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The black-and-white stills represent the spirit rendered by King Richard, the new film starring Will Smith as the Williams sisters’ father, coach and mentor.

Based on a True Story

These Vintage Photos of Venus and Serena Williams Reveal the Truth of ‘King Richard’

Seen as preteens, the future tennis sensations loved each other as much as they loved the sport

Franklin believed a turkey killed with electricity would be tastier than one dispatched by conventional means: decapitation.

When Benjamin Franklin Shocked Himself While Attempting to Electrocute a Turkey

The statesman was embarrassed by the mishap—no doubt a murder most fowl

The much-lauded exposition-style celebration invites “all dreamers, makers, and changers of tomorrow to imagine a more exciting, equitable, and sustainable future.”

Futures

At New ‘Futures’ Show, Big Dreamers and Changemakers Activate a Better Way Forward

Smithsonian’s 175th anniversary exposition opens with big-name speakers, family fun and a 21st-century peek into the world ahead

The fact that Osgood’s collection survives intact—or at all—is notable and perhaps inseparable from her lifelong friendship with a famous writer.

Women Who Shaped History

In 19th-Century New England, This Amateur Geologist Created Her Own Cabinet of Curiosities

A friend of Henry David Thoreau, Ellen Sewall Osgood’s pursuit of her scientific passion illuminates the limits and possibilities placed on the era’s women

To make true Roquefort cheese, the law requires that it must be produced from local ingredients and ripen for months in a cave in southern France. 

How Much Longer Will Roquefort Reign as the King of Cheese?

In France, makers of the odorous food are singing the blues

An eastern barred bandicoot explores its space in the Werribee Open Range Zoo.

How Australia’s Eastern Barred Bandicoot Came Back From Extinction

With help from a captive breeding program and the watchful eyes of sheepdogs, the small mammal has been reintroduced to the country’s plains

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What the History of ‘Spirit Photography’ Portends for the Future of Deepfake Videos

Today’s video hoaxes can be downright ugly. But image-makers have been fooling viewers from the beginning

Aidan Bean installs Suchi Reddy’s AI-based artwork, “me + you,” in the central rotunda of the Arts and Industries Building. 

Futures

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on What Excites Him About the Smithsonian’s New Futures Exhibition

One of Smithsonian’s most storied buildings is reopening with an eye toward humanity’s great potential

“Bless whoever it was who came up with the idea,” jazz historian Dan Morgenstern says in a Smithsonian interview about Armstrong’s rendition of the holiday chestnut.

The Little-Known Recording of Louis Armstrong Reciting ‘The Night Before Christmas’

Shortly before he died, the jazz legend offered his own rendition of the classic holiday poem

In his new book Around the World in 80 Books, David Damrosch builds an itinerary that circumnavigates the globe—and doesn't require a passport to enjoy.

Virtual Travel

A Literary Scholar Takes Us Around the World in Eighty Books

Harvard professor David Damrosch’s new release has readers traveling to London, Paris, Nigeria, Tokyo and beyond without ever leaving home

Poised on a Nevada salt flat, Alan Case, one of the world’s top practitioners of flight shooting, aims his custom-built bow, which requires so much strength to draw he must use his legs.

The Quest to Shoot an Arrow Farther Than Anyone Has Before

In dogged pursuit of an exotic world record, an engineer heads to the desert with archery equipment you can’t get at a sporting goods store

Half-Length Portrait of a Peasant, His Head Resting on His Right Hand, oil tempera on cardboard, c. 1903. The artist created the work at an art colony in Germany.

Artist Paula Modersohn-Becker’s Portraits Were Ahead of Their Time

Raw and affecting depictions of rural life in the early 20th century were strikingly modern

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Women Who Shaped History

Clara Barton Epitomized the Heroism of Nurses

Two hundred years after her birth, her pioneering commitment to public health has only become more salient

The Van Gogh bike path in Eindhoven is inspired by the artist’s painting The Starry Night. Similar glow-in-the-dark paths and roads could eventually save energy for lighting while cooling cities.

Will Glow-in-the-Dark Materials Someday Light Our Cities?

Substances that persistently luminesce could be used in streets, sidewalks and buildings

Jeffrey Peter, of Old Crow, Yukon, cleans a caribou hide during an autumn hunt. When camping, the hide is used as a mattress; at home, it’s clothing.

For the Gwich’in People, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Isn’t a Political Issue, It’s Home

Journey to the far north of Alaska, where the Indigenous communities hunt caribou, the backbone of the region’s ecosystem

One reader wonders why more flowers and fruits aren't blue-hued.

Ask Smithsonian

Why Are So Few Flowers and Fruits Blue? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

Harvest ABC's, 2019

Crayons Aren’t Just for Kids

Mixed media artist Lisa Solomon describes how she and five other artists have embraced Crayola in their work

The T-38 Talon that Jacqueline Cochran flew, pictured before its recent restoration.

When Jackie Cochran Flew This Jet, She Broke All Kind of Barriers

The spirited aviator came out of poverty to soar to great heights

Carved by industrious miners thousands of years ago, countless shafts wend through the desert of the Timna Valley.

An Archaeological Dig Reignites the Debate Over the Old Testament’s Historical Accuracy

Beneath a desert in Israel, a scholar and his team are unearthing astonishing new evidence of an advanced society in the time of the biblical Solomon

The Roman elite viewed public toilets as an instrument that flushed the filth of the plebes out of their noble sight.

How the Ancient Romans Went to the Bathroom

A new book by journalist Lina Zeldovich traces the management of human waste—and underscores poop’s potential as a valuable resource

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