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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Joan Baez during the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. in 1963.

‘We Shall Overcome’ Verse Now in the Public Domain

A judge recently struck down the copyright for the first verse of the iconic Civil Rights song

A friendly Nauga.

How the Nauga and its Fictional Friends Helped Make Synthetic Fabric Cuddly

What started out as an advertising ploy turned into a low-key cultural phenomenon

A painting of Claude Monet's wife and son by friend Pierre-Auguste Renoir that he owned

The Art Monet Owned

A new exhibit looks inside the mind of this influential Impressionist through the lens of the works he collected

Here’s What You Need to Know About the Mysterious Voynich Manuscript

The book has been confounding scholars, cryptologists and sleuths for centuries

Family Travel

How a “Snowman” Lasted the Entire Summer In Chicago

The icy Fischli/Weiss art installation on top of the Art Institute survived the swelter of the Windy City and will go on display next in San Francisco

Jenny Lind was massively popular in Europe and England, but she was a virtual unknown in America before 1849.

Why 30,000 People Came Out to See a Swedish Singer Arrive in New York

Most of them had never even heard Jenny Lind sing

This is what a touring car looked like in 1915.

Before She Was an Etiquette Authority, Emily Post Was a Road Warrior

Post didn’t drive herself, but she laid claim to her own authority on the road in other ways

Bison could soon get grazing space next to a Denver airport

Family Travel

Denver Airport…Where the Bison Might Soon Roam

Flyers through this large airport could be greeted by America’s official mammal

Inostrancevia, devouring a Pareiasaurus, Alexei Petrovich Bystrow, 1933

Cool Finds

Two Centuries of Dinosaur Art Come Alive in This Gorgeous New Book

Paleoart traces historic depictions of T. rex, mastodons and other ancient creatures through an artistic lens

Workers inspect a statue of Robert E. Lee in a public park in Dallas, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017.

Dallas Gets Go-Ahead to Remove Robert E. Lee Statue

A federal judge has lifted a restraining order that briefly halted the planned removal

Cool Finds

Now You Can Read the Earliest-Known Latin Commentary on the Gospels in English

The commentary of Italian bishop Fortunatianus of Aquileia was lost for 1,500 years before it was rediscovered in 2012

The original Pooh sketch

Cool Finds

New Book Unearths the Earliest Sketch of Winnie-the-Pooh

The rotund little drawing, based on E.H. Shepard’s son’s teddy bear Growler, was found in a pile of the artist’s ‘rubbish’

You can see the resemblance in his eyes.

This Nineteenth-Century Genealogist Argued Norse God Odin Was George Washington’s Great-Great-Great… Grandfather

Albert Welles’s ideas about whiteness were a reflection of his time, and would be continued into the future

Katherine "Kate" Murray Millett in Milan, Italy, in 1975.

Kate Millett, Pioneering Feminist Author, Has Died at 82

Her book ‘Sexual Politics’ was a defining text of second-wave feminism

Washington National Cathedral authorities announced Wednesday that windows depicting generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson will be removed and stored pending a decision about their future.

Washington National Cathedral Will Remove Windows Honoring Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee

Officials said the windows are “an obstacle to worship in a sacred space”

Prisoners walk the treadmill at Coldbath Fields prison in England, circa 1864. Other prisoners are exercising in the yard below.

In the 19th Century, You Wouldn’t Want to Be Put on the Treadmill

This grueling nineteenth-century punishment was supposed to provide a torturous lesson about hard work

Happy National Salami Day!

There Are Museums For Everything–Even Salami

Take a tour of a few places showcasing this international favorite

Akkadian cuneiform script from the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery archives.

Brush up on Your Ancient Akkadian With New Online Dictionary

The dead language was once the dominant tongue in Mesopotamia

Buskers audition for licenses to make their living in the stations of the London Underground

How to Busk the London Underground

It’s a lucrative gig, but it means passing a strenuous process of auditions to find the very best subway musicians

A Piggly Wiggly in 1939.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

The Bizarre Story of Piggly Wiggly, the First Self-Service Grocery Store

What’s in a name?

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