Edgar Degas rarely painted a pure still life, but he often included still lifes in the backgrounds or corners of his compositions. In The Millinery Shop (1882-86), the hats—their shapes, textures and colors—take center stage; the figure is merely an accessory.

Still Delightful

A sumptuous show documents how the Impressionists breathed new life into the staid tradition of still life painting

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Migrant Madonna

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Behind the Lines: Role Models

Our writers explore new worlds in time and space

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Harp Hero

Endangered instruments tug one musician’s heartstrings

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Of Mies and Mice

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Just Folk

From samplers to sugar bowls, weathervanes to whistles, an engaging exhibition heralds the opening of the American Folk Art Museum’s new home in Manhattan

Two wives alternate the responsibility for preparing meals, which involves making the fire, grinding the grain and preparing ngome, breakfast cakes of pounded millet or rice, salt and oil. The cakes are also sold.

What’s for Dinner?

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Master of Middle Earth

When J.R.R. Tolkien finally completed his Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1949, the Oxford don scarcely imagined his fantasy epic would entrance readers

Ao dais make striking uniforms for four university students heading home after classes. Long gloves and hats provide welcome protection from the sun in a land where a suntan is not considered fashionable; masks serve as barriers to dust and exhaust.

Silk Robes and Cell Phones

Three decades after Frances FitzGerald won a Pulitzer Prize for Fire in the Lake, her classic work on Vietnam, she returned with photojournalist Mary Cross

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The Thousand-Yard Stare

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October Surprise

Any other year, giving reactionary author V. S. Naipaul a Nobel Prize would have sparked debate

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Strange Bedfellows

A new exhibition tracks the turbulent nine weeks that artists Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin lived and painted together in the South of France

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Fresh Eyes

It turns out the America portrayed by printmakers Currier and Ives was not all sleigh rides in the snow

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Writer of the Purple Prose

Zane Grey went West, fell in love with the desert and redefined the modern cowboy novel

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Roots of Rhythm

A new book and PBS television series trace the numerous traditions— of folk and gospel, blues and zydeco—that that shaped American music

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Old Sneakers Never Die

For much of the 20th century, hoopsters from pro to pickup loved their Converse Chuck Taylor All stars

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Around the Mall & Beyond

Best Seats in the House

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Smithsonian Notable Books for Children, 2001

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Turning Point

New Yorkers didn’t much care for the twin towers until a nimble Frenchman named Philippe Petit danced across a wire between them

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Magnificent Obsession

Artist Alberto Giacometti’s singular vision is celebrated in a special centennial exhibition at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art

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