Smart News Arts & Culture

Progress, meet cemetery.

Cool Finds

Digital Tombstone Brings the Dead Back to Life

Death is eternal—but cemeteries are changing with the times

"Wing," "coin" and "toil" are all words you can play in any Scrabble game. "Biten," however, is not legal.

The Tournament Scrabble Dictionary Contains More Than A Hundred Slurs

One woman first raised the issue of the Scrabble dictionary containing offensive words in the 1990s

The Mark Strand Theater in 1914. See more images of the luxurious movie palaces at the Library of Congress website.

Movie Palaces Let Everyday Americans Be Royalty

They were an important part of the studio system that flourished until the late 1940s

One Million Internet Users Created This Piece of Art

Contributions range from the juvenile to bizarre to strangely beautiful

This elaborate dance mask (ca. 1900) with representations of a spirit, seal, fish, and bird held in a human hand, was made by a Yup’ik artist from Alaska and is part of a group of Native American artworks that will soon be integrated into the Metropolitan Museum's American Wing.

Trending Today

The Met Will Finally Integrate Some Native American Art Into Its American Wing

Until now, indigenous art has lived in its own section

This really old statue has a surprisingly modern tale to tell.

Cool Finds

This 3,500-Year-Old Statue of a Syrian Refugee Remains One of Archaeology’s Most Important Finds

King Idrimi is getting digitized and his autobiography is as relevant as ever

A graffiti-covered complex in Queens will soon be high-rise apartments.

Trending Today

Graffiti Grudge Goes to Federal Court

5Pointz was once an international graffiti icon. Now, aerosol artists are fighting the developer who tore it down

Heritage scientist Cecilia Bembibre captures the smell of a 18th-century bible at Knole House.

New Research

The Quest to Better Describe the Scent of Old Books

Describing a unique smell just got easier thanks to a pair of olfactory detectives

Previously unrecorded portrait of Harriet Tubman

Trending Today

Smithsonian and Library of Congress Purchase Rare 1860s Photo of Harriet Tubman

Part of an album of 44 photos of prominent abolitionists, the unique photo was recently acquired at auction

Clothes moth larvae are snacking on history.

Moths Are Nibbling Away at England’s Heritage Sites

Let “Operation Clothes Moths” commence

Before World War II, almost every Dutch village had a wooden shoe maker.

Trending Today

Only 30 Dutch Wooden Shoe Makers Remain

The traditional trade is in trouble

President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan meet with the Beach Boys a few months after Reagan's Secretary of the Interior announced that rock bands attracted "the wrong element."

The Secretary of the Interior Once Banned Rock Bands From the National Mall

James Watt, who was outed from office in the early 1980s, said the only songs he knew were 'The Star Spangled Banner' and 'Amazing Grace'

Jack Kerouac's former home at 5169 10th Ave. N in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Fans Hope to Preserve Jack Kerouac’s Florida Home

The modest house in St. Petersburg is now for sale, and may be turned into a museum

The 2016 Spelling Bee co-champions Nihar Janga, 11, of Austin, Texas, and Jairam Hathwar, 13, of Corning, New York.

The National Spelling Bee Adjusts Its Rules To Prevent Ties

Top spellers will be required to take a written test on the final evening of the competition

Even the strongest hands might get tired wearing a 59.6-carat pink diamond.

Trending Today

This $71.2 Million Diamond Just Set a New World Record

The flawless stone has a new owner—and a new name

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault. A new vault will protect the world's books, archives and documents on long-lasting film

Cool Finds

A Second Doomsday Vault—This One to to Preserve Data—Is Opening in Svalbard

Known as the Arctic World Archive, it will store copies of books, archives and documents on special film

Millicent Garrett Fawcett gives a speech in Hyde Park in 1913.

London's Parliament Square Will Get Its First Statue of a Woman

Suffragist leader Millicent Garrett Fawcett will join the ranks of 11 statesmen who have been honored with monuments there

Rooster sauce has a new home: on store shelves in Vietnam.

Trending Today

Sriracha Sauce Is Finally Available in Vietnam

What happens when a cult staple heads to another country?

Amounts of arsenic that were deadly to children and the elderly were easily metabolized by healthy adults, which is one of the reasons it took many people so long to accept that arsenic wallpaper was bad news.

Arsenic and Old Tastes Made Victorian Wallpaper Deadly

Victorians were obsessed with vividly-colored wallpaper, which is on-trend for this year–though arsenic poisoning is never in style

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Trending Today

There’s a New World’s Blackest Black

And it’s really black

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