CURRENT ISSUE

November 2012

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine image Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine mobile image

Features

Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln

Mr. Lincoln Goes to Hollywood

Steven Spielberg, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Tony Kushner tell Roy Blount Jr. what it takes to wrestle an epic presidency into a feature film

lincoln-film-2.JPG

Lights! Camera! Lincoln!

The 16th president has been a Hollywood star and box office attraction since 1930

"Confederates Try to Burn New York"

November 1864

Primal-Instinct-silverback-Makumba-631.jpg

Primal Instinct

The only place in the world to get close to wild western lowland gorillas is deep in a Central African Republic forest. Photographers Anup Shah and Fiona Rogers made the tortuous journey to bond with our increasingly threatened cousins

Theodore Roosevelt speech

Assassination Foiled

100 years ago, Teddy Roosevelt was saved from a bullet by 50 pieces of paper

Dongdaemun Design Plaza

Seoul of a New Machine

Welcome to the city of the future. South Korea's capital has risen from third-world backwater into a tech-savvy mecca of superstar artists and architects

Gospels-Crucifixion-631.jpg

The Gospel According to King

Harvard's Karen King sparked intense debate with her discovery of a 1,600-year-old papyrus fragment referring to Jesus' "wife." The only reporter on the scene in Rome when the divinity scholar made the shocking announcement was Ariel Sabar. Here's his exclusive report

Malibu

Breaking Point

Environmental politics take a dramatic turn in Malibu when surfers, celebrities and scientists clash over a plan to clean up an iconic American playground

Doctors with Ebola patient

The Hunt for Ebola

In Uganda, a CDC team races to find the origins of a deadly virus

Lewis Lapham

The Last Renaissance Man

With his erudite Quarterly, the legendary Harper’s editor aims for an antidote to digital age ignorance

Departments

Contributors

Contributors

Letters to the Editor

Discussion

Discussion

From the Castle

From the Castle

The Smithsonian’s secretary introduces the Institution’s new campaign to highlight its best and most innovative work

Phenomena

Beauty

The pursuit of beauty leads in unexpected directions

Slaves to Fashion

Photographer Zed Nelson traveled the world documenting how body improvement has practically become a new religion

Phenomena

In Living Color

The white marble paragons we revere were originally dressed in eye-popping pigments

Phenomena

Beauty by the Numbers

Mathematicians find the sublime theorems

Phenomena

Catching Rays

Unprecedented images from space capture the Sun's true splendor

Phenomena

The Price of Beauty

An economist measures the wages of attractiveness

Phenomena

Hard-Wired for Art

Brain-imaging techniques are mapping the locations of our aesthetic response.

Around the Mall

Face Time

A new exhibit unmasks the titans of modern American poetry

Around the Mall

Playlist

The Elizabeth Mitchell experience

Around the Mall

A Pair of Monumental Sculptures Makes Its Way to American Indian Museum

Artist Rick Bartow's pair of sculptures, "We Were Always Here," will sit at the museum's entrance

Around the Mall

Did the Pilgrims Really Land on Plymouth Rock?

Your questions answered by our experts

Around the Mall

Spotlight

Books

Books

Why should we consider the fork? And a new biography of the ill-fated George Armstrong Custer

Fast Forward

Fast Forward

The future in the making