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Arts & Culture

Much of the timber used for T3 came from trees killed by the mountain pine beetle.

Is Timber the Future of Urban Construction?

A celebrated architect goes out on a limb with a bold new take on building tall

Langston Hughes powerfully speaks for those excluded.

Breaking Ground

What Langston Hughes’ Powerful Poem “I, Too” Tells Us About America’s Past and Present

Smithsonian historian David Ward reflects on the work of Langston Hughes

H.G. Wells was one of the first science fiction writers.

The Many Futuristic Predictions of H.G. Wells That Came True

Born 150 years ago, H.G. Wells predicted, and inspired, inventions from the laser to email

Adrien Broom photographed a luminous dress in Wentworth Woodhouse, the largest private home in Britain. This image is titled The Forest of Columns.

Photographer Adrien Broom Sheds Light on Old Structures in Her Work

An eerie vision of the luminous magic we find in ourselves

A Hadza elder wears a roughly tanned wild-animal skin over a T-shirt. The skin strips on his bow reinforce his weapon while the furs attest to his recent kills. His headband is not traditionally Hadza; members of the tribe have begun to adopt styles from neighboring groups.

Get Face to Face With the Tribes of Tanzania

As safari parks encroach on their ancestral lands, indigenous groups struggle to maintain their ways of life

After U.S. Border Patrol spots their raft, migrants speed back toward the Mexico side of the Rio Grande.

Myth and Reason on the Mexican Border

The renowned travel writer journeys the length of the U.S.-Mexico border to get a firsthand look at life along the blurry 2,000-mile line

Resurrection City Mural (detail), 1968

Breaking Ground

A Mural on View in the African American History Museum Recalls the Rise of Resurrection City

The 1968 Hunger Wall is a stark reminder of the days when the country’s impoverished built a shantytown on the National Mall

A view of Mount Rushmore under construction, c.1938-1939

The Sordid History of Mount Rushmore

The sculptor behind the American landmark had some unseemly ties to white supremacy groups

Founder James Smithson (1765-1829) published a paper in search of better way to brew coffee and then considered how his method might work with hops to make beer.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

The Founder of the Smithsonian Institution Figured Out How to Brew a Better Cup of Coffee

Almost two hundred years ago, James Smithson devised a method for better brewing. We recreated it.

The Mechelse Wyandotte, the latest iteration of Koen Vanmechelen's Cosmopolitan Chicken Project

Art Meets Science

Breeding a Better Chicken in the Name of Art (and Science)

For 20 years, Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen has been selectively breeding chickens for his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project

Parliament Funkadelic Mothership, "Musical Crossroads" exhibition

Breaking Ground

Exclusive Photography From Inside the African American History Museum Offers a Hint of What Is to Come

Architecture photographer Jason Flakes brings his unique lens to the Smithsonian’s brand new museum

A beta version of the 3D interactive exhibit that is set to open in 2017.

Breaking Ground

Google Is Redefining 3D Tech at the New African American History Museum

Next spring, visitors will interact with artifacts beyond those in the physical exhibitions

Pablo Picasso by Albert Eugene Gallatin, 1934

Commentary

Why It Takes a Great Rivalry to Produce Great Art

Smithsonian historian David Ward takes a look at a new book by Sebastian Smee on the contentious games artists play

Zora Neale Hurston by Carl Van Vechten, Noble Black Women: The Harlem Renaissance and After,1935, printed 1983

These Rarely Seen Photographs Are a Who’s Who of the Harlem Renaissance

Carl Van Vechten captured and archived images of most of the era’s great artists, musicians and thought leaders

Bicycle made by Raleigh in the 1980s in 893 pieces

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Photos of Deconstructed Devices Reveal Their Hidden Beauty

Engineer-artist Todd McLellan finds marvel in blowing out the mundane

Shrunken heads were prepared and worn by the victor of a battle, believing the victim’s power would then be transferred to that victor. Popular in the mid-19th century, shrunken heads were a collectible which became so popular that Europeans created replica shrunken heads from unclaimed bodies. On loan from: Buffalo Museum of Science and San Diego Museum of Man.

These 12 New Museum Exhibitions Are Fall Must-Sees

Shrunken heads, punk rock and robots make for an action-packed autumn

How did this double 'r' become so prevalent?

It’s Sherbet, Not Sherbert, You Dilettantes

The frozen treat has been mispronounced by generations of Americans

Dennis Wiist inspects an eagle's foot at the National Eagle Repository in Commerce City, Colorado.

Inside a Remarkable Repository that Supplies Eagle Parts to Native Americans and Science

The repository, which has long provided feathers to tribes for traditional uses, also helps bird conservation researchers

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