Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

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?

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

Page 187 of 290