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A fishing cat, Prionailurus viverrinus, in Koh Mon, Thailand, at a shrimp farm. Such facilities reduce the area inhabited by the shy animal, contributing to its decline. 

Planet Positive

Fishing Cats Face Many Human Threats. What Can Be Done to Save Them?

The wild felines in Asia are highly adapted to watery environs that are disappearing

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The Father-Daughter Team Who Reformed America

Meet the duo who helped achieve the most important labor and civil rights victories of their age

Artist Arianne King Comer works with indigo ink and rice paper at a farm on Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina.

The Blue That Enchanted the World

Indigo is growing again in South Carolina, revived by artisans and farmers with a modern take on a forgotten history

According to contemporary accounts, Crazy Horse carried himself with great humility.

How Would Crazy Horse See His Legacy?

Perhaps no Native American is more admired for military acumen than the Lakota leader. But is that how he wanted to be remembered?

The “Ole Bull” Stradivarius, made in 1687, photographed with flowers and props reminiscent of a Dutch still life from the period.

When It Comes to String Instruments, Stradivariuses Are Still Pitch Perfect

Even after three centuries of their existence, the violins spark debate over what makes their sound special

The enigmatic John Smith Hurt, shown in 1966, was a pioneer of the vital American art form known as Mississippi Delta blues.

A Pilgrimage to Honor a Blues Legend

With a mysterious memento from long ago in hand, a devoted fan of the blues artist Mississippi John Hurt returns to the Delta

Dancers perform in the plaza of Sant Feliu Sasserra during the town’s annual Witches Fair, or Fira de les Bruixes, on October 31, 2017.

Spain’s Centuries-Long Witch Hunt Killed 700 Women

In recent years, local officials have broken the spell and apologized for what happened generations ago

T.H. Matteson, Examination of a Witch, 1853

A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials

One town’s strange journey from paranoia to pardon

Neal V. Loving’s WR-3, shown at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, will move to the redesigned galleries on the National Mall.

The West Wing of the National Air and Space Museum Prepares to Take Flight

The Smithsonian museum reopens to the public, transforming the way we tell the story of aviation

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Readers Respond to the September 2022 Issue

Your feedback on discrimination in World War II, the treasures of Fossil Lake and Istria

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Women Who Shaped History

The Little-Known Story of the Women Who Stood Up to General Motors and Demanded Equal Pay

In the 1930s, Florence St. John and her co-workers at an automotive plant won a hard-fought victory for fairness

The current drought reveals lost items from earlier, wetter times, like this sunken boat near Iceberg Canyon.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

The Breathtaking Glen Canyon Reveals Its Secrets

Water woes threaten America’s second largest reservoir—but leave new vistas in their wake

Lost by Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, 2015. The acrylic and oil work is from a series on the Mangbetu people of Congo, whose distinctive traditions, such as skull-elongation, are on the brink of disappearing.

How Artist Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga Connects the Past and the Present

In bold, symbolic canvasses, the painter was inspired by a broken iPhone

A sculpture by artist Arlene Love and a tray of bottled scents in Joel Mainland’s office at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.

Sniffing Out the Science of Smelling

From the lab to the art gallery, the latest efforts to understand the fragrant, musky, stinky and utterly baffling world of your nose

Members of the Preservation All Stars perform in the hall on August 18, 2022.  

How Preservation Hall Has Kept New Orleans’ Iconic Jazz Alive

The plucky institution staged a brassy comeback for America’s signature music

The Bell X-1, a miracle of form and function.

How the Bell X-1 Ushered in the Supersonic Age

The speeding-bullet design propelled Chuck Yeager into history

One reader wonders: Why did ants make it all over the Americas while anteaters didn’t?  

Why Do Anteaters Live Only in the Tropics and More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts.

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The Noble Fury of Samuel Adams

How America’s “first politician” galvanized a colony—and helped set a revolution in motion

The Radcliffe Camera, part of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Tolkien once had a vision of this structure as a temple to Morgoth, the villain of Middle-earth.

How J.R.R. Tolkien Came to Write the Stories of ‘The Rings of Power’

Haunted by the approach of another world war, the beloved fantasy author created a new story of Middle-earth that few people even knew about—until now

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The Remarkable Effort to Locate America’s Lost Patents

An 1836 blaze destroyed thousands of records that catalogued the young nation’s ingenuity, but recent discoveries indicate that originals may still exist

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