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Colcannon

Halloween

A Brief History of Ireland’s Fortune-Telling Mashed Potato Dish (Recipe)

Try your luck with this side, traditionally served on Halloween

View of the National Veterans Memorial and Museum from above.

A New Museum Honoring America’s Veterans Opens in Ohio

Personal stories take the place of military artifacts at the new National Veterans Memorial & Museum

Several railroads around the country are offering spooky train rides just in time for Halloween.

Halloween

Get Spooked on One of These Haunted Vintage Train Rides

Skip the haunted house and climb aboard one of these trains instead

A Journey to One of the Country’s Most Remote Distilleries

Minnesota’s north country serves up cold nights and warming whiskeys

Simmon: A Private Landscape (#1), by Hosoe Eikoh, 1971

How Japanese Artists Responded to the Transformation of Their Nation

Two new exhibitions at the Freer|Sackler vividly illustrate Japan’s arrival to the modern age

Inside the Enoteca Regionale Emilia Romagna.

Taste Your Way Through Italy, One Ingredient-Specific Museum at a Time

The Emilia Romagna region has 25 food museums, each dedicated to a beloved food item – ranging from balsamic vinegar to Parmesan cheese

Untitled (Wash Day: Scrubbing the Clothes) by Clementine Hunter, ca. 1965

Self-Taught Artist Clementine Hunter Painted the Bold Hues of Southern Life

On view at NMAAHC, Hunter’s colorful artworks depict work in the field, church on Sundays, and laundry on the line

“I knew we had the work cut out for us,” says Richard Barden, the Preservation Services manager. “When you really start looking at the slippers, you see how many different materials they are."

The Return of Dorothy’s Iconic Ruby Slippers, Now Newly Preserved for the Ages

The unprecedented conservation of the Wizard of Oz shoes involved more than 200 hours, and a call from the FBI

Inside the library at Trinity College, where Stoker was a student.

Halloween

Explore the Dublin Destinations That Inspired ‘Dracula’

Follow in the footsteps of Bram Stoker and see how his hometown inspired him to write his famous horror novel

The ponies of eastern Maryland and Virginia, seen here in 2002, were made famous in the book "Misty of Chincoteague."

American South

The True Story of Misty of Chincoteague, the Pony Who Stared Down a Devastating Nor’Easter

The Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 was a horse of another color

A female polar bear and her cub at twilight in Jameson Land near Ittoqqortoormiit, East Greenland. Danie Ferreira took this picture on a hunting expedition with locals while filming his documentary on Greenland dogs.

Photo Contest Featured Photographer

This Photographer Captures the Beauty and Drama of East Greenland at Winter’s End

Danie Ferreira shares his experiences documenting one of the world’s coldest climates on the heels of Greenland dogs

Plastic Whale organizes boat tours along Amsterdam's canals to collect garbage--in particular plastic--which it then recycles and uses the repurposed material to build boats.

Fishing for Plastic Is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals

Plastic Whale offers visitors an opportunity to see the city by boat while also cleaning up its waterways

Artist rendering of the National Mall entrance following the seven-year renovation

What’s Open and What’s Not During the National Air and Space Museum’s Seven-Year Renovation

Visitors might be inconvenienced, but the much-loved Washington, D.C. museum is undergoing a massive revitalization

The Mile-Long Opera will be held at the High Line in New York City from October 3 through 8.

This Weekend, NYC’s High Line Takes Center Stage for a “Mile-Long Opera”

1,000 singers from around the city will descend on the popular park to showcase the stories of New Yorkers

"Slab City: Dispatches from the Last Free Place" is a new book that explores a one-square-mile patch of desert in Imperial County, California, that once served as a military base. Seen here is a sentry box that once guarded Camp Dunlap’s southwest perimeter.

Inside Slab City, a Squatters’ Paradise in Southern California

Architect and author Charlie Hailey and photographer Donovan Wylie capture one of America’s last free places

Writers’ Resort, Sevan

Armenia

Tour Armenia’s Enduring Soviet-Era Architecture

Armenia’s unique flavor of Soviet Modernism combined socialist design ideals, classical stonework and pink volcanic rock

Interior view of the House of Culture.

Armenia

Photos Document What Remains of a Soviet Atomic City

A new book explores the architectural history of Metsamor, Armenia, once a planned utopia for nuclear power plant workers

Wild Bilberry.

Armenia

Mapping Armenia’s Edible Landscape, One Wild Bilberry Bush at a Time

The 1000 Leaf Project aims to document Armenia’s hundreds of edible plants and mushrooms with help from local residents

Before He Was a Musician, John Lennon Was a Philatelist

Marking the arrival of a new postage stamp, the musician’s boyhood collection is on view at the National Postal Museum

Thousands of migratory birds fly over Northern California in February.

Photo Contest Featured Photographer

From Lava Tentacles to Abandoned Car Lots, This Acclaimed Violinist Turned Aerial Photographer Captures Our World From 2,000 Feet Up

Jassen Todorov, a professor of music, shares his journey into the world of aerial photography

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