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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

One of Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The murals can be explored in detail in Google's new digital collection.

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by Diving Into Google’s Huge Latino Art and History Archive

It features more than 2,500 new works and 69 new exhibits

An unknown woman spinning, circa 1900.

‘Spinster’ and ‘Bachelor’ Were, Until 2005, Official Terms for Single People

Being single is hard enough without these pejoratives.

Since It’s 2017, New Broadway Play Plans to Keep Up With the News

From the creator of ‘House of Cards,’ ‘The Parisian Woman’ plans to capture the political zeitgeist of the moment

400 Children May Be Buried in Mass Grave at Notorious Scottish Orphanage

Death certificates indicate that the children died of illness, malnutrition and blunt force trauma

Christopher Columbus Monument Defaced in Central Park

Vandals covered the statue’s hands in red paint and wrote “Hate will not be tolerated” on its base

Edith Windsor on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., after the court heard arguments in her case against on the constitutionality the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman.

What to Know About Iconic Gay Rights Activist Edith Windsor

The trailblazing activist has died at age 88

Photographer David Slater posing with crested black macaque

Settlement Reached in Bananas “Selfie Monkey” Lawsuit

Prior to the settlement, the courts had been tasked with deciding whether or not U.S. copyright law applies to animals

An Electric Vehicle Company cab.

Henry Bliss, America’s First Pedestrian Fatality, Was Hit By an Electric Taxi

The driver was arrested but released after hitting Bliss

Chocolate was in North America as early as 900-1200 A.D.

A Brief History of Chocolate in the United States

Eating chocolate is a relatively new innovation

While tame by today's standards, the graphic violence in Mortal Kombat shocked parents in the 1990s.

How ‘Mortal Kombat’ Changed Video Games

According to one of its creators, the infamously gory game got caught up in a transitional moment in video gaming

The new Palestinian Museum in the West Bank's Birzeit

Palestinian Museum’s First Exhibit Opens

In four sections, ‘Jerusalem Lives’ uses a variety of mediums to look at Jerusalem’s history, political status and daily life

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

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