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At the Smithsonian

Mónico Márquez plays a Hohner button accordion with Venezuelan band Mestros del Joropo Oriental at the 2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

The Remarkable Rebirth of the Button Accordion

Musician Gilberto Reyes redesigned the instrument to meet the needs of Latino musicians

Until now, no one had been able to show at a microscopic level that the turkey vulture’s larger olfactory bulbs conferred advantage in the smell department.

Turkey Vultures Have a Keen Sense of Smell and Now We Know Why

Inside the brains of this olfactory king of the roost is a powerful cellular mechanism for detecting carrion from hundreds of feet away

Femme en Extase (Woman in Ecstacy) (detail) by Ferdinand Hodler, 1911

Around the Globe, Revered Artist Ferdinand Hodler Receives His Due, the Portrait Gallery Joins In

A swirl of dance portraits complement a single Swiss loan of Hodler’s Italian dancer

Artist’s representation of “neglected story on Smithsonian.com.”

The Ten Stories You Didn’t Read in 2017 But Should Have

From music behind prison bars to a San Francisco building with a dark past, here are the top 10 pieces we published last year that deserve another look

For some Manhattan sybarites, the department store's 1982 bag spelled Christmas.

Finding the Sacks Appeal in a Collection of Holiday Shopping Bags

The Cooper Hewitt’s collection of some 1,000 bags reveals a few with some very cheery holiday scenes

This year's crop of Smithsonian winter shows is as disparate as it is delightful.

This Holiday Season, Make Merry in a Museum

From heavenly light shows to diabolical dollhouses, the Smithsonian’s winter exhibitions offer something for everyone

Jimi Hendrix was “a central figure in the history of African-American music,” says Kevin Strait, a historian and curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, home to this gold-brocade vest that the musician wore.

Gone at 27 and Eternally Youthful For the Ages, Jimi Hendrix Would Have Been 75 This Year

A gold-brocade vest at the Smithsonian evokes the innovative musician’s enduring legacy

Bradford saw the dollhouse, shown decorated for Christmas, as ever evolving: "I shall never be completely satisfied with its creation."

Christmas at the Smithsonian’s Dolls’ House Includes All the Trimmings—in Miniature

It’s ‘Deck the Halls’ with Christmas cheer at the beloved Victorian-style dollhouse at the National Museum of American History

"Panama's Animal Highway" premiers on the Smithsonian Channel, December 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

New Documentary Delights With Spectacular Visuals of the Panama Isthmus, A Migratory Superhighway

Scientists from all over the world come to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center to study this unique region

In a recent presentation held at the National Museum of Natural History, University of Melbourne researcher Gerald Roche called attention to 21 minority languages spoken in villages across Tibet.

The Incredible Linguistic Diversity of Tibet Is Disappearing

Thanks to national schooling and the Internet, many of the plateau’s unique languages are in danger

Apollo 17's Saturn V launch vehicle sits atop pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Apollo 17 Was the Swan Song of Manned Space Exploration

Looking back 45 years later, is there hope humanity will once again push beyond Earth? President Donald Trump seems to think so

Most of the T-shirts had in common the image that appeared on Juan Diego’s cloak: the Virgin modestly looking down, her hands folded together in prayer.

A New Way to Show Your Devotion in Mexico City: Wear a T-Shirt

A Smithsonian folklorist makes the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and discovers an emerging tradition

What's a dinosaur, anyways? The answer is in the evolutionary tree.

Ask Smithsonian

What Makes a Dinosaur a Dinosaur?

The question may sound like a “duh,” but it gets to the heart of how we categorize and define nature

Viewers are invited to sprawl on the carpeted floor and look up.

People Are Lying on the Floor To See this Dazzling Ceiling Puzzle

The work pays homage to the vaulted domes, ornate Italianate arches and Art Deco geometric forms of nine of the nation’s historic ceilings

Graduate Fernando Yazzie after the ceremony at Navajo Technical University.

The Importance of Graduating in the Navajo Way

Education in traditional knowledge, as well as global issues, form the foundation of this Navajo Nation university

Bentley found "each snowflake is as different from its fellows as human beings are from each other."

The Man Who Revealed the Hidden Structure of Falling Snowflakes

Beginning in the 1880s, amateur photographer Wilson A. Bentley considered the endlessly varied crystals “miracles of beauty”

For the first time, scientists have created near-perfect cubic zirconia replicas of the diamond in its previous forms. From left to right: the original brought from India, King Louis XIV’s “French Blue” and the Hope Diamond.

Now There Are Near-Perfect Copies of the Hope Diamond

Scientists created cubic zirconia replicas of the historic gem’s previous forms—the original brought from India and the famous “French Blue”

Ask Smithsonian

Do Other Animals Cry and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Ivan Chermayeff (June 6, 1932-December 2, 2017)

Commentary

Designer of the Smithsonian Sunburst Logo Dies

Ivan Chermayeff was a brilliant designer, a gifted artist and the purveyor of a unique visual language, says Smithsonian curator Ellen Lupton

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery is home to a photograph of Travolta by Douglas Kirkland, (above, detail), striking his characteristic dance pose.

John Travolta’s Breakout Hit Was America’s Best Dance Party

It’s been 40 years since ‘Saturday Night Fever’—a gritty film powered by music, machismo and masterful footwork—became a cultural phenomenon

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