Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Arts & Culture

The museum has more than 600 Bibles in different languages and dialects in its collection.

Can the Museum of the Bible Deliver on Its Promise?

The highly anticipated museum hopes to offer something for visitors of all faiths, but on a topic as fraught as religion, that may not be possible

Headed for export?

Why Don’t We Eat Turkey Tails?

The strange story speaks volumes about our globalized food system—you’ll be surprised where the unwanted parts end up

American Girl by Emma Amos, from the portfolio "Impressions: Our World, Volume I," 1974

Women Who Shaped History

Why Making a Portrait of a Black Woman Was a Form of Protest

For Emma Amos, an African-American artist working in the 1970s, the personal was often political

One of the new trees in the Future Library forest.

After 100 Years, This Entire Forest Will Be Turned into Mystery Manuscripts

Hike through Norway’s future library, currently in the form of baby trees

When we first saw these two figures together at the Met's Mbembe art show in 2014, says the Smithsonian's Kevin Dumouchelle, "it was clear these works likely were from the same slit gong."

Two Enigmatic Nigerian Figures Reunited After a Century Apart

One of many highlights in a new exhibition at the National Museum of African Art

Little Children on a Bicycle

How Instagram Is Changing the Way We Design Cultural Spaces

As neighborhoods, restaurants and museums become more photogenic, are we experiencing an “Instagramization” of the world?

The minimLET toilet kit

A Sleek Portable Toilet and Other Design Solutions for Disaster Victims

The toilet kit, from a Japanese design studio, is part of wave of interest in design fixes for the problems created by disasters

Georges Nagelmackers, creator of the Orient Express, envisioned "a train that would span a continent, running on a continuous ribbon of metal for more than 1,500 miles," writes one historian.

The True History of the Orient Express

Spies used it as a secret weapon. A president tumbled from it. Hitler wanted it destroyed. Just what made this train so intriguing?

Christopher Robin Milne (1920-1996) son of author A.A. Milne photographed in 1928 with the bear who became Winnie the Pooh

How Winnie-the-Pooh Became a Household Name

The true story behind the new movie, “Goodbye Christopher Robin”

A suit worn by actor Lin-Manuel Miranda for the popular Broadway hit Hamilton and a mid-1800s portrait of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton by Daniel Huntington arrive at the Smithsonian.

The Stars Are Aligned at the National Museum of American History

A Portrait of Eliza Hamilton and a Costume Worn by Lin-Manuel Miranda for ‘Hamilton’ Arrives at the Smithsonian

Paying homage to the spirit of philanthropy, the museum honors the Eliza Project and the Graham Windham orphanage

Kiddie Pool

These Photographs Capture the Complexities of Life at Guantánamo

In a new book, photographer Debi Cornwall casts the naval base as “Camp America”

A detail from the controversial panel of Benton’s mural

History of Now

In Defense of Keeping the Indiana University Mural That Depicts (But Doesn’t Glorify) the KKK

American artist Thomas Hart Benton thought it crucial to highlight the dark spots in the state’s history

The History of Five Uniquely American Sandwiches

From tuna fish to the lesser-known woodcock, food experts peer under the bread and find the story of a nation

How a Ripped-Off Sequel of Don Quixote Predicted Piracy in the Digital Age

An anonymous writer’s spinoff of Cervantes’ masterpiece showed the peril and potential of new printing technology

Thor's Fight with the Giants by M.E. Winge, 1872

What a Smithsonian Folklorist Thinks about Marvel’s Cleaned-Up Version of Thor

In Hollywood’s hands, the Thor of ‘Ragnarok’ is a hunk with a heart compared to the brutish thug of lore

The Mysterious Murder Case That Inspired Margaret Atwood’s ‘Alias Grace’

At the center of the case was a beautiful young woman named Grace Marks. But was she really responsible for the crime?

El Greco: Apocalyptic Vision {The Vision of St. John)

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

With close study, the genealogies of even the most original ideas can be traced

African Lionesses by Lakshitha Karunarathna, 2017 Grand Prize

These Breathtaking Images Are the Cat’s Meow in Nature Photography

Sixty incredible outdoor scenes are now on view at the National Museum of Natural History

Wine grapes grow in the shadow of Mount Ararat.

Armenia

How Mobile Wine-Tasting Rooms Could Revolutionize Armenian Wine Country

“Wine Cubes” will be popping up on Armenian vineyards—and building up the country’s enotourism industry

One of the excavated burials in Drawsko, Poland showed a skeleton with a sickle placed over its neck, likely to prevent the dead from rising again as the undead.

Burials Unearthed in Poland Open the Casket on The Secret Lives of Vampires

What people actually did to prevent the dead from rising again was very different than what Hollywood would have you think

Page 122 of 369