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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

One of the first teddy bears has been in the Smithsonian's collection for over a half-century.

Some of the Most Important (and Cutest) Teddy Bear Moments of the Past 114 Years

The American toy was introduced in 1903, and almost immediately made its mark

File this case to the "true crime" section.

Thieves Rappelled Into a London Warehouse in Rare Book Heist

The burglars made out with more than 160 books worth an estimated $2.5 million

A sea turtle entangled in a fishing net swims off the coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on 8 June 2016

Art Meets Science

Winning Nature Photos Capture Triumph and Turmoil in the Animal Kingdom

From poaching to panda recovery, the winners of the World Press Photo competition chronicle human interactions with nature

The smooching couple in the center left gave the bakery its nickname.

Cool Finds

How a Pompeiian Bakery Became This Year’s Hot Date Destination

The romance never dies at the House of the Chaste Lovers

Cool Finds

These Photos Show Just How Colossal the World’s Tallest Sandcastle Is

The new Guinness World Record holder is a 48.8-foot creation on Puri Beach that celebrates world peace. It’s shore to impress

The interior of the Islamic Art Museum after a car bomb damaged the museum in 2014

Trending Today

Egypt’s Museum of Islamic Art Triumphantly Re-Opens

The museum has restored 160 artifacts damaged by a 2014 truck bomb and has expanded, putting three times as many artworks on display

Esther Howland popularized and mass-produced Valentine's Day cards like this one, using lace and colorful paper.

How to Make an Authentic Civil War Valentine

Handmade Valentine cards were popularized (and commercialized) in the U.S. during the Civil War years

Fit for a beauty...or a beast.

Win a Stay at a Castle Fit for “Beauty and the Beast”

Though it’s a Scottish castle, not French château, it’s sure to be a fairytale trip

What could be the only photos of Paul Gauguin and his Tahitian muse have surfaced. Gauguin is at the center of this photo, kissing a woman that could be his mistress Pahura.

Cool Finds

Rare Photographs Could Show Paul Gauguin in Tahiti

The newly discovered photos are from the summer of 1896

These grainy images, thought to have been originally published in a magazine dedicated to the paranormal, are all that remain of the "Coso artifact." The object itself hasn't been seen in decades. Clockwise from top: The "geode" in which the artifact was found, an x-ray of the interior, and a side view after the "geode" had been cut in half.

When Some 1920s Garbage Was Mistaken for an Ancient Artifact

The “Coso Artifact” was fuel for those who want to believe that the truth is out there

Previously unrecorded portrait of Harriet Tubman

Cool Finds

Newly Discovered Photo May Depict a Younger Harriet Tubman

The late 1860s carte-de-visite comes from fellow abolitionist Emily Howland’s album

Trending Today

What Is the Congressional Review Act?

The U.S. Congress is wiping away rules and regulations finalized in the last months of the Obama administration through a little-used 1996 law

Mr. Darcy as depicted in a tailored blue Regency-styled suit.

Meet the Historically Accurate Mr. Darcy

A team of experts on fashion and social culture offer their take on Jane Austen’s brooding hero

It was a pivotal moment in computing history when a computer beat a human at chess for the first time, but that doesn't mean chess is "solved."

Computers Are Great at Chess, But That Doesn’t Mean the Game Is ‘Solved’

On this day in 1996, the computer Deep Blue made history when it beat Garry Kasparov

The 500 artifacts featured in "Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail" offer insight into millennia of the region's history—from Mesolithic tool makers to those affected by the Great Plague of 1665.

New Exhibit Reveals 8,000 Years of London’s History

The Museum of London Docklands highlights 500 finds unearthed by the Crossrail Project

Trapeze artist Antoinette poses with her husband aerialist Arthur "Art" Concello.

This Archive Is Digitizing the History of the Circus

In a bid to preserve circus culture, Illinois State University’s Milner Library is making more than 300 circus route books available online

Twain's living room

Trending Today

Mark Twain Museum Battles Mold

A malfunctioning HVAC system led to mold contaminating 5,000 artifacts in a storage room, which will be restored over the next four months

Archeologists found this piece of parchment rolled up in a jug in a cave on the cliffs west of Qumran.

Archaeologists Might Have Found Another Dead Sea Scroll Cave

It could be cave number 12

Claude Monet's "The Green Wave" (ca. 1866) is just one of 375,000 images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that are now available to download for free.

Cool Finds

375,000 Images From the Met Are Now Yours for the Taking

It’s a milestone for one of the world’s most significant art collections

Channel Parker's vicious wit in the coat she wore for decades.

Cool Finds

Fans of Dorothy Parker Can Pay to Wear Her Mink Coat

It’s all in the name of preservation

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