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The Secret to National Geographic’s Maps Is an 80-Year-Old Font

With a little ingenuity, a 1930s cartographer left his mark on the society

Pete Seeger performs at a peace rally in New York City, 1965.

Give Peace a Listen with Smithsonian Folkways Magazine

The new issue covers peace songs and spoken word from around the world

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What Caused the Death of American Brewing?

American breweries are back on the rise, after a near century long decline almost spelled their doom

Still from trailer for It movie, an adaption of the Stephen King novel

The History and Psychology of Clowns Being Scary

You aren’t alone in your fear of makeup-clad entertainers; people have been frightened by clowns for centuries

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The Science of Champagne, the Bubbling Wine Created By Accident

There’s a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to the spirit’s trademark fizziness

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Would You Like Arches With That? When Famous Architects Design McDonalds

Franchises of the fast food behemoth become roadside art

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Your Guide to Tasting the Many Species of Pacific Salmon

From dogs to humpies to kings, the author tastes and discusses the five main species of Pacific salmon

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Toxic Runoff Yellow and Other Paint Colors Sourced From Polluted Streams

An engineer and an artist at Ohio University team up to create paints made of sludge extracted from streams near abandoned coal mines

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The Golden Arches of McModernism

A brief history of the McDonald’s Golden Arches and the influence of Modernist ideals

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Sorry, Wolfgang, Fusion Foods Have Been With Us for Centuries

The banh mi, ramen and other foods considered national dishes that actually have cross-cultural beginnings

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Ten Years of Flying High with Air and Space Art

The Air and Space Museum showcases the art of air and space. Check out photos of some of the works here

This bronze portrait bust of German composer Richard Wagner, sculptured by artist Arno Breker, resides in Bayreuth, Germany, home of the annual festival honoring his work.

The Brilliant, Troubled Legacy of Richard Wagner

As the faithful flock to the Bayreuth Festival in his bicentennial year, the spellbinding German composer continues to fascinate, inspire and infuriate

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Nobel Prize Winners Are Put to the Task of Drawing Their Discoveries

Volker Steger photographs Nobel laureates posing with sketches of their breakthrough findings

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The Macabre Beauty of Medical Photographs

An artist-scientist duo shares nearly 100 images of modern art with a ghastly twist—they’re all close-ups of human diseases and other ailments

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The Story of the First Postage Stamp

Postage stamps can reveal more than the history of a letter, they can reveal the history of a nation

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Hangovers: The Driving Force Behind Our Favorite Foods

Overimbibing makes some people’s brains shut down, for others, it gets the innovative juices flowing

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Asian-Latino Artwork “Pops Up” in Outdoor Museum

See works by Asian American and Latino artists, presented by the Smithsonian Asian-Latino Festival

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Iconic Photography by the Legendary Irving Penn Comes to the American Art Museum

The Modernist photographer pushed the boundaries of art and fashion

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The End of the World Might Just Look Like This

Artist Ron Miller presents several scenarios—most of them scientifically plausible—of landscapes imperiled and of Earth meeting its demise

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Inside the Alien’s Guide to the Ruins of Washington, D.C.

To us, the architecture of the Lincoln Memorial is an iconic callback to ancient Greece. But what would extraterrestrials make of it?

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