CURRENT ISSUE
November 2013
Features
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101 Objects That Made America
Pulled from the Smithsonian collections, these items range millennia, from pre-historic dinosaurs to the very first supercomputer
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American Buffalo
Playwright David Mamet writes that whether roaming free or stuffed, this symbol of the West tells a thousand stories
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Audubon Plate
An amateur naturalist’s unparalleled artworks still inspire conservationists and collectors alike
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Life Preserver
Explorer John Wesley Powell filled in “great blank spaces” on the map – at times buoyed by a life preserver
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Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit
This wearable spacecraft let humans take one giant leap away from Earth
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Burgess Shale
The famed fossils are a link to some of the first complex creatures on Earth
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Walt Whitman Photograph
A haunting image captures America’s quintessential poet, writes author Mark Strand
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Chavez’s Jacket
The farmworker’s initiative improved lives in America’s fields, and beyond
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Justice O'Connor's Robe
The Supreme Court icon breaks down the tradition
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Lincoln’s Top Hat
Does the hat that links us to his final hours define the president? Or does the president define the hat?
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Predator Drone
Mark Bowden investigates how the unmanned, remote-controlled aircraft altered the battlefield forever
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Clovis Points
Beautifully crafted blades point to the continent’s earliest communities
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Singer Sewing Machine
The master of home entertaining takes a look at one of the most game-changing inventions of the 19th century
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Ration Ticket
This ration ticket couldn’t come close to replacing the traditions of the Plains tribes
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AIDS Quilt
The Daily Dish recalls his first experience seeing the quilt
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John Deere Plow
His plow turned the Midwestern mud into the nation’s breadbasket
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Negro League Baseball
Sportswriter Frank Deford looks back at the games that opened the national pastime to African-Americans
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Barbie
Writer Sloane Crosley asks if the doll really represents such a menace to society
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Richard Petty's Stock Car
There’s a good reason why his stock car is in the collections of the American History Museum
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Spirit of St. Louis
A daring flight shrank the world and created the first global celebrity
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Pocahontas Engraving
Historian Tony Horwitz tries to separate the truth from the myths that have been built up about the Jamestown “princess”
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Giant Panda
There’s a reason why millions adore these furry exemplars of China’s “soft power”
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Stained Glass Shards
These stained glass shards recall the tragic day that saw four girls killed in Alabama
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The Pill
A new birth control method gave women unprecedented power and revolutionized daily life