CURRENT ISSUE

June 2014

Features

From fufu to omo tuo, Ghanaian immigrants are adding their own distinctive flavor to the New York City borough

Google Glass is just the latest in a long line of body-borne technologies designed to enhance our lives

Smithsonian magazine

For years patriots clamored for swatches of the enormous flag that raised spirits at “dawn’s early light”

While captive in a Navy program, a beluga whale named Noc began to mimic human speech. What was behind his attempt to talk to us?

Whistler’s mother is a superstar. But the painter’s dad has languished in obscurity—until now

Mont-Saint-Michel is trying an extreme makeover to save its dreamlike setting

Letters to the Editor

From our readers

Phenomena

How one marvelously preserved fossil sheds light on how the vertebrate invasion of land took place

Phenomena

Photographs of the abandoned battlefields reveal the trenches’ scars still run deep

Phenomena

Thirty-five years after the arcade game hit it big, its impact is still felt nationwide

Phenomena

The FAA will soon allow commercial drones to fly in U.S. airspace, but researchers have found that they aren’t seen as much of a nuisance at all

Around the Mall

Thought to be from a minor artist, this painting proved to be older and more significant than previously thought

Around the Mall

Around the Mall

Ask Smithsonian: You asked, we answered

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A League of Its Own