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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

H. J. Heinz started a condiment empire. His savvy marketing helped.

There Never Were 57 Varieties of Heinz Ketchup

The ‘57’ doesn’t actually refer to anything

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's famed painting "Luncheon of the Boating Party" is the focus of a new exhibit in Washington, D.C.

Exhibit Sheds New Light on Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party”

More than 130 years after it was completed, “Renoir and Friends” returns to the famed painting

TKTK

The Sweet Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber

Gail Halvorsen’s efforts made children happy but they also provided the U.S. military with an opportunity

A line of men in green in the United Arab Emirates

Agoraphobic Photographer Captures the World With Some Help From Google Street View

A new exhibition shows how Jacqui Kenny has photographed stunning images of the planet without leaving her London home

The Sharp Rise and Steep Descent of AOL Instant Messenger

The free instant messaging service introduced millions to the joys of online communication, but it fell behind in the social media age

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), poses at the headquarters of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), in Geneva, Switzerland.

Trending Today

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The grassroots coalition spearheaded a U.N. treaty to outlaw nuclear arms and hopes to make them taboo, like chemical weapons

A painting of an aurora seen in Japan on September 17, 1770, in the book "Seikai"

Using 18th-Century Writings and Illustrations, Scientists Model an Ancient Magnetic Storm

The vibrant aurora lit up the night sky over the city of Kyoto, Japan, some 250 years ago

Cartoonist Bil Keane in his studio in 1990.

‘Why ‘The Family Circus’ Was Always So Sentimental

Cartoonist Bil Keane landed on a formula that worked and he stuck to it

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro during a press conference at his home in London, Thursday Oct. 5, 2017.

Trending Today

What to Know About Literature’s Newest Nobel Winner British Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro

The author of The Remains of the Day and seven other books explores themes of memory, time and self-deception

Pumpkin spice has become completely divorced from pumpkin pie.

Even Colonial Americans Liked Pumpkin Spice

A recipe for pumpkin (or rather, “pompkin”) spice appears in America’s oldest cookbook

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were full of inventions such as this--the "Pinkert Navigating Tricycle," which was meant to be used on water.

People in the 1800s Dreamed of Bicycling on Water

Despite numerous patents, nothing really ever came of this fad

Close-up of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (1893)

Trending Today

The Founder of Primal Scream Therapy Has Died. What Exactly Is Primal Scream Therapy?

Arthur Janov believed encountering trauma from childhood could help free people from adult neuroses

The sarcophagus at St. Nicholas church in Demre looted by crusaders, which archaeologists now believe did not contain the Saint's remains.

Cool Finds

Turkey Claims It’s Found Saint Nicholas’ Crypt

Archaeologists say the body was not stolen by crusaders in the 11th century and is still located below a church in Demre

Tripartite Mahzor, Lake Constance Area, ca. 1322 (Oxford, Bodleian Library) - The Tripartite Mahzor is a magnificent illuminated manuscript divided into three volumes, housed today in Budapest, London and Oxford. It is adorned by paintings in colors and gold, produced in a non-Jewish workshop. Here the initial word: כל ("All") opening the Eve of Yom Kippur prayers is written within a colorful panel adorned with hybrid creatures typical to this workshop. This image is taken from the Ursula and Kurt Schubert Archive held in the Center for Jewish Art.

World’s Largest Online Database of Jewish Art Preserves At-Risk Heritage Objects

Take a tour through the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, which contains more than 260,000 entries from 41 countries

The glowing end of a tapeworm took fourth place in the competition. 200x magnification

Art Meets Science

Revel in the Big Details of Tiny Things With These Prize-Winning Images

Skin cells, tape worms and fuzzy mold are among this years top photos

Cool Finds

Hemingway’s Earliest Piece of Fiction Discovered

The phony travelogue describes a trip from his home in Illinois across the Atlantic to Ireland and Scotland

The Lion of Al-lāt in 2010

Ancient Statue Damaged by ISIS Resurrected in Damascus

Palmyra’s Lion of Al-lāt, as the statue is known, once adorned the temple of a pre-Islamic goddess

Portrait of a Civil War soldier group, circa 1861-65.

The Most ‘Realistic’ Civil War Novel Was Written Three Decades After It Ended

By an author who wasn’t even alive when it occurred

Kurt Vonnegut in a 1990 portrait

You Can Now Read Five Newly Discovered Kurt Vonnegut Short Stories

Written early in the author’s careers, the works were recently unearthed in his archives

New Research

In a First, Archival-Quality Performances Are Preserved in DNA

Songs by Miles Davis and Deep Purple at the Montreux Jazz Festival will live on in the ultra-compact, long-lasting format

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