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Smithsonian Voices

The Treaty That Forced the Cherokee From Their Homelands Goes on View

Negotiated in 1835 by a few, disavowed by a majority and challenged by a legally elected government, the Treaty of New Echota began the Trail of Tears

Julie Packard (detail) by Hope Gangloff

Women Who Shaped History

Fishes Were Julie Packard’s Wishes for Her New Smithsonian Portrait

National Portrait Gallery unveils a painting honoring the renowned ocean conservationist and director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Smithsonian Voices

How the Geologic History of the Earth Provides Clues for Our Future

For Earth Day, Smithsonian paleobiologist Scott Wing reminds us that we can look to the fossil record to better understand human-caused global changes

An image of a lion, like the designs on Lydian coins during the Iron Age

What Was the World’s First Currency and More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got experts

Smithsonian Voices

A Smithsonian Art Historian Reflects on American Artists and Their Fascination With Notre-Dame

Senior curator Eleanor Harvey on why the cathedral has been beloved by American artists for years

Almost all of Cannon’s large paintings (above: Three Ghost Figures, 1970), are portraits, often in electric shades of orange, purple and brilliant blue. Many vividly depict Native Americans as living, sometimes flawed individuals.

How T.C. Cannon and His Contemporaries Changed Native American Art

In the 1960s, a group of young art students upended tradition and vowed to show their real life instead

Empress Dowager Cixi by Katharine A. Carl, 1903

New Scholarship Is Revealing the Private Lives of China’s Empresses

Lavish paintings, sumptuous court robes, objets d’art tell the stories of Empress Cixi and four other of the most powerful Qing dynasty women

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Smithsonian Voices

Why Is This Smithsonian Paleontologist Dressed as Santa?

Cat-loving paleontologist answers your questions in the National Museum of Natural History’s YouTube series, “The Doctor Is In.”

Gold tells the "story that colonialism sought to deny, of indigenous, structured, wonderful, cultured civilizations," says the Smithsonian's Gus Casely-Hayford.

Why There Is More to Gold Than Meets the Eye

The Smithsonian’s Gus Casely-Hayford says the precious metal was both a foundation for massive West African empires and a cultural touchstone

Rhiannon Giddens is joined by Canadian-American musician-songwriter Allison Russell (Po’ Girl, Birds of Chicago), Leyla McCalla (Carolina Chocolate Drops) and Amythyst Kiah (Amythyst Kiah & Her Chest of Glass) for the new album Songs of Our Native Daughters.

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Why These Four Banjo-Playing Women Resurrected the Songs of the Enslaved

The new Folkways album “Songs of Our Native Daughters” draws spiritually from slave narratives and other pre-19th-century sources

The image reveals the black hole at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the sun.

Astronomers Capture First-Ever Image of a Supermassive Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope reveals the silhouette of a black hole at the center of a galaxy 55 million light-years away

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Smithsonian Voices

Muralist Ouizi Brings Her Luminous Floral Wonderland to the Smithsonian

Polish soldier and military commander Casimir Pulaski (1745 - 1779), circa 1775. From an original engraving by James Hopwood after a painting by Oleszkiewicz.

Was the Revolutionary War Hero Casimir Pulaski Intersex?

A new Smithsonian Channel documentary may affirm long-standing suspicions about the Polish fighter’s identity

In 1917 when it was highly unusual for women to protest, a suffrage procession walked the streets of Washington, D.C. towards the White House carrying purple, white and gold banners.

Women Who Shaped History

How Women Got the Vote Is a Far More Complex Story Than the History Textbooks Reveal

An immersive story about the bold and diverse women who helped secure the right to vote is on view at the National Portrait Gallery

Marking the entry point for Section 14 is the sculpture Agua Caliente Women by artist Doug Hyde.

How the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Held On in Palm Springs

The one-mile square area, known as Section 14, competes for sovereignty with the wealthy in Southern California

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Smithsonian Voices

Smithsonian Paleontologist Hans Sues Is Taking Your Questions About Dinos, Humans and Even, Cats

Smithsonian’s new YouTube series, “The Dr. Is In.”

The Italian poster was created for Lamarr's 1946 World War II film, I Conspiratori (The Conspirators). Her image reflects the allure that led to her being called the “most beautiful woman in the world.”

Ingenious Women

Thank This World War II-Era Film Star for Your Wi-Fi

As the National Portrait Gallery acquires a film poster of Hedy Lamarr, it’s worth reflecting on her double life as an actress and a pioneering inventor

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Smithsonian Voices

Meet Native Fashion Designer Norma Baker-Flying Horse, Creator of Red Berry Woman

This year, Paris Fashion Week featured her work. “To be a Native American designer showing for the Fashion Week Studio was amazing.”

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Smithsonian Voices

How Time-Based Media Intersects With Perspectives From the LGBTQ Community

The curator of time-based media at the Smithsonian American Art Museum talks about upcoming initiatives emphasizing women artists and LGBTQ+ perspectives

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Smithsonian Voices

Works of Pioneering Photographer Constance Stuart Larrabee to Be Digitized

The work of Constance Stuart Larrabee, a pioneering photographer, will soon be digitized

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