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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, Egypt.

Lost Languages Discovered in One of the World’s Oldest Continuously Run Libraries

The centuries-old texts were erased, and then written over, by monks at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt

Peter the Great didn't wear a beard, but he did sport a groovy 'stache.

Why Peter the Great Established a Beard Tax

Between 1697-1698, the tsar visited Europe in disguise to learn about shipbuilding and Western culture. His verdict? Shave

Mercury wrote or cowrote a number of Queen's biggest hits.

Freddie Mercury, Musical Genius and Stamp Collector

The singer-songwriter’s childhood stamp album offers an insight to his character

Vibrant pink flamingos feed their fluffy grey chicks in Rio Lagartos, Mexico. This image was the winner for the Best Portrait category.

Art Meets Science

Prize-Winning Images Capture Birds in All Their Feathered Glory

The Best Bird Photographer of the Year Awards displays the dynamic lives of the amazing avian

American authors were quick to recognize the lure—and the narrative convenience—of the open road.

A Generation Before ‘On the Road,’ This Classic Championed the American Road Trip

‘Free Air’ was a classic of the interwar generation

Notre-Dame Is in Desperate Need of Repairs

The archbishop of Paris has launched a fundraising campaign in the hopes of saving the historic structure

A sign of "suggestions" for other natural wonders similar to New Zealand's Mount Taranaki

Why Internet Ads Are Taking Over New Zealand’s Real-Life Wild Spaces

‘People who liked this also like…’

The 1919 Chicago White Sox team photo.

The 1919 Black Sox Baseball Scandal Was Just One of Many

They say baseball “lost its innocence” after 1919, but betting and other improper behavior was rampant in early-20th-century baseball

Some of the hundreds of brass plaques taken from Benin City in 1897 now held by the British Museum

European Summit to Discuss the Return of Looted West African Art

Treasures taken by a British invasion in 1897 could return to Nigeria as a permanent exhibition

Parisian Nudists Get Designated Area to Frolic “au Naturel”

An increasing number of people in France espouse a clothing-free lifestyle

Trending Today

Terry Pratchett’s Unfinished Novels Got Steamrolled

Literally.

Jeannie Rousseau photographed in 1939 or 1940

Courageous WWII Spy Jeannie Rousseau Has Died at 98

Using charm and cunning, she helped uncover Nazi plans to build deadly V-1 and V-2 rockets

Brawling was one of the few ways available to settle disputes among lower-class Londoners, potentially leading to injuries and deaths

Medieval Graveyards Unearth London’s Violent Past

A new analysis of hundreds of ancient skulls shows how often violent trauma affected the poor and the rich

Newly found letters by Alan Turing

Trending Today

New Letters Show Alan Turing Wasn’t a Fan of the U.S.A.

The groundbreaking mathematician and computer scientist who spent 2 years at Princeton wrote that he ‘detests America’ in newly found documents

People were just starting to gain an obsession with apocalypse fiction when Mary Shelley wrote "The Last Man."

The Author of ‘Frankenstein’ Also Wrote a Post-Apocalyptic Plague Novel

‘The Last Man’ was derided in its time for being too grim, but today it would fit in with a growing genre of dystopian fiction

Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.

The Case Thurgood Marshall Never Forgot

Fifty years ago today, Thurgood Marshall became a Supreme Court justice. He kept telling the story of the Groveland Four

On May 18, 1893, Anna Julia Cooper delivered an address at the World's Congress of Representative Women, saying, famously, "The white woman could least plead for her own emancipation; the black woman, doubly enslaved, could but suffer and struggle and be silent."

This Video Breaks Down the ABCs of Intersectionality

The National Museum of African American History and Culture explores the long legacy of women who shaped the feminist sociological theory

This Texas Museum Was Devastated by Ike. Here’s How It Prepared For Harvey

The Galveston Arts Center sustained heavy losses when Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008. This time around, staff members were ready

A still from the 1991 film "Anna Göldi, Last Witch"

Last Person Executed as a Witch in Europe Gets a Museum

Beheaded in 1782, Anna Göldi fell victim to a system that prized the views of powerful men over justice

Some authorities believe that chop suey is related to a traditional Chinese dish, but nobody knows for sure.

Chop Suey: An American Classic

Nobody really knows exactly where this dish came from, but it’s not China

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