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Arts & Culture

Lego's Duplo bricks have been in production for 50 years.

How Lego Patents Helped Build a Toy Empire, Brick by Brick

The Danish toy company invented its basic brick, then designed a toddler-friendly version, before adding mini figures to the mix

An assemblage Assimilation? Destruction? by ceramicist Sharif Bey, is primarily about globalization and cultural identity. It is also a reference to Bey’s identity as a potter and an artist of color.

Four Craft Artists Use Their Medium to Tell the Story of Our Times

The Renwick’s newest show challenges everything you thought you knew about craft art

How First Lady Sarah Polk Set a Model for Conservative Female Power

The popular and pious wife to President James Polk had little use for the nascent suffrage movement

At Gobbler’s Knob, Punxsutawney Phil is proudly lifted like Simba high overhead by his top-hatted Groundhog Club handler. Will it be six more weeks of winter or an early spring? Only the groundhog knows.

Play a Groundhog Day Song on a Continuous Loop

Like Bill Murray, wake up to Groundhog Day everyday with the Smithsonian Folkways’ groundhog playlist

The Patents Behind Pasta Shapes

When you sit down to a bowl, be it gnocchi or Kraft macaroni, consider the design work and innovation that have gone into it

The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in what came to be known as Super Bowl I.

Pop History

What the Earliest Super Bowl Commercials Tell Us About the Super Bowl

The inaugural title game in 1967 would not have been getting kudos from the media for representing women

Mother III (detail) by Yun Suknam, (2013 version), 1993

Breakthrough Korean Feminist Artist Yun Suknam in Her First U.S. Museum Exhibition

With an assemblage portrait of her mother as the focal piece, the artist’s work is surrounded by the works of those who inspired her

The Panda Cams had to be turned off during the shutdown and so for the past month, the crown jewel of the National Zoo has been hidden from the public.

Smithsonian Staffers Scramble to Make Up Time Lost During Government Shutdown

Workers are back, the museums are open, the pandas are well, but officials say the ramifications of the shutdown are far from over

Amazing Grace captivates, says the Smithsonian's Christopher Wilson from the National Museum of American History. It is 90-minutes of "living the genius of Aretha and the passion of the tradition she embraced and represented."

Aretha Franklin’s Decades-Old Documentary Finally Comes to Theaters in 2019

The 2019 nationwide release, 47 years after it was made, means audiences at last will see the Queen of Soul’s transcendent masterpiece

At the start of the 1960s, color television was still a relatively novel technology.

Color TV Transformed the Way Americans Saw the World, and the World Saw America

A historian of 20th century media argues that the technological innovation was the quintessential Cold War machine

Pop History

Seventy-Five Years Ago, the Television Musical Made Its Debut

“RENT: Live” meet “The Boys from Boise”

GM's head of design Harley Earl drove the "Y-job" to and from work for 11 years.

How General Motors Introduced the Idea of a ‘Concept Car’

Eighty years ago, the Buick Y-job was billed as the car of the future

Good luck getting this out of your head.

Pop History

Before the ‘Baby Shark’ Song Made the Hot 100, ‘Silly Symphonies’ Were All the Rage

The “musical novelty” series of shorts achieved critical and popular success, too

A rendering of the lobby of the Statue of Liberty Museum, featuring the statue's original torch

From Lady Liberty to Hollywood to the Middle East, These Are the Most Exciting Museums Opening in 2019

Visit new institutions devoted to mascots, spies, archaeological sites, American icons and much more this year

Elvis tribute artist Alfred Kaz, also known as 'Bollywood Elvis' poses at Central Station ahead of boarding the 'Elvis Express' on January 10, 2019 in Sydney, Australia.

Once a Year, Over 27,000 Elvis Fans Flood This Small Australian Town

The Parkes Elvis Festival draws thousands from around the globe each January to celebrate the King’s birthday

Almost all American cheeses are based on European cheeses that are familiar to both producers and consumers. Not this one.

The Quest for a Totally American Cheese

Move over, Camembert! Three creameries in the U.S. are developing a recipe for a unique cheese they are calling Cornerstone

Gutenberg Castle in Balzers, Liechtenstein.

Twelve Anniversaries and Events Worth Traveling For in 2019

2019 will mark Singapore’s bicentennial, the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death and a total solar eclipse in South America

Woman arranging bric-a-brac in her Arizona home circa 1940

Pop History

How America Tidied Up Before Marie Kondo

From the Progressive Era’s social hygiene movement to Netflix self-help reality television

Glowing ice sculptures span eight million square feet of Harbin, a city in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province.

Virtual Travel

Step Inside Winter’s Most Spectacular Wonderland at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in Northeast China

Visitors brave -40 degree temperatures to climb glistening ice castles and frozen replicas of iconic buildings

A secluded bay on Kangaroo Island, Australia.

A New Wave of Distilleries Is Crafting Unique Spirits From Australia’s Native Plants – and Creepy Crawlers

Boutique spirit makers across the southern continent are creating favors inspired by their own backyards

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