Avant-garde photographer Man Ray may have written his name with a penlight in his self-portrait titled Space Writings.

Man Ray’s Signature Work

Artist Man Ray mischievously scribbled his name in a famous photograph, but it took decades for the gesture to be discovered

Ansel Adams wrote of an "inevitable conflict" between the accuracy of color film and people's subjective reaction to colors.

Ansel Adams in Color

As a new book shows, not everything in the photographer’s philosophy was black and white

This dance stick (c. 1890) was created by the warrior No Two Horns to honor his horse being killed at Little Big Horn.

What’s Up

Simeon Wright, 67, is Emmett Till's cousin and was with him the night Till was kidnapped and murdered.

Emmett Till’s Casket Goes to the Smithsonian

Simeon Wright recalls the events surrounding his cousin’s murder and the importance of having the casket on public display

John Marshall began filming the Ju/'hoansi people in 1950. Later, he set up a foundation to help the tribe in its struggle for self-determination.

Recording the Ju/’hoansi for Posterity

For 50 years, John Marshall documented one of Africa’s last remaining hunter- gatherer tribes in more than 700 hours of film footage

A National Postal Museum exhibition includes postage stamps that President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped design. FDR's stamps helped him relax.

From the Castle - FDR’s Stamps

FDR’s Stamps

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Letters

Readers Respond to the September Issue

Artist Janice Lowry regarded the notebooks as “126 chapters of a memoir.” Her life’s journey, chronicled in her diaries, ended Sept. 20, 2009, when she succumbed to liver cancer.

Drawn From Life

Artist Janice Lowry’s illustrated diaries record her history—and ours

Art historian Henry Adams contends that Pollock created Mural around his name, discernible as camouflaged letters.

Decoding Jackson Pollock

Did the Abstract Expressionist hide his name amid the swirls and torrents of a legendary 1943 mural?

Smithsonian Institution Building, "The Castle"

Dan Brown’s Smithsonian: Fact or Fiction?

The Nike Zoom Victory Spike is among the showcase of winners honored by the National Design Awards.

What’s Up

After Xiangmei Gu takes off the backing, she saves the brittle fragments in her record books, which date back two decades and line the shelves in her office.

Restoring Artwork to its Former Glory

With a steady hand, Xiangmei Gu wields paintbrushes and tweezers as the Smithsonian’s only conservator of Chinese paintings

The Grateful Dead's Hart: Still thinking about the cosmos.

From the Castle

Mind-Meld

Artist Mark Newport replaces the flashy capes and skin-tight garments of comic book superheroes with soft, hand-knit costumes.

Q and A: Mark Newport

Costume designer Mark Newport talks about knitting outfits for superheroes, both famous (Batman) and unknown (Sweaterman)

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Letters

Readers Respond to the July and August Issues

Did artist Verrocchio delegate two figures in his Beheading of St. John the Baptist to his prize pupil Leonardo da Vinci?

Looking for Leonardo

Are figures in a Florentine altar panel attributed to Italian artist Andrea del Verrocchio actually by Leonardo da Vinci?

Amy Herman at the Metropolitan Museum with Sargent's Madame X asks her class of cops, "How would you describe this woman in one sentence?"

Teaching Cops to See

At New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Amy Herman schools police in the fine art of deductive observation

Anne Truitt in her Twining Court studio, Washington, DC, 1962.

Anne Truitt’s Artistic Journey

Balancing the two lives of a Washington, D.C. sculptor—1950s hostess and emergent artist

Josiah Wedgwood's innovative products gained popularity and by 1763, he was filling orders for kings, queens and nobles.

250 Years of Wedgwood

Two new exhibitions celebrate the enduring wares of ceramics designer and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood

With a degree in English, biology and education, actor Tom Cavanagh holds his own on Smithsonian Channel's award-winning series, "Stories from the Vaults."

Q and A: Smithsonian Channel Host Tom Cavanagh

Actor Tom Cavanagh discusses what it is like to go behind the scenes of the Smithsonian museums

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