and cultural diversity at the Smithsonian’s fifth annual Mother Tongue Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of MPI Media)

See Indigenous Films at the Mother Tongue Film Festival

February 18th, 2020, 12:50PM

/ BY Anna Torres

Sgaawaay K’uuna is one of more than 20 films celebrating language diversity that will be screened at the Smithsonian's Mother Tongue Film Festival. (Still from Sgaawaay K’uuna (Edge of the Knife))

Don’t Miss These Award-Winning Films at the Mother Tongue Film Festival

February 19th, 2019, 1:07PM

/ BY Anna Torres

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian highlights the ways in which American Indians have been part of the nation’s identity since before the country began. (Ernest Amoroso, Smithsonian)

New Exhibit Reveals Indians Everywhere...Except in Your Textbooks

April 9th, 2018, 3:29PM

/ BY Gwyneira Isaac

Tlingit Killer Whale Clan Hat digitized and repatriated by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 2005. (Nick Partridge, Smithsonian)

Is 3D Technology the Key to Preserving Indigenous Cultures?

November 29th, 2017, 12:27PM

/ BY Eric Hollinger & Nick Partridge

Four views of a Shee aan. SI Catalog #E7899. (Brittany M. Hance, Smithsonian)

3D Technology May Revive this Ancient Hunting Tool

October 25th, 2017, 12:42PM

/ BY Eric Hollinger & Nick Partridge

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