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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Civil War reenactors fire a salute in a public parade.

Civil War Reenactments Were a Thing Even During the Civil War

These ‘practice battles’ are the root of today’s Civil War reenactors

Codex Amiatinus

After 1300 Years Abroad, the Earliest Complete Latin Bible Returns to England

The Codex Amiatinus will go on display at the British Library in 2018

Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Circle in New York City

More than 120 Academics and Artists Call for Removal of Controversial Monuments in New York

The letter singles out three statues and two commemorative markers honoring contentious historical figures

Marianne Means during a 1983 interview with C-SPAN's Brian Lamb.

Pioneering Political Journalist Marianne Means Has Died at Age 83

The first woman assigned to cover a president’s activities on a full-time basis, Means wrote a widely syndicated column about the goings-on in Washington

New Research

Researchers Investigate What Makes a Poem Popular

A recent study found that vividness of imagery best predicted a poem’s aesthetic appeal

The beginning of the Crazy Horse Memorial.

The Memorial to Crazy Horse Has Been Under Construction For Almost 70 Years

But you can still visit the memorial, which is located in South Dakota

Muhammad Ansi, "Drowned Syrian Refugee Child (from Images seen on TV)," 2016. "Muhammad Ansi, originally from Yemen, was detained at Guantánamo for almost 15 years before being released to Oman in January 2017. He learned to paint and draw at Guantánamo, working mainly in landscapes and still life. His art often features cities seen from far away, paths without beginning or end, and empty boats adrift at sea."

Exhibit of Art by Guantánamo Prisoners Prompts Pentagon Review

The Department of Defense has halted transfers of artworks by detainees

Archaeologists in California Unearth a Large Sphinx—From the Set of ‘The Ten Commandments’

Director Cecil B. DeMille gave the order for the entire set be buried beneath the sand after shooting on the blockbuster concluded

A Thomas Gainsborough painting of Queen Charlotte

Five Things to Know About Queen Charlotte

Before Meghan Markle, the late 18th-century Queen Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz may have been the country’s first biracial royal

A "comfort women" monument is seen at St. Mary Square in San Francisco, the United States, on Sept. 22, 2017.

‘Comfort Women’ Statue Prompts Osaka to Cut Ties with San Francisco

The monument pays tribute to women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels

A square dance on Skyline Farms in Alabama, circa 1937.

Square Dancing is Uniquely American

Like the culture it came from, square dance has roots in European, Native American and African practices

Spandex, under the brand name Lycra, quickly took off after it was introduced in 1962. This ad was published in Good Housekeeping in October of that year.

Thank(?) Joseph Shivers For Spandex

From Spanx to space suits, spandex has shaped modern garments

Janelle Shane's neural network needs a lot of first lines before it can teach itself to write good ones.

This Neural Network Can (Maybe) Start a Novel Better Than You

As the end of NaNoWriMo draws near, take a look at one researcher’s effort to help find that perfect first line

Close-up of tent detail in Verplancks Point watercolor

Newly Discovered 235-Year-Old Watercolor Shows Off General Washington’s Wartime Tent

The painting offers a unique glimpse into the Revolutionary War

The 1848 "Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World."

Museum Restores North America’s Longest Painting

Completed in 1848, the quarter-mile-long panorama deteriorated after it toured the country on wagons and trains

Tibetan manuscripts

A Look Inside China’s Effort to Preserve Historical Mongolian Manuscripts

Various projects are attempting to digitize the more than 200,000 volumes of Mongolian books and documents in the country

A cumulonimbus cloud formation, AKA a thunderstorm.

Our Cloud Names Come From a 1700s Amateur Meteorologist

Luke Howard’s nomenclature inspired writers as well as scientists

The Codex Quetzalecatzin

Behold the Newly Digitized 400-Year-Old Codex Quetzalecatz

The manuscript dates back to the late 1500s, and was recently acquired by the Library of Congress

Female match workers in the 1870s.

Friction Matches Were a Boon to Those Lighting Fires–Not So Much to Matchmakers

Those who worked in match factories were exposed to white phosphorus, which caused a debilitating and potentially deadly condition

Virginians may have celebrated early Thanksgivings with wild turkey, like this one. Other historical accounts say the first Thanksgiving was scraped together from ship rations, oysters, and ham.

The Pilgrims Weren’t the First to Celebrate Thanksgiving

Virginia has a claim to an earlier Christian Thanksgiving celebration

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