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American Mine (Nevada 1), 2007 Tailing ponds from gold mines outside of Elko, Nevada.

Danger Zones

Warning: David Maisel’s aerial landscapes may be hazardous to your assumptions

A spectacular new gallery at the Air and Space Museum (the nose of a 747) charts the history of an astonishing triumph—air travel.

From the Castle

Aero Dynamic

Oversize expectations: The Great Eastern vessel was supposed to cap the career of its ill-fated designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (before the huge ship’s launching chains).

Big News

In matters of sheer magnitude, Robert Howlett got the picture

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The Last Page: Duck and Cover

An awkward case of the Cordon blues

Van Gogh painted this portrait of himself, dressed as a bourgeois, in Paris, where he stayed with his brother Theo and continued to hone his painting skills. Van Gogh's brief flirtation with the separate, dappled brushstrokes of pointillism is evident in this early effort, which is one of his best paintings from 1887. (Self-Portrait: Three Quarters to the Right)

Letters from Vincent

Never-before-exhibited correspondence from van Gogh to a protégé displays a thoughtful exacting side of the artist

Curator Jake Homiak (right) and adviser Ras Maurice Clarke make the sign of the trinity, a Rastafarian symbol of reverence.

Rasta Revealed

A reclamation of African identity evolved into a worldwide cultural, religious and political movement

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What’s Up

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Letters

Readers Respond to the November Issue

Ernie LaPointe and his family are the closest living relatives of Sitting Bull.

Making History

Giving Back

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Norman Foster

Architect norman foster designed the glass canopy at the Smithsonian’s Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. He spoke with Jess Blumberg.

Pete Seeger, 1986.

Jukebox

Seeger Singalong

Explorer 1 satellite

Explorer I Satellite

In 1958, Explorer 1 launched America’s response to the USSR’s Sputnik

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One Love: Discovering Rastafari!

The curator of a groundbreaking exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History discusses Rastafarian culture

"Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear" Vincent van Gogh 1889

Van Gogh in Auvers

The artist’s tumultuous last days

Not long after production of the Model T began in the fall of 1908, it would fulfill the dream of Henry Ford (with a Model T in Buffalo, New York, in 1921) to empower the masses.

1908

Aeroplanes! Skyscrapers! The race to the North Pole! Mobile phones? Inventions, predictions and breakthroughs that propelled America into the modern age

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Pulled by Bears

In 1908, anything was possible

What became of the settlement that Christopher Columbus' crew built after his flagship ran aground? Clark Moore (in Haiti near the Bay of L'Acul, where the <em>Santa Maria</em> is believed to have foundered) is on the trail: "We know Columbus built the fort inside a large Indian village."

The Lost Fort of Columbus

On his voyage to the Americas in 1492, the explorer built a small fort somewhere in the Caribbean

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January Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Oxford is a "baffling jumble of structures . . . with no obvious center to them," says the author.

Among the Spires

Between medieval and modern, Oxford seeks equilibrium

The real thrill of Pompeii is that the most mundane aspects of ancient Roman life have been preserved for centuries beneath fine-grained volcanic ash.

28 Places to See Before You Die—the Taj Mahal, Grand Canyon and More

We’ve traveled the globe and compiled a “life list” of places to visit before taking the ultimate trip to the great beyond

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