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Our 10th Annual Photo Contest Ends Today at 2 PM EST!

Enter your best shots by November 30th at 2 PM EST, and compete to win our grand prize!

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July Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

“Everybody needs beauty... places to play and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike,” wrote Muir (c. 1902).

John Muir’s Yosemite

The father of the conservation movement found his calling on a visit to the California wilderness

Christopher Henshilwood (in Blombos Cave) dug at one of the most important early human sites partly out of proximity—it’s on his grandfather’s property.

The Great Human Migration

Why humans left their African homeland 80,000 years ago to colonize the world

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Were “Hobbits” Human?

Debate rages over an Indonesian fossil find

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Showing Their Age

Dating the Fossils and Artifacts that Mark the Great Human Migration

View of Beirut, Lebanon, with palm and pine trees in the foreground

Times of Trouble

Flashpoints in Modern Lebanese History

Carleton Watkins stereograph of El Capitan in Yosemite

About Carleton Watkins

On the life and career of the 19th-century American landscape photographer who captured Yosemite in stereo

Quebec city's Parliament building, the site of the Place de l'Assembée-Nationale.

Let Me Be Franc

A Look Back for Quebec City’s 400th

The Sea Stallion from Glendalough

Raiders or Traders?

A replica Viking vessel sailing the North Sea has helped archaeologists figure out what the stalwart Norsemen were really up to

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Stouthearted Men

Brutal, yes, but also strong-willed

Beirut, from an apartment damaged by Hezbollah shelling. As sectarian tensions flared this past May, hostilities escalated. The renewal of violence dashed hopes that Lebanon could soon become -- once again -- "a freewheeling place where everybody could live his own life.”

Precarious Lebanon

For decades, this tiny Mediterranean nation of four million has segued between two identities

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Wild at Heart

A Yosemite program introduces kids to the great outdoors

Set like a jewel on the edge of Lake Como, the city of Como (its shoreline at dusk) is not just a tourist mecca but also an important center of the country’s silk industry, providing high-quality goods to the fashion houses of New York City, Paris and Milan.

Silken Treasure

The Italian city of Como, celebrated for its silk and scenery, has inspired notables from Leonardo da Vinci to Winston Churchill

Polo wrote of men with dogs’ features (a French illustration, c. 1412), among several other fantastic creatures.

Wonders and Whoppers

Following in Marco Polo’s footsteps through Asia leads our intrepid author to some surprising conclusions

At a major crossroads, Champagne has been at the center of European history during both war and peace for millennia. Named campania by the Romans for its high plains and open hills suitable for planting fields of grains, grapes, and other products, Champagne remains one of the most important and productive agricultural regions in France.

Snapshot: The Champagne Region

Celebrating the new year has become synonymous with drinking champagne, but the grapes are from an area steeped in history

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Water Works

French and Indian War: "The Night Council at Fort Necessity." Ilustration

The First “Teflon” Hero

What July 4th, 1754 reveals about George Washington’s survival skills

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Weekend Schedule for Folklife Festival

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Today’s Events at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Friday, June 27

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