Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Cool Finds

Take a Course on Taco Literacy at the University of Kentucky

Yes, the homework is delicious

Is your book overdue? Help may be in sight.

Cool Finds

This Library System Is Willing to Forgive Your Fine…Just This Once

Library scofflaws take note: Amnesty programs are gaining steam throughout the U.S.

A Lady-in-Waiting of France strums her instrument on this card from The Courtly Household Cards (Das Hofämterspiel), created in c. 1450.

Cool Finds

Lavishly Illustrated Medieval Playing Cards Flouted the Church and Law

Secular and religious officials alike frowned on card playing in Europe’s Middle Ages

Cool Finds

Step Inside a Dalí Painting at This Virtual Reality Exhibit

Surrealism meets real life in an exploration of a Dalí masterwork

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un laughs during a factory tour in January 2016. North Korea tied with Somalia for "most corrupt" in a 2105 index of global corruption perceptions.

Trending Today

Here Are the World’s Most Corrupt Countries

Corruption is everywhere, but some nations are more corrupt than others

Are you a global citizen? Then you might need one of these.

Cool Finds

You Can Get an Antarctic Passport

Pledge your loyalty to the southernmost continent—and to the ideals of peace, equality and sustainability

The Cabin of Peter the Great.

Cool Finds

This Cabin Could be the World’s Smallest Palace

Be it ever so humble, Peter the Great once briefly called it home

Amber Anderson and Sara Sanders were awarded an honorable mention for the 2015 Library of Congress Leicester B. Holland prize.

Trending Today

These Drawings of Historic Places Were Just Honored by the Library of Congress

Step back in time with architectural drawings of buildings steeped in history

Trending Today

Egyptian Museum Employees Face Fines for Botched Repair on King Tut’s Mask

An accident knocked the beard off the boy king’s distinctive mask, prompting a hasty repair

Is it a shell, a toilet bowl, a cupcake? Either way, it's now available on Google Street View.

Visit New York’s Guggenheim Museum Without Leaving Your House

It’s easier than ever to immerse yourself in the iconic, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum

Listen to J.R.R. Tolkien Read Songs and Poems from ‘The Lord of the Rings’

A rare recording captures the famed author’s voice

Chuck Brown, known as the grandfather of go-go, died in 2012. Now, a go-go archive is being assembled in his honor.

Trending Today

You Can Help Build the World’s First Go-Go Archive

Librarians are calling for the preservation of Washington, D.C.’s iconic musical genre

Cool Finds

These Little-Known Photographs Put an Eerie Face on Child Labor

Unpublished photos taken by Lewis Wickes Hine make a haunting case against the conditions experienced by many working children in the early 20th century

More than 25 specialists worked on the replica cave over the course of three years.

Cool Finds

See the World Like a Paleolithic Cave Dweller With This Replica of the Lascaux Cave Paintings

Go back in time with the help of some talented French artists

Iranian men play a soccer video game at a CD shop in Tehran June 10, 2006.

Cool Finds

Inside Iran’s Budding Video Game Industry

The Iranian video game industry, shaped around piracy and economic sanctions, is slowly growing

New research shows that magical tales have an even longer history than previously suspected.

New Research

Fairy Tales Could Be Older Than You Ever Imagined

Jack may have been climbing that beanstalk for more than 5,000 years

"Love Letter Brooklyn" was first installed in 2011.

Trending Today

One of the Most Popular Pieces of Street Art in Brooklyn Is Coming Down

“Love Letter Brooklyn” will soon be gone forever

Seattle's iconic Fremont Bridge.

Cool Finds

Seattle Is Seeking a Writer to Work on a Bridge

Free studio space in a bridge tower is up for grabs

Mahmoud Hariri, from the city of Dara'a, is building a replica of the city of Palmyra from clay and wooden skewers.

Cool Finds

Syrian Refugees Are Recreating Demolished Monuments in Miniature

These artists are recapturing the iconic landmarks destroyed by militants

One of Leonardo's notebooks (left) contains an erased figure (right). Conservators discovered the hidden sketch using multispectral imaging.

Cool Finds

How a Hidden Figure Emerged From One of Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks

Modern imaging reveals the approximately 500-year-old sketch

Page 229 of 286