Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (1849-1908), born blind and enslaved, was a musical prodigy who began performing as early as 6 years old.

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

The Tragic Story of America’s First Black Music Star

Thomas Wiggins, an African-American musician marketed as ‘Blind Tom’, had a lucrative career—but saw none of the profits himself

Detail of the Korean Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Gwaneum bosal) crafted in the Goryeo period, ca. 1220 to 1285.

Rare, Centuries-Old Korean Buddhist Masterpiece Goes on View

Sealed and hidden within the sculpture were sacred texts and symbolic objects

Food, Glorious Food

Food, Glorious Food

Smithsonian magazine’s coverage of food, drink and their role in our culture

The Torch of Friendship is a 65-foot, 45-ton steel sculpture near San Antonio's River Walk.

San Antonio Displays More Than 100 Sculptures by Artist Sebastian

The city is celebrating the Mexican artist’s 50-plus year career with a massive exhibition

The Smithsonian's American Food History Project seeks to understand the history of the U.S. through the multi-faceted lens of food.

Food, Glorious Food

How Food Brought Success to a Chef, a Cookbook Author and a Restaurateur

Historian Ashley Rose Young shares research from the Smithsonian’s 23-year-long ‘American Food History Project’

The fifth season of BBC drama "Peaky Blinders" is available now on Netflix

Based on a True Story

Who Were the Real ‘Peaky Blinders’?

The Shelby family is fictional, but a real street gang operated in Birmingham at the turn of the 20th century

Netflix's animated series, Carmen Sandiego, just released its second season.

How a Generation Became Obsessed With Tracking Down Carmen Sandiego

The globe-trotting thief of the popular 1985 computer game is back at it in a second season of an animated Netflix series

The cast of 'The Addams Family' poses for a publicity shot.

The Cultural History of ‘The Addams Family’

As the spooky clan makes a new appearance on the big screen, a look back on the mystery of their longevity

La Bodeguita del Medio, where Hemingway preferred to drink his mojitos.

Follow Ernest Hemingway’s Footsteps Through Havana

Sixty-five years after nabbing a Nobel, many of Papa Hemingway’s favorite haunts are still open to the public

Susan Kare designed pictorial symbols that enabled non-technical users to operate a computer, a great contrast to previous screens with “command line” interfaces that required knowing code.

How Susan Kare Designed User-Friendly Icons for the First Macintosh

The graphic designer is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from Cooper Hewitt for her recognizable computer icons, typefaces and graphics

The Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab will be offshore of Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland for three years, in an effort to test its viability as a substrate for futuristic floating cities.

Designing Floating Buildings With an Eye to the Marine Species Living Underneath

A prototype deployed in San Francisco Bay imagines the underside of a floating building as an upside-down artificial reef

Fred Rogers, wearing his usual uniform of a cardigan and a tie, in the 1980s.

The Behind-the-Scenes Quest to Find Mister Rogers’ Signature Cardigans

The USPS, a $70 soup pot and whole lot of effort went into finding the perfect zip-up cardigan for Fred Rogers

A fan carries a copy of ‘Abbey Road’ as he traverses the infamous crosswalk that appears on the album’s cover.

How the Beatles Took Recording Technology to a New Level in ‘Abbey Road’

An expert in sound recording details how the band deployed stereo and synthesizers to put a unique artistic stamp on this iconic album

In an interview before the opening of his show, sculptor Lee Ufan (above: searching for materials on Long Island) says the significance for viewers is the "pure experience."

Lee Ufan’s Transformative Sculptures Are in Dialogue With the Spaces They Inhabit

For the first time in the Hirshhorn Museum’s history, the 4.3-acre outdoor gallery is devoted to a single artist

None

A Botanical Painting and Printing Class and 21 Other Things to Do at the Smithsonian in October

The month is packed with art classes, food tastings, craft shows, theater and other must-sees

Expression Mirror (detail) by Zachary Lieberman

Here’s Why A.I. Can’t Be Taken at Face Value

Cooper Hewitt’s new show drills down into the inherent biases lurking within computer intelligence systems

Untitled from the series "Witness 1979" by Hengameh Golestan, March 11 1979

Viewing Iran and Its Complexities Through the Eyes of Visual Artists

Compelling works from six female photographers tell stories of revolution, displacement and longing for home

Hauschka performed at the 35th Munich Filmfest on June 27, 2017, in Munich, Germany.

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How Composer John Cage Transformed the Piano—With the Help of Some Household Objects

With screws and bolts placed between its strings, the ‘prepared piano’ offers up a wide range of sounds

The Evidence Room represents thousands of pages of testimony that was assembled by Robert Jan van Pelt, an architectural historian and the main expert witness in a British lawsuit brought by a Holocaust denier.

Using Art to Talk About the Holocaust in ‘The Evidence Room’

Museum staff discuss the reception of a difficult work that showed the vivid and painful documentation of a Nazi death camp

“We call ourselves the Great Convener,” says the new Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, “but really we’re a Great Legitimizer. And I want the Smithsonian to legitimize important issues."

Lonnie Bunch Sizes Up His Past and Future at the Smithsonian

Bunch’s new memoir details the tireless work it took to build NMAAHC and offers insights into his priorities as Smithsonian Secretary

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