Articles: News & Features | Smithsonian Magazine

Momentous or merely memorable

February 2005

The voracious “Frankenfish” has turned up in the Potomac River, Lake Michigan and a California lake, sparking fears of an ecological Armageddon

February 2005

Bison do roam, up to tens of miles per day. Their ranging and even wallowing habits can shape plant and animal life on the prairie.

Back Home On The Range

When a group of Native Americans took up bison ranching, they brought a prairie back to life

February 2005

Our Adaptable Ancestors

Recent discoveries of skull fragments and tools testify to the resourcefulness of early humans

February 2005

"Palermo," says Princess Alliata (in her 15th-century palazzo there), is not like Rome, Venice or Florence, where everything is displayed like goods in a shop window. It's a very secret city."

Sicily Resurgent

Across the island, activists, archaeologists and historians are joining forces to preserve a cultural legacy that has endured for 3,000 years

February 2005

Trouble Spots

Two of our writers get into the thick of things in Uganda and Afghanistan

February 2005

As the supply of Soviet-era lots has dwindled, "cottage villages" have become prized, even though they often sacrifice the traditional dacha's forested charm. "A lot of the appeal is living in a unified social layer," says one broker.

Cabin Fever in Russia

As Muscovites get rich on oil, dachas, the rustic country houses that nourish the Russian soul, get gaudy

January 2005

Peterson, who has recorded more than 400 albums, "never had a breakout hit," says Downbeat critic John McDonough. Still, many fans consider "Tenderly" his signature song.

Return of a Virtuoso

Following a debilitating stroke, the incomparable jazz pianist Oscar Peterson had to start over

January 2005

James Boswell’s Scotland

The author of the Life of Samuel Johnson spent much of his own life trying to escape the country of his birth

January 2005

The Aztecs: Blood and Glory

A new exhibition probes the contradictions of an advanced civilization that practiced human sacrifice

January 1, 2005

Rethinking Jamestown

America’s first permanent colonists have been considered incompetent. But new evidence suggests that it was a drought—not indolence—that almost did them in

January 2005

American POWs in North Vietnam lining up for release on March 27, 1973

Coming Home

To a war-weary nation, a U.S. POW’s return from captivity in Vietnam in 1973 looked like the happiest of reunions

January 2005

Overview of the former village of New Philadelphia, Illinois

Ahead of Its Time?

Founded by a freed slave, an Illinois town was a rare example of biracial cooperation before the Civil War

January 2005

Dangerous Liaisons

Severe cold and fraternizing with the Mandan keep Meriwether Lewis’ doctoring in demand

January 2005

After the Bristish occupying army left Boston, Washington issued general orders (above) to his troops to "live in the strictest Peace and Amity with the [city's] inhabitants." He also urged the town fathers to turn over remaining British supplies and identify spies.

Washington Takes Charge

Confronting the British in Boston in 1775, Gen. George Washington honed the qualities that would carry the day in war and sustain the new nation in peace

January 2005