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America’s Best New Restaurant Celebrates the Flavors of West Africa

The James Beard Award-winning Dakar NOLA is at the forefront of a generation of fine-dining establishments determined to educate foodies about the true origins of “Southern” cuisine

Abraham Lincoln, William Judkins Thomson, half-plate ambrotype, 1858

See the Photographs That Introduced Americans to Their Presidents

The National Portrait Gallery traces early images of American leaders, from John Quincy Adams to Abraham Lincoln

Aspen, Colorado gets around 300 days of sunshine per year.

The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2024

From a bluegrass capital in Virginia to a laid-back surf town in Hawaii, these spots are beckoning to tourists this year

A decades-old embargo on cars and other goods meant Cubans had to refurbish vehicles built in the 1950s or before, turning Cuba into a classic car haven.

Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries

Get Your Motor Running With These Cool Cars

See 15 awesome automobiles from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

Edmond O'Brien and Jan Sterling during the filming of a 1956 adaptation of George Orwell's 1984

History of Now

What Does George Orwell’s ‘1984’ Mean in 2024?

Now 75 years old, the dystopian novel still rings alarm bells about totalitarian rule

"Top Chef" contestant Eric Adjepong's scallop yassa

These Chefs Are Elevating African and Caribbean Cuisines From Carryouts to Fine Dining

More Americans are eating and learning about dishes such as fufu and curried goat in establishments recognized by the highest echelon of the culinary world

Zongzi are dumplings made from sticky glutinous rice wrapped neatly in a bamboo leaf and filled with umami-rich ingredients, like marinated pork, shiitake mushrooms, peanuts and beans.

How Zongzi Became the Must-Eat Food During the Dragon Boat Festival

A festive recipe to ward off sea monsters remains a staple of one of China’s biggest cultural events

Gilbert Stuart painted the famous Lansdowne portrait of George Washington. 

Before Andy Warhol Set His Eyes on Marilyn and Prince, There Was Gilbert Stuart and George Washington

Two court cases over 200 years apart reflect what happens when commercial and artistic interests meet

Pasquino is the most famous of Rome's six talking statues.

Rome’s Talking Statues Have Served as Sites of Dissent for Centuries

Beginning in the Renaissance, locals affixed verses protesting various societal ills to six sculptures scattered across the Italian city

Disney+ released a new documentary about Jim Henson's life and career called Jim Henson Idea Man.

What Made Jim Henson, the Visionary Behind the Muppets, One of the Nation’s Most Beloved Cultural Figures

Museum collections and a new documentary on Jim Henson’s life and career reveal how his creativity cemented his legacy

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How Americans Got Hooked on Counting Calories More Than a Century Ago

A food history writer and an influential podcast host tell us how our thinking about health and body weight has—and hasn’t—evolved ever since Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters took the nation by storm

The Travelers’ Tour Through the United States featured a map of the then-24 states.

What America’s First Board Game Tells Us About the Aspirations of a Young Nation

Released in 1822, the Travelers’ Tour Through the United States took players on a cross-country adventure

"I Dream of Jeannie" stars Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman

How a Bottle Served as a Living Room—and a Prison—for a 2,000-Year-Old Genie

The vessel from 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie,” now on display at the National Museum of American History, could not contain the exuberance of the beloved character

Four lionesses enjoy a drink at a watering hole after a recent rain.

Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries

Get a Taste of South Africa Through These 15 Photos of Stunning Wildlife and Vibrant Communities

From desert landscapes to glittering beaches, see what this country has to offer

Left, Rita Moreno, the Puerto Rican actress who played Anita in the 1961 film West Side Story. Right, the Italian opera singer Giulia Grisi in the 1830s.

An Absolutely Fabulous Celebration of History’s Greatest Divas

This heady, exquisitely delightful new book reveals the power behind the sequins

Looming large on Philadelphia’s Broad Street, a ten-foot-high statue—a gift to the city from the Pennsylvania Freemasons—shows young Benjamin Franklin at his printing press.

Benjamin Franklin Was the Nation’s First Newsman

Before he helped launch a revolution, Benjamin Franklin was colonial America’s leading editor and printer of novels, almanacs, soap wrappers, and everything in between

A romanticized 1920 depiction of the capture of Blackbeard, one of history's most notorious pirates

Who Were the Real Pirates of the Caribbean?

During the Golden Age of Piracy, thousands of sea dogs sought fame and fortune. But the reality of a pirate’s life was less enticing than movies and television shows suggest

Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt (center) in Suffs, a new Broadway musical about the women's suffrage movement

Women Who Shaped History

What the Broadway Musical ‘Suffs’ Gets Right (and Wrong) About the History of Women’s Suffrage

The new show serves as an entertaining history lesson, but even that has its creative limits

The title page of one of the Folger’s First Folios.

How the Soon-to-Reopen Folger Shakespeare Library Came to Be

A full 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio will go on view as the renovated Washington, D.C. institution makes its debut

Portrait of Adèle Papin Playing the Harp, oil on canvas, c. 1799. The 17-year-old sitter, the famously beautiful daughter of a prominent family, was later rumored to be Napoleon's mistress. 

How This Caribbean-Born Artist Became the Toast of 18th-Century France

A new exhibition in Massachusetts illuminates the success of Guillaume Lethière

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