Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

A man in white dress sits with a thoughtful expression on his face outdoors, green and red foliage out of focus behind him. Old color film photo.

A Man of Peace: Grand Master Kim’s Vision for Chicago and the World

Digital illustration of a man in gray uniform standing in from an ornamental Chinese gate with red columns, tile roof, and Chinese characters.

Introducing Graphic Artist Jean Young’s Powerful New Visuals on the History of LA’s Chinatown

Interior of a church, with people seated in chairs and pews, and a person in reddish robe with black trim walking toward the pulpit.

For Centuries This London Church Has Ministered to the Spiritual Needs of the Journalists and the Media

Two protesters hold signs saying "You're on Abenaki land" and "This is Abenaki land."

This Land is Whose Land? Interrogating the Shortcomings of Settler Protest

This illustration shows Lady Liberty over the states that had adopted suffrage, in white.

A Glimpse Into New Mexico’s Suffrage Movement

A woman in a long, flowing red skirt, blurry with motion, dances in front of a line of people seated and playing barrel-shaped drums. Palm trees sway in the background.

The Sound of Resistance in Puerto Rican Bomba Connects La Perla Community

An illustration of an Asian woman with various symbols above her head including an American Flag, an "I voted" sticker, a ballot box, and a Chinese character.

The Weight of the Asian American Vote

Suffragists stand holding a banner quoting Susan B. Anthony: "No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex."

The Lasting Legacy of Suffragists at the Lorton Women’s Workhouse

A performance in an opera hall, looking sideways across the orchestra pit. The performers are both on stage, lit in blue on the left, and in the first rows of red seats, on the right.

A Catalan Opera Adapts Greek Myth to Understand the Refugee Crisis

Two civilians look at a poster featuring the face of Martin Luther King Jr., his head depicted beneath the words 'Nonviolence... Our Most Potent Weapon.'

MLK's Unswerving Commitment to Nonviolent Activism

Several men and women dressed in all black, standing in formation with a towering stone mountain behind them.

A Catalan Choir Reinterprets Musician Raimon’s Anti-Fascist Lyrics

(Photo courtesy of Sandra Chandler)

A Folkways Challenge Reveals a Love for Sacred Harp Singing in Georgia

The Indianola dock stretches out into the Puget Sound. Since time immemorial, the Suquamish Tribe has sourced their sustenance, folklore, and community from the salt waters and pebbly beaches of the sound. Photo by Julian White-Davis

The Struggle for Native Lands in Indianola, Washington

Photo courtesy of Alicia D. Williams

How Alicia D. Williams Is Reviving Storytelling for Black Children

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

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

Jim McDowell holds his jug, “Emmett Till.” (Photo By Rimas Zailskas, courtesy of Asheville Made Magazine)

Facing History: Lessons from the Potter’s Wheel

Categories
Archive