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At the Smithsonian / Exhibitions

At the top of the Great Historical Clock, amid decorative flourishes,George Washington reviews his troops.

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This Towering 19th-Century Mechanical Clock Was the Smartwatch of Its Era

With hundreds of moving parts, the Great Historical Clock of America has been revived

On July 8, the Hirshhorn becomes a festival of sound with opportunities to listen to the solar system or use body temperature to compose melodies.

The Hirshhorn Transforms Into a One-Day Soundscape

For one day, the museum will add an interactive soundscape to the works of visual art on display

Horatio Greenough’s 12-ton marble statue of George Washington heralds the newly reopened west wing gallery.

Renovated Museum Wing Delves Into Untold Chapters of American History

“The Nation We Build Together” questions American ideals through exhibits on democracy, religion, diversity and more

Lining up at the Big Top for the 2017 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Step Right Up to the Big Top Circus Tent at the 50th Annual Folklife Festival

The day the circus rolled into Washington, D.C., and other tales from the Smithsonian’s hot summer party on the National Mall

Triple-Face Portrait by Sylvia Plath, c. 1950-1951

The Whimsical, Chameleon-Like Figure Behind the Myth of Sylvia Plath

Today, visions of a life marked by mental illness endure, but the author had a light side—and a knack for savvy image control

Marlene Dietrich by Paul Cwojdzinski on the SS Europa, 1933, Cherbourg, France, 1933

The Pioneering Androgyny of Classic Hollywood Star Marlene Dietrich

The film icon embraced bisexuality, glamorous mystique and provocation

Petitioning with your feet display

New Exhibition Asks “What Kind of Nation Do We Want to Be?”

The American History Museum opens a trio of timely new shows on democracy, religion and immigration

Abraham Lincoln by Mathew B. Brady, Feb. 27, 1860

How One Mathew Brady Photograph May Have Helped Elect Abraham Lincoln

Before chronicling the Civil War, the nation’s first photojournalist took these portraits

Nicolas Party at work on sunrise, sunset, 2017 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Muralist Nicolas Party Samples Great Artists of the Past Like a Visual DJ

The Hirshhorn’s installation, inspired by Barack Obama’s “sun will rise” promise of continuity, highlights fantasy landscapes, beauty of nature

In 2001, Smithsonian scientists Doug Owsley and Kari Bruwelheide traveled to the Grove in Glenview, Illinois, Robert Kennicott's boyhood home, to open the naturalist's casket and determine the cause of his death.

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Two Smithsonian Scientists Retrace the Mysterious Circumstances of an 1866 Death and Change History

Did the 19th-century naturalist Robert Kennicott die of his own hand?

Piri Thomas by Máximo Colón, 1972

Why Piri Thomas’ Coming of Age Memoir Still Resonates Today

“Down These Mean Streets” was an instant classic, a text of painful truths

“I felt that I was always connected to the world and the people of the world, and that activism was in me from a very young age,” Ono says.

The Long and Winding Road of Yoko Ono’s Art

A Hirshhorn exhibition of four works opens the same week Ono is credited, 46 years later, as a co-writer of the chart-topping ballad “Imagine.”

The Treaty of Medicine Creek

Medicine Creek, the Treaty That Set the Stage for Standing Rock

The Fish Wars of the 1960s led to an affirmation of Native American rights

Zelt 46—dithyrambisch (Tent 46—Dithyrambic) by Markus Lüpertz, 1965

It Takes Two Museums to Cover the Work of this Prolific German Neo-Expressionist

Europe’s celebrated Markus Lüpertz has a huge appetite for creativity. He’s also a poet, writer, set designer and jazz pianist

Firemen March 6 1985 by Donald Sultan, 1985

This Artist’s Worldview Drips With Unending Pessimism

“Man is inherently self-destructive, and whatever is built will be destroyed,” says painter Donald Sultan of his “Disaster Paintings”

The View From the Big Top

Aerialist and this year’s Folklife Festival performer Dolly Jacobs didn’t have to run away to join the circus; she lived it

"We saw kids who created hands that had solid, non-moving opposable joints," says Tim Pula (left) from the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation .

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The Next Generation of Military Prosthetics Is Breaking New Ground

At the Smithsonian’s Military Invention Day, visitors experienced how military innovation is helping society

65 East 125th Street, Harlem by Camilo José Vergara, 1977

Watch How One Harlem Storefront Changes Over Nearly Four Decades

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new exhibition goes “Down These Mean Streets”

The First Couple head to the inauguration ceremony, Washington, DC, January 20, 1961

JFK’s Presidency Was Custom Made for the Golden Age of Photojournalism

A new exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum concentrates on the White House’s most photogenic couple

"This book was representative of an era during which colonialism and the associated conversion to Christianity oppressed the indigenous population in often violent ways,” says curator Gabriela Pérez-Báez.

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A Rare Public Display of a 17th-Century Mayan Manuscript

With the book newly digitized, scholars are reinterpreting a story of native resistance from within its pages

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