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Hobo King Dutch, who first set out to ride the rails when he was 10 years old, meets up at the festival’s boxcar with Britt resident John Pratt.

The Last of the Great American Hobos

Hop a train to Iowa, where proud vagabonds gather every summer to crown the new king and queen of the rails

Three generations of the Marsili family at home in Siena, Italy. From left: Maria Elena; Letizia and her son Ludovico; matriarch Maria Domenica.

The Family That Feels Almost No Pain

An Italian clan’s curious insensitivity to pain has piqued the interest of geneticists seeking a new understanding of how to treat physical suffering

The arrestingly modern hominin at the Neanderthal Museum, near Dusseldorf, is the work of renowned paleo-artists Adrie and Alfons Kennis.

What Do We Really Know About Neanderthals?

Revolutionary discoveries in archaeology show that the species long maligned as knuckle-dragging brutes deserve a new place in the human story

One way of distinguishing these zebras from one another? Their stripes

The High-Tech, Humane Ways Biologists Can Identify Individual Animals

Humans have driver’s licenses and fingerprints, but cows have nose-prints and zebras have “StripeCodes”

Daesha Devón Harris Combines Oral History and Antique Portraits to Tell a Story of Loss and Hope

These layered works testify to African-American history

Dragons in Chinese art represent the emperor.

What Do Dragons Symbolize and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

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Readers Respond to Our March Issue

Your feedback on our cover story and more

Middletown, Pennsylvania in 1979 in the wake of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident

Witness

For Those Living Nearby, the Memory of the Three Mile Island Accident Has a Long Half-Life

Robert Reid, then the mayor of nearby Middletown, recalls the partial meltdown of the nuclear reactor more than 40 years ago

In a feat of surgical skill, Denton Cooley attached the temporary artificial heart device in only 47 minutes.

The Rivalry Between Two Doctors to Implant the First Artificial Heart

Featuring titans of Texas medicine, the race was on to develop the cutting-edge technology

The humor magazine Puck—a pre-TV version of “The Daily Show”—published this illustration in 1915, five years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Women Who Shaped History

The Long Battle for Women’s Suffrage

With the centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment approaching, a look back at the surprising history of giving women the vote

The ghosts of Nazis, French resistance fighters and concentration camp survivors still inhabit the grandest hotel on Paris’ famed Left Bank.

Paris’ Hotel Lutetia Is Haunted by History

The ghosts of Nazis, French resistance fighters and concentration camp survivors still inhabit the grand building on Paris’ famed Left Bank

Fingerprinting became widespread in the early 20th century.

The Myth of Fingerprints

Police today increasingly embrace DNA tests as the ultimate crime-fighting tool. They once felt the same way about fingerprinting

Merrill Joshua, of St. Helena’s tourism board, dressed in full Napoleonic regalia to depict the island’s most famous resident.

A Journey to St. Helena, Home of Napoleon’s Last Days

We crossed the globe to the tiny, remote island to sample the splendid desolation of the emperor’s exile under a scornful British governor

Beginning in the late 1940s, the white picket fence became synonymous with the American Dream.

How Did the White Picket Fence Become a Symbol of the Suburbs?

And why the epitome of the perfect house became so creepy

Left: Bottles of international rums from E&A Scheer line a wall. The rums are used for research and comparison. Right: The distillery’s patented reactor, or “time machine for booze.”

The Madcap Chemists of Booze

At Lost Spirits Distillery in Los Angeles, high-tech instruments accelerate the aging process of precious whiskeys and rums

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Readers Discuss Our January/February 2019 Issue

Your feedback on our military issue

Women have graced coinage since the third century B.C.

Who Was the First Woman Depicted on Currency and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Giddens with her beloved cherry, maple and rosewood minstrel banjo, a replica of a design by the 19th-century Baltimore luthier Levi Brown.

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Rhiannon Giddens’ 21st-Century Sound Has a Long History

Inspired by long-lost folk melodies, gospel, opera and bluegrass, the electrifying singer and banjo player gives fresh voice to old American traditions

Dugger makes a stylish statement by superimposing vibrant images of women jumping and twirling over photographs of patterned mats common in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, the Veil Is a Fashion Statement

Artist Medina Dugger finds joy in a colorful yet complicated symbol of faith

Lake Malawi formed in a valley where the African tectonic plate is the process of splitting in two.

The Fishy Mystery of Lake Malawi

In the second-largest lake in Africa, fish evolution is taking place at an explosive rate. Why? Scientists are diving into the question

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