Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

At the Smithsonian

CT scan of a newborn panda cub.

Pandamonium

Panda Bears Have Teeny Tiny Babies, and We Don’t Know Why

Panda moms are 900 times bigger than their cubs and a new study disputes the theory it’s related to hibernation

Yayoi Kusama, "Forlorn Spot," 1953, watercolor, pastel, ink on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Benton and The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, 2019.32.4

How Four Watercolors by Groundbreaking Artist Yayoi Kusama Were Discovered at the Joseph Cornell Study Center

These unexpected treasures have now been transferred into the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

James Corden is no common place mouser as he takes on the role of Bustopher Jones, "The Cat we all greet as he walks down the street; his coat of fastidious black."

Purrfect or A-Paw-Ling? Why ‘Cats’ Still Gives Some Theatergoers Paws

Experts disagree on the hit musical’s merits; four of the original production’s slinky, feline costumes are held by the Smithsonian

Inupiaq goggles carved from baleen set against a Tunumiit (East Greenland Eskimo) woman’s sealskin parka. Both are from the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian.

These Snow Goggles Demonstrate Thousands of Years of Indigenous Ingenuity

Made in Alaska and fashioned to protect against snow glare, the eyewear was carved from whale baleen circa 1890

Mrs. Maisel's pink wool house coat and peignoir nightgown, worn in the pilot episode, and black dress, worn in the season one finale

Two Dresses From ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Are Coming to the Smithsonian

Though plans aren’t finalized, the costumes might feature in the National Museum of American History’s upcoming “Entertaining America” exhibition

With the help of the Seeger family, Libba Cotten recorded an album, toured around the world, and eventually at the age of 90, won a GRAMMY.

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

The Magnificent Musical Life of the Upside-Down Guitar Player Libba Cotten

Musician and author Laura Veirs brings this musical icon back to the stage in her recent children’s book

Many artists work hard to bring dinosaurs to life with accurate details, but often products can be out dated or be careless with details like how Diplodocus held their necks.

A Shopper’s Guide to Dinosaur Gifts

Tips from experts at the National Museum of Natural History to help you buy scientifically accurate dinosaur gifts for your loved one

The cubs are a male named Paitoon and a female named Jilian. They were born April 29 and March 24, respectively, at the Nashville Zoo.

The Smithsonian’s Ten Splashiest New Acquisitions of 2019

This year marks the arrival of a brilliant diamond, a hybrid space rocket, exciting paintings and two darling clouded leopard cubs

Humpback whales being tagged by researchers off the coast of Antarctica in 2018. The data gathered revealed that diet largely dictates a whales' maximum size.

Whales Are the Biggest Animals to Ever Exist—Why Aren’t They Bigger?

New research highlights the role diet plays in dictating a cetacean’s size

The remarkably complete skull of a human ancestor of the genus Australopithecus

Here’s What 2019 Scientific Discovery Taught Us About Our Human Origins

Six studies rocked the anthropological world from a new branch of the human family to a face only an Australopithecus could love

“Within a timespan of about 150 years, Americans transitioned from being mass consumers of ivory goods to enacting legal measures aimed at supporting elephant conservation," says the Smithsonian's Carlene Stephens.

What Elephants Teach Us About Consumption and Extinction

A new exhibition places the human-elephant relationship in the context of American history

Reproductive biologist Pei-Chih Lee helped develop a new procedure to dehydrate and preserve samples of cat ovarian tissue without freezing.

Scientists Pumped Ovarian Tissue Full of Sugar and Microwaved It. Here’s Why

Though only tried in cat tissues so far, the technique could someday aid fertility preservation, wildlife conservation and more

Boy Viewing Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai, 1839

A Great Wave of Hokusai

The Freer Gallery—home to the largest collection of the popular Japanese artist’s paintings—unveils 120 rarely seen works

Brooklyn by Mario Martinez (Pascua Yaqui), 2004

Long Sidelined, Native Artists Finally Receive Their Due

At the American Indian Museum in NYC, curators paint eight decades of American Indian artwork back into the picture

A Savannah sparrow stands on a patch of melting snow in a warm-season grass field in Virginia.

Not All Birds Fly South for the Winter

Researchers in Virginia studied how mowing, burning or animal grazing helped or hindered birds that stayed home for the winter

Marcel Duchamp by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1968

Marcel Duchamp Played With the Definition of Art and Now the Public Can, Too

Art connoisseurs Aaron and Barbara Levine amassed a formidable body of the artist’s works; they’d like nothing better than for you to see it

In 1904, Abyssinia’s King Menelik presented a four-year-old zebra, who became known as Dan, as a gift to President Theodore Roosevelt.

How Dan the Zebra Stopped an Ill-Fated Government Breeding Program in Its Tracks

At the centennial of the death of this captive animal, an archaeozoologist visited collections at the Smithsonian to examine human-animal relationships

The 1979 "Christmas Rappin'" was "so witty" says rapper Kurtis Blow (above in 2016 at the Art of Rap festival in Los Angeles). "I welcomed the opportunity to do it.”

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Every Year Just ‘Bout This Time, Kurtis Blow Celebrates With a Rhyme

In a salute to “Christmas Rappin,’” hip-hop chronicler Bill Adler tells the tale of how the famous rap recording came to life

An Evening With Ben Folds and 21 Other Smithsonian Associates Events in December

Students and teachers can download 3-D print-ready files of the Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops skulls.

Holiday Gift Guide

Ten Smithsonian Artifacts You Can 3-D Print

The list includes Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit, an Abraham Lincoln life mask and a coral skeleton

Page 67 of 276