Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Arts & Culture / Music & Film

The Telharmonium is considered to be the first electromechanical musical instrument.

The World’s First Synthesizer Was a 200-Ton Behemoth

Thaddeus Cahill’s Telharmonium may not have been a huge success, but it was an important achievement in music history

Bruce is alternately painted as a patriot whose perseverance secured his nation’s independence and a more shadowy figure with dangerous ambitions

Based on a True Story

The True Story of Robert the Bruce, Scotland’s ‘Outlaw King’

Chris Pine stars as the Netflix film’s eponymous hero, who secures his country’s independence but leaves behind a tangled legacy

None

Ingenious Minds

Could 3-D Printing Save Music Education?

D.C. chef Erik Bruner-Yang interviews Jill-of-all-trades Kaitlyn Hova about her plan to infuse STEM education with open source, 3-D printable instruments

Freddie Mercury performing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in August, 1980.

How Close Does ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Come to Showing the Real Freddie Mercury?

While the movie has been critiqued for flattening the legacy of Queen, see the band come to life in historic photos

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

“I knew we had the work cut out for us,” says Richard Barden, the Preservation Services manager. “When you really start looking at the slippers, you see how many different materials they are."

The Return of Dorothy’s Iconic Ruby Slippers, Now Newly Preserved for the Ages

The unprecedented conservation of the Wizard of Oz shoes involved more than 200 hours, and a call from the FBI

The Good Work film crew captures the annual re-plastering of the historic adobe morada in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

In a New Film, Master Artisans Share Their Passion for the Labors They Love

Award-winning filmmakers, Smithsonian folklorist Marjorie Hunt and Paul Wagner, explore impact of craft in Good Work, airing now on PBS

Haile Gerima’s 1993 classic film Sankofa envisions an African-American model visiting present-day West Africa mystically thrust into the life of a slave.

Smithsonian Film Festival Examines African-American Life Through Dozens of Distinct Lenses

The first of its kind, the late-October event brings together perspectives both historical and contemporary

The Afterlife of Beetlejuice

The “Ghost with the Most” has been haunting movie watches—and one small Vermont town—for 30 years

Soldiers supporting the coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet take cover as bombs are dropped on the Presidential Palace of La Moneda in Sept. 11, 1973.

An Eyewitness Account of Pinochet’s Coup 45 Years Ago

Smithsonian ethnomusicologist Dan Sheehy poignantly recalls the brutal outcome of a nation divided

Objects Conservator Dawn Wallace examines the recovered pair of Ruby Slippers. Chief Conservator Richard Barden and Curator Ryan Lintelman also spent hours looking at the shoes in detail.

How the Smithsonian Helped Sleuth Out the True Identity of a Pair of Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers

When the FBI asked museum conservators at the American History Museum for assistance, they discovered the two pairs are twins

At the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural American Portrait Gala, Franklin was honored in 2015 with a Portrait of the Nation Prize.

Museum Curators Reflect on the Legacy of the Queen of Soul

Aretha Franklin dies at 76; her memory lives on at the Smithsonian in artwork, photographs and other ephemera

With "Hey Jude," (above: the Smithsonian's 45 rpm single), the Beatles "seem to have struck their most resonant chord," says John Troutman, the curator of American music at the National Museum of American History.

“Hey Jude” Still Makes Everything “Better, Better, Better”

The Beatles’ biggest single hit skyrocketed on the charts in August of 1968

Kozima waterfront.

This Tiny Picturesque Island Is Standing in for Greece in ‘Mamma Mia 2’

Sometimes the understudy exceeds expectations

Mamma mia!

What’s Behind ABBA’s Staying Power?

Don’t call it a comeback. With a new movie and new music on the way, ABBA remains as relevant as ever

Even outside of Hollywood, wasps are fierce contenders in their own right.

Five Real Life Wasp Superpowers Not in Ant-Man and the Wasp

Bees tend to get all the attention, but Marvel turns the spotlight on one of nature’s most devious masterminds

The chevrons on the Panther's early suit, and the tessellated triangles on his later model, hint at the "sacred geometry" of triangular forms common to several African cultures.

King T’Challa’s Black Panther Suit, a Bold Statement of Afrofuturist Pride, Comes to the Smithsonian

Pounce on the opportunity to celebrate contemporary African-African filmmaking at the National Museum of African American History and Culture this fall

The smart, menacing, powerful T. rex of 1993's Jurassic Park has lodged itself in the minds of millions.

How We Elected T. rex to Be Our Tyrant Lizard King

The true story behind our obsession with the last and largest of the tyrannosaurs

The first insect found trapped in ancient amber wasn’t a mosquito, but an overstuffed weevil.

Jurassic Park’s Unlikely Symbiosis With Real-World Science

The 1993 film showed both the promise and misconceptions that surround ancient DNA

Page 12 of 41