January 2011
Smithsonian magazine delivers trusted and incisive reporting on history, science, nature, culture and travel.
Features
Unearthing the Colosseum's Secrets
A German archaeologist has deciphered the great stadium's complex stagecraft. Its underground labyrinth has just opened to visitors
Power and the Presidency
John F. Kennedy's inauguration, 50 years ago this month, led to a significant expansion of the commander in chief's role
Feast for the Eyes
Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo paid tribute to the Hapsburg dynasty with surreal likenesses
A Plague of Pigs
Texans are battling a shockingly destructive invasive species
Catching the Bamboo Train
Rural Cambodians cobbled old tank parts and scrap lumber into an ingenious way to get around
Devastating Beauty
A photographer goes aloft to make impassioned portraits of "industrial scars"
The Trouble with Autobiography
When it comes to telling truths, the novelist prefers fiction
Departments
Wild Things: Life as We Know It
Flamingos, T. rex Tails, Burmese monkeys and more...
Cutthroat Capitalist
In 1903, photographer Edward Steichen portrayed captain of finance J.P. Morgan in an especially ruthless light
At a Crossroads
Long influenced by nearby powers, Cyprus is reasserting its own identity
Ready to Wear
In 1933, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh prepared for the worst before flying over the Arctic