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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Josephine Peary, wife of the legendary Arctic explorer Robert Peary, wears a parka in 1892

Family Travel

Explore the High Fashion of Exploration

From the Arctic to the Moon, a new exhibit shows how the outfits of exploration have impacted the outfits of the runway

Tim Renner, undersecretary of state for cultural affairs, at a 2016 press conference for the Urban National Museum for Urban Contemporary Art.

Museum Devoted to Street Art Opens in Berlin

The façade of the five-story building is covered in large murals

Family Travel

Check Out This Awesome Trilobite Corn Maze

The elaborate Wisconsin maze honors the state’s geologic history

Vinnie Ream was not even 20 when she was commissioned by the U.S. government to create the statue of Lincoln that still stands in the Capitol today.

This Ambitious Young Sculptor Gave Us A Lincoln For the Capitol

Vinnie Ream was the first female artist commissioned to create a work of art for the U.S. government

Amidst Heated Criticism, Queer Art Exhibition Is Shuttered in Brazil

Protestors accused the exhibit of promoting pedophilia, bestiality, pornography and blasphemy

Hank Willis Thomas' sculpture photographed by Steve Weinik for Mural Arts Philadelphia

Cool Finds

Pop-up Monuments Ask What 21st-Century Public Memorials Should Be

A collective of artists adds new, thought-provoking works to Philadelphia’s parks and plazas

Trending Today

New York City Could Finally Lose Its Prohibition-era Dancing Rule

The infamous “Cabaret Law” is rooted in racism

Maori Translation of ‘Moana’ Is a Hit in New Zealand

Experts hope the film will spark a renewed interest in the Maori language

A VR animation of a 1945 design for a massive elevated airport over the Hudson River

New Exhibit Imagines the Buildings New York Could’ve Had

From a gigantic airport, to an urbanized Ellis Island, the show reveals the many fascinating ideas for New York City that never made it off the page

A newspaper's photograph of six men, all of different ethnicities. The caption reads: "Through by birth the men in this group, photographed at a National army cantonment, are as diverse as one could possibly imagine, they stand together in their readiness to fight for Uncle Sam."

Cool Finds

Help Find Historic Cartoons in World War I-era Newspapers

The crowd-sourcing effort is the first project in a new digital workspace that aims to make the Library of Congress’ vast resources more accessible

The ice cream cone came to the attention of American audiences at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

The Amazing, Portable, Edible Ice Cream Cone

Unlike foods that came before it, ice cream in a cone could be eaten on the go–without a spoon

Farhad Moshiri, Yipeeee, 2009, private collection, London

Farhad Moshiri, Dubbed ‘the Middle East’s Andy Warhol,’ Gets First Major U.S. Exhibition

A selection of the pop artist’s significant works will be displayed, fittingly, at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh

A record-breaking gathering of Waldo (known across the pond as 'Wally') impersonators in Dublin, Ireland, in 2011.

The Science Behind Our Search for Waldo

‘Where’s Waldo’ was first published on this day in 1987

A fan art drawing of Smaug atop his horde.

J.R.R. Tolkien Gave the World His Childhood Fascination With Dragons in ‘The Hobbit’

The dragon Smaug—who debuted in The Hobbit in 1937, was inspired by his early reading of mythology

Upton Sinclair ran a partisan newspaper as part of his campaign for California governor.

The Story of Muckraker Upton Sinclair’s Dramatic Campaign for Governor of California

Sinclair was as famous in his day as any movie-star candidate who came later

Cool Finds

Researchers Want to Revive These 30 Antique English Words

The public can vote on their favorite from a list including hugger-mugger, rouzy-bouzy, nickum and sillytonian

The three bears whom Goldilocks infamously meets

Celebrate 150 Years of the Illustrator Who Brought Children’s Books to Life

Arthur Rackham’s work defined the style of his era and beyond

Agnostus pisiformes

Cool Finds

Look Into the Creepy-Cute Eyes of This Reconstructed, 500-Million-Year-Old Creature

The depictions of Agnostus pisiformis are part of comprehensive review of the Cambrian-era arthropod

A close-up of the stems and optical fibers used to illuminate Field of Light

Stunning ‘Field of Light’ Surrounds Iconic Australian Rock

As the Sun sets at Uluru, a landscape of lit glass flowers awakens

A typical day for three musicians in the Medici Court. This portrait, of three unnamed musicians, was painted circa 1687.

Three Things to Know About Francesca Caccini, the Renaissance Musical Genius You’ve Never Heard Of

The first female opera composer, Caccini worked for the super-rich-and-powerful Medici family

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