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Past and Presence: The Power of Photographs

The shattering nature of violence. The resilience of the human spirit. The power of photographs. A Smithsonian special project

For the first time, Florian Engert and his team mapped every firing neuron in a living animal.

How a Transparent Fish May Help Decode the Brain

An outspoken Harvard neuroscientist is tackling the wondrous challenge of understanding the workings of the brain

Melville joked that Dana’s descriptions of Cape Horn “must have been written with an icicle.”

Before Moby-Dick, There Was “Two Years Before the Mast”

This salty memoir by Richard Henry Dana Jr. was one of America’s first literary classics

Robot jockeys ride camels in Abu Dhabi.

The Latest Sign That the Robot Uprising Is Nigh? Camel Racing

A centuries-old pastime in the United Arab Emirates gets a reboot

Yepraksia Gevorgyan fled Turkey with her family. Her father was killed along the way, and her mother died soon after they crossed into Armenia.

Armenia: Smithsonian Guide

One Photographer’s Personal Endeavor to Track Down Survivors of the Armenian Genocide, 100 Years Later

As children, they escaped ruthless state-sponsored violence. Now, these Armenian women and men visit the aching memory of what they left behind

What Did Insects Evolve From and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Harper's Ferry, West Virginia (top) and Chickamauga, Georgia (bottom) were the sites of two Civil War battles.

Past and Presence

A Photographic Requiem for America’s Civil War Battlefields

Walking far-flung battlefields to picture the nation’s defining tragedy in a modern light

Runnymede meadow in Surrey, England, is the site of historic Magna Carta negotiations.

The Mad King and Magna Carta

How did a peace treaty signed — and broken — more than 800 years ago become one of the world’s most influential documents?

The Daily Tribune often traded content with other papers in purple (lines represent shared text).

There Were Listicles That Went Viral Long Before There Was an Internet

Digital scholars are zeroing in on stories that were trending way back in the 19th century

Lee's Maycomb, indelibly evoked in the novel that sells a million copies annually, endures in the small-town reality of Monroeville.

What’s Changed, and What Hasn’t, in the Town That Inspired ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

Traveling back in time to visit Harper Lee’s hometown, the setting of her 1960 masterpiece and the controversial sequel hitting bookstores soon

Hiram Bingham called Machu Picchu “the most important ruin discovered in South America since the Spanish conquest.”

What It’s Like to Travel the Inca Road Today

A rocky rollicking journey to Machu Picchu along one of the greatest engineering feats in the Americas

A Deep Dive Into the Skeleton of the Oldest-Known Modern Bird

A fossil found in China may offer new clues about avian evolution

In Ferguson, Missouri, a protester holds a rose during an August demonstration on W. Florissant Avenue, which intersects with Canfield Drive—the street where Michael Brown was killed.

Past and Presence

Photos From the Heart of the Ferguson Protests

The events sparked by the killing of young Michael Brown gave rise to a new civil rights movement that’s still growing

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Discussion

Readers respond to our June issue

The Hyperloop Will Be Only the Latest Innovation That’s Pretty Much a Series of Tubes

The idea of using pneumatics to send objects has been around for ages. But people?

The view inside Pompeii's old granary

The Fall and Rise and Fall of Pompeii

The famous archaeological treasure is falling into scandalous decline, even as its sister city Herculaneum is rising from the ashes

Did This Map Guide Columbus?

Researchers decipher a mystifying 15th-century document

Native Dress Calgary Stampede(2010)

Scenes From the Calgary Stampede

Noted photographer Richard Phibbs has a new book that sends him back home on the range

The last of the data from the New Horizons flyby won’t arrive until late 2016.

One Man’s Lifelong Pursuit of Pluto is About to Get Real

When the New Horizons spacecraft races by the quasi-planetary body, Alan Stern will have finally met his match

The World’s Largest Picture Frame?

The government of Dubai is taking this abstract structure to the next level

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