In a letter of 1770, Benjamin Franklin described tofu ("tau-fu") to his friend John Bartram as a sort of cheese made from "Chinese Garavances"—what we would call soybeans.

Ben Franklin May Be Responsible for Bringing Tofu to America

How a letter of 1770 may have ushered the Chinese staple into the New World

Calvin and Hobbes, the influential and popular comic strip by Bill Watterson about a boy and his stuffed tiger that ran in thousands of newspapers worldwide during its run from 1985-1995.

This Artist Deconstructed His Love and Fascination for Calvin and Hobbes

Tony Lewis finds a new way of writing poetry, through artistry, and his assemblage of cut-up dialog balloons from Bill Watterson’s much-loved comic strip

Dr. Frankenstein at work in his laboratory

What Frankenstein Can Still Teach Us 200 Years Later

An innovative annotated edition of the novel shows how the Mary Shelley classic has many lessons about the danger of unchecked innovation

Byaku Gunjo

Peek into the Colorful History of the World’s Largest Pigment Collection

An Atlas of Rare & Familiar Colour combs through the rainbow that makes up the Forbes Pigment Collection

Amdavad Ni Gufa

These Unique Buildings in India Just Won the Biggest Award in Architecture

The 90-year-old is the first Indian architect to win the Pritzker Prize

Cimarron, Kansas

Daydream About Summer With These Color-Drenched Photos of the Great American Fair

Photographer Pamela Littky set off across the United States to discover why these timeless summer festivals have such staying power

The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history."--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man, by Jacques Nathan Garamond, 1955

How Do We Restore Trust in Our Democracies?

Museums can be a starting point, says David J. Skorton, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Is this machine adding an antenna to the fabric?

Embroidering Electronics Into the Next Generation of ‘Smart’ Fabrics

Is an archaic sewing skill a key to connected, sensing, communicating fabrics of the future?

Abigail Spencer as Lucy Preston, Malcolm Barrett as Rufus Carlin, and Matt Lanter as Wyatt Logan travel to 1918 in the first episode of season two of "Timeless"

'Timeless' Recapped

Buckle Up, History Nerds — “Timeless” Is Back and As Usual, Gets the Facts Mostly Right

In a new editorial series, we recap the NBC show that puts a new twist on American history

These two covers are emblematic of the popular "Golden Hours" papers

The 19th-Century “Golden Hours” Convention Brought Young Readers Together to Meet Their Literary Heroes

The dime novels and story papers entertained boys and launched a popular culture we still consume today

Future of Conservation

Inside the Colorado Vault That Keeps Your Favorite Foods From Going Extinct

From heirloom potatoes to honeybee sperm, this collection works to preserve our invaluable agricultural diversity

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders director Kelli Finglass (left) peruses the donated materials with current DCC captains Jinelle (middle) and KaShara (right). Foregrounded are the original uniform sketches of designer Paula Van Wagoner.

A Classic American Cheerleading Troupe Tumbles to Smithsonian Immortality

“America’s Sweethearts” are as dedicated to social service as they are to the Dallas Cowboys

A scene from Hulu's "The Looming Tower"

There’s Great Drama Within the Truths of “The Looming Tower”

How filmmaker Alex Gibney brought a documentarian’s eye to the story of the 9/11 attacks

Moviegoers familiarize themselves with the joystick that will allow them to interact with the film I’m Your Man during its premiere on Dec. 16, 1992.

Smell-O-Vision, Astrocolor and Other Film Industry Inventions That Proved To Be Flops

Sound, color and special effects transformed the moviegoing experience. These innovations decidedly did not.

Will a New Law Forever Change the German Language?

When a language is strongly gendered, it can raise all sorts of challenges to a society that’s increasingly accepting of a wide spectrum of identities

Khash

Armenia

A Brief History of Khash, Armenia’s Love-It-or-Hate-It Hangover Cure (Recipe)

Cow foot soup: It’s what’s for breakfast

Many of the fascinating stories tied to women across history are preserved in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution.

This Museum Tour Is the Perfect Guide to Celebrating Women’s History in Style

From the National Portrait Gallery to the Air and Space Museum, here’s where to find the stories of wondrous women come March

None

A Quest to Find America’s Best Craft Chocolate Makers

“Chocolate Noise” profiles the most original small-batch chocolatiers across the country

To make it easier for those in the U.S. and in Germany to trace the history of World War II-era artworks, the Smithsonian and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation created the German/American Provenance Research Exchange Program for Museum Professionals (PREP).

How U.S. and German Art Experts Are Teaming Up to Solve Nazi-Era Mysteries

Specialists in WWII art loss and restitution discuss provenance research

At Sisian Ceramics, Vahagn Hambardzumyan throws clay on a wheel to make traditional Armenian shapes onto which Zara Gasparyan etches decorative patterns. The terracotta jugs on the left are made to hold water.

Armenia

The Art of Armenian Pottery Will Be on Display at This Summer’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The artists behind Sisian Ceramics create works evocative of the Armenian landscape

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