Magazine

In 1963, Herbert A. Gilbert filed a patent for “a safe and harmless means for and method of smoking.”

Plans for the First E-cigarette Went Up in Smoke 50 Years Ago

Herbert A. Gilbert invented his "Smokeless" in 1963, but he couldn't convince any companies to bring the device to market

If Light Can't Escape Black Holes, How Do We Get Photos of Them... and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

About 65 percent of Americans will send Christmas letters or cards this holiday season.

The History of Our Love-Hate Relationship With the Christmas Letter

How the "Dear Friends" missive started and how it has survived the Facebook age

Ida O’Keeffe created seven abstract paintings of Cape Cod’s Highland Light (pictured: Variation on a Lighthouse Theme V). The first in the acclaimed series has been lost.

Who Was Ida O'Keeffe, Georgia's Lesser-Known, But Perhaps More-Talented, Sister?

The painter who toiled in the shadow of her celebrated sibling is the subject of a new, major exhibition

What the Popularity of 'Fortnite' Has in Common With the 20th Century Pinball Craze

Long before parents freaked over the ubiquitous video game, they flipped out over another newfangled fad

The breakthrough propeller, its blades shaped by hatchet and drawknife from two-ply spruce, was sheathed in linen and sealed with aluminum powder mixed into a heavy varnish.

Why Wilbur Wright Deserves the Bulk of the Credit for the First Flight

A new book advances a controversial theory about the singular contribution that went into the brothers’ pioneering achievement

At Beauvoir this past October, Jim Huffman, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, showed students the 1863 battle flag of the Army of Tennessee.

The Costs of the Confederacy

In the last decade alone, American taxpayers have spent at least $40 million on Confederate monuments and groups that perpetuate racist ideology

A section of the 18,000-square-foot Cyclorama depicts a pivotal moment: Lt Edward Jones, on horseback, racing to reinforce the Federal line.

American South

Atlanta's Famed Cyclorama Mural Will Tell the Truth About the Civil War Once Again

One of the war's greatest battles was fought again and again on a spectacular canvas nearly 400 feet long. At last, the real history is being restored

Janelle Monáe at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on her summer Dirty Computer tour

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

What Makes Janelle Monáe America's Most Revolutionary Artist

The musical virtuoso leaves her old persona behind with her third album, <em>Dirty Computer</em>

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

Tracy K. Smith, America's Poet Laureate, Travels the Country to Ignite Our Imaginations

Like Johnny Appleseed, Smith has been planting the seeds of verse across the U.S.

The co-founders of the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Mily Treviño-Sauceda and Mónica Ramírez (foreground), stand with members of Líderes Campesinas on a farm in Oxnard, California.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

The Time's Up Initiative Built Upon the Work Done by These Labor Activists

How the leaders of a farmworkers' alliance reached across cultural divides to fight sexual harassment

“I didn’t sleep at all,” says Albert Maguire, recalling the night after he and Jean Bennett treated their first gene therapy patient. The operation was a success.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

A New Treatment for Blindness Comes From Gene Therapy

A wife-and-husband research team cracks the code to allow certain patients to see again

March for Our Lives student activists. Top row: David Hogg, Jammal Lemy, Samantha Deitsch, Bradley Thornton, Daniel Williams, Jaclyn Corin; Middle row: Kyrah Simon, Sofie Whitney, Ryan Deitsch, Delaney Tarr, Diego Pfeiffer, Emma González, Brendan Duff; Bottom row: Matt Deitsch, Kirsten McConnell, Kaylyn Pipitone, Cameron Kasky, Chris Grady, Dylan Baierlein

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

The March for Our Lives Activists Showed Us How to Find Meaning in Tragedy

After the massacre at a Florida high school, these brave students provided a way forward

To Krasinski’s relief, the audience at his film’s premiere “stood up and made the craziest noise” when the screening was over.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

How John Krasinski Created 'A Quiet Place'

The actor turned director creates a genre-busting horror movie with a terrifying twist—silence

John Krafcik (left) and Dmitri Dolgov

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

Why Waymo's Fleet of Self-Driving Cars Is Finally Ready for Prime Time

Your driverless car is already here, thanks to the visionary engineers behind a bold experiment

Scott Bolton says he first dreamed of traveling through the galaxy when he was a boy camping out under the stars.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

Meet Scott Bolton, the Visionary Behind the NASA Mission to Jupiter

The Juno project will take on the mysteries of the gas giant that may in turn help us understand our own planet’s origins

Viggo Mortensen (left) and Mahershala Ali star in Green Book.

American South

The True Story of the 'Green Book' Movie

Jazz, race and an unlikely friendship inspire the new film about navigating Jim Crow America

In his 90-minute performance, Leguizamo hurtles through 50 characters—from an Incan emperor to a female Confederate soldier.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

Why John Leguizamo Is So Invested in Telling the Country About Latino History

His uproariously inventive one-man show, soon to be shown on Netflix, puts the story of a neglected culture center stage

Early morning fog drapes a field in the Flints Hills of Kansas.

What Makes the Flint Hills of Kansas a Sight to See

70 classical musicians. 200 acres of windblown prairie. And the bracing spirit of the heartland. A Kansas symphony in six movements

Carbon-dating techniques have now identified this ancient maize cob at about 950 to 1,000 years old.

What Ancient Maize Can Tell Us About Thousands of Years of Civilization in America

It took millennia, but America’s founding farmers developed the grain that would fuel civilizations—and still does

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