Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Arts & Culture

Artists and poets have long been inspired by the mathematical patterns found in nature—for instance, the remarkable fact that a sunflower's seeds follow the Fibonacci sequence. But there are myriad other ways that the realms of poetry and mathematics can intersect.

Future of Art

How Poetry and Math Intersect

Both require economy and precision—and each perspective can enhance the other

Diane Arbus with her photograph A young Brooklyn family going for a Sunday outing, N.Y.C., 1966

A Window into the World of Diane Arbus

Photographs from the portfolio, “A box of ten,” reveal some of the photographer’s secrets

People – but maybe not computers – can tell whether this is a person’s face or the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

Future of Art

Just Like Faces, Buildings Have Features That Algorithms Can Recognize

An art historian explains how he uses ‘facial recognition’ to unlock architectural secrets

Armenia

These Two Brothers Are Helping Keep Armenia’s Stone Carving Tradition Alive

An installation of Brand New SW in Washington D.C.'s L'Enfant Plaza.

Modern Takes on 80s Artwork Hit Washington D.C. Streets

The Hirshhorn Museum’s public art project ‘Brand New SW’ reflects a resurgence of retro aesthetics in contemporary art

Don the Talking Dog was a vaudeville hit.

When Don the Talking Dog Took the Nation by Storm

Although he ‘spoke’ German, the vaudevillian canine captured the heart of the nation

Robert Johnson (Kamal Naiqui) records some of his tunes that would later change rock music as we know it.

'Timeless' Recapped

Somebody’s Got a Case of the Blues: Timeless Season 2, Episode 6, Recapped

The time team’s humming a new tune after a run-in with one of the most influential men in American music history

George Cruikshank’s impression of Dickens’ dystopia

How Charles Dickens Imagined a Westworld-like Robot Theme Park Back In 1838

The writer’s dystopia, populated by ‘automaton figures,’ was surprisingly modern

Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen, Cleveland, Ohio by David Gahr, 1977

Ten Rarely Seen Springsteen Photographs That Capture the Exhilarating Power of The Boss

A new book reveals the work of David Gahr, who documented the music legend as he rose to worldwide fame

Yamashita was the model for Chair, but this is not a self-portrait. "It could have been anyone," she says. "For me, poetry doesn’t exist in specificity."

Future of Art

Artist Kumi Yamashita Creates an Amazing Human Figure Out of Shadow

Coming soon to the National Portrait Gallery, an old art form gets reinvented

A lithograph by French caricaturist J. J. Grandville depicts the torture of too much noise.

Why Are We Always Searching For “A Quiet Place?”

Perhaps the real monster is not noise, but instead our own intolerance of unwanted sounds

PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - "WAVE" August 23 - November 19, 2017

Europe

This Stunning Memorial to Britain’s WWI Soldiers Makes Its Final Appearance

The wave of brilliant red flowers marks the end of a centennial of commemorations of the Great War

Pauline Esther "Popo" Phillips and her twin sister Esther Pauline "Eppie" competed for influence as the hugely successful "Dear Abby" and "Ask Ann Landers" syndicated columnists.

What Makes the Advice Column Uniquely American

In a new book, author Jessica Weisberg dives into the fascinating history of the advice industry

Formerly an arcade and office building, dating to 1917, the structure underwent a city-led restoration and reopened last year as the Hotel Manzana Kempinski.

Tony Perrottet's Cuba

The Man Who Saved Havana

As its greatest old buildings were falling down, a fearless historian named Eusebio Leal remade the city into a stunning world destination

“And I persevered,” says curator Debra Diamond of her find that lead to new scholarship, at the the TV Critics Association winter press tour.

A Curator’s College Find Is Revisited in the New PBS Showcase ‘Civilizations’

Debra Diamond’s story, says the show’s producer, exemplifies the ‘joy of discovery’ in a whole new way

A young JFK is all, like, "Whoa" when he gets taken from 1934 Connecticut to 2018 Palo Alto.

'Timeless' Recapped

JFK’s Excellent Adventure: “Timeless,” Season 2, Episode 5 Recapped

We learn a lot about the once and future President, and he learns way too much about himself, in a tense twist with the past coming to the present

A gun manufacturer in Birmingham in the 19th century.

How British Gun Manufacturers Changed the Industrial World Lock, Stock and Barrel

In ‘Empire of Guns,’ historian Priya Satia explores the microcosm of firearm manufacturing through an unlikely subject—a Quaker family

This advertisement from San Francisco-based electronic cigarette company JUUL calls back the tobacco advertisements from the mid-20th century.

Ads for E-Cigarettes Today Hearken Back to the Banned Tricks of Big Tobacco

A new ‘Joe Camel’-esque phenomenon may be igniting as the new fad takes a 21st-century page out of an old playbook

Page 112 of 370