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Arts & Culture

This dress, with a matching necklace and ruby red high heels, was worn by Cornell to her prom in 2018.

Smithsonian Voices

How Isabella Aiukli Cornell Made Prom Political

As citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a prom dress became the perfect vehicle to signal the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women

Emanuel Martinez, Tierra o Muerte, 1967, screenprint on manila folder

Smithsonian Voices

Chicanx Graphic Artists Inexpensively Fomented Revolution, Using Recycled Materials

For protest artists, what receives the image is often of little importance; it is the image’s political message that is vital

The stories of children who participated in polio vaccine tests became a constant in media coverage, appearing alongside warnings and debates.

Vintage Headlines

The Press Made the Polio Vaccine Trials Into a Public Spectacle

As a medical breakthrough unfolded in the early 1950s, newspapers filled pages with debates over vaccine science and anecdotes about kids receiving shots

There are over eight million feet of film in the Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA), which is part of the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives. HSFA specializes in storing ethnographic footage created by anthropologists, filmmakers and travelers.

Smithsonian Voices

How Film Helps Preserve the World’s Diversity

The Smithsonian’s Human Studies Film Archive houses eight million feet of film which can help future generations reflect on the past

John Wanamaker, New York, NY. Spring & Summer Catalog (1915), front cover.

Smithsonian Voices

Looking at Leisure Through Early 20th-Century Trade Catalogs

How did people a 100 years ago spend their free time outside? The Trade Literature Collection offers a few clues to some very recognizable pastimes

A scrapbook about Alonzo Orozco and David Salazar, semipro players in Los Angeles in the 1920s and ’30s.

This Summer, a New Smithsonian Exhibition Takes You Inside Béisbol

At the American History Museum, cover all the bases with Latino ballplayers

Clockwise from top left, caps worn by: Chris Lindsay of the Detroit Tigers during the 1906 season; Ila Borders, the first woman to pitch in an NCAA or NAIA game; Christy Mathewson (1880-1925), history and date unknown; Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees; Dennis Eckersley of the Oakland Athletics when he logged his 300th career save in 1995; Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves, 1972-73. (Richard Gary / National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)

How the Baseball Cap Went From Athletic Gear to Fashion Statement

A tip of the cap to the nation’s crowning accessory

One of the most versatile harmonica players in pop history is Stevie Wonder, shown here in Paris in 1963 at age 13.

A Brief History of the Harmonica

How the world’s handiest instrument took over American music

Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Composition, 1930.

Is the Artwork of Sophie Taeuber-Arp Still Avant-Garde?

Decades after she painted this canvas, a new show reconsiders a misunderstood Swiss artist

Deb Haaland speaks at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the National Native American Veterans Memorial, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019.

Smithsonian Voices

Indian Country Weighs In on Deb Haaland’s Confirmation as Secretary of the Interior

Seen as “one giant leap for Native women, “Haaland (Laguna and Jemez Pueblos) is hailed for her experience, strength and wisdom

Newbery Honoree Alicia D. Williams is the author of Genesis Begins Again and the new picture book Jump at the Sun, the first biography of Zora Neale Hurston written for children.

Smithsonian Voices

How Alicia D. Williams Is Reviving Storytelling for Black Children

Williams wanted a different story for her daughter—and for herself. So, she set out to write it

The dictionary documents the “core” vocabulary of science fiction that turns up again and again, both in stories and in the real world.

A Dictionary of Science Fiction Runs From Afrofuturism to Zero-G

The long-running project found a new online home, one that showcases the literary genre’s outsized impact on popular culture

Sea beans, otherwise known as sea asparagus and pickleweed, belong to the genus Salicornia, marsh plants that thrive in salty soils.

How One Farmer Is Introducing Americans to Sea Beans

In Charleston, South Carolina, Heron Farms is attempting to grow a gangly, salt-tolerant plant in the face of sea level rise

What if literature was an invention for making us happier and healthier?

Eight of Literature’s Most Powerful Inventions—and the Neuroscience Behind How They Work

These reoccuring story elements have proven effects on our imagination, our emotions and other parts of our psyche

Architect Julia Morgan is best known for California’s Hearst Castle.

Virtual Travel

Six Wonders Built by Pioneering Women Architects

Virtually explore these groundbreaking designs around the world, from an Italian villa to an American castle

Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel Prize recipient for her work on the gene-editing tool CRISPR, and the "life sciences revolution" are the dual subjects of Walter Isaacson's latest biography.

How Scientist Jennifer Doudna Is Leading the Next Technological Revolution

A new book from Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson offers an incisive portrait of the gene editing field that is changing modern medicine

Barbara Dane with the Chambers Brothers at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Smithsonian Voices

Meet Barbara Dane and Her Proud Tradition of Singing Truth to Power

From Mississippi Freedom Schools, to free speech rallies at UC Berkeley, and in the coffeehouses, her protest music took her everywhere

Three women dressed in period garb as alewives. The tall hats became a part of witch iconography.

Why Did Women Stop Dominating the Beer Industry?

Strict gender norms pushed them out of a centuries-long tradition

As historian Nancy Marie Brown points out, “[A]sking not ‘Are the sagas true?’ but ‘Are they plausible?’” is a far better barometer for testing the Viking tales’ veracity.

Did a Viking Woman Named Gudrid Really Travel to North America in 1000 A.D.?

The sagas suggest she settled in Newfoundland and eventually made eight crossings of the North Atlantic Sea

Theodore Roosevelt scholar and historian Clay Jenkinson tells the story of Roosevelt’s beloved west and the national park that bears his name in a Smithsonian Associates Streaming program on March 4.

Smithsonian Voices

Theodore Roosevelt’s North Dakota and 27 Other Smithsonian Programs Streaming in March

Multi-part courses, studio arts classes and virtual study tours produced by the world’s largest museum-based educational program

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