November 2025

Smithsonian magazine delivers trusted and incisive reporting on history, science, nature, culture and travel.

Features

Sara Flores spent decades crafting exquisite traditional textiles deep in the Peruvian Amazon. Now, at 75, she is becoming an unlikely art world star

By Jay Cheshes | Photographs by Prin Rodriguez

The January 1776 burning of Virginia’s flourishing port city fed the flames of the Revolution. But the source of the blaze was not what it seemed

By Andrew Lawler | Photographs by Eliot Dudik

A ramble through Paris’ historic cemeteries reveals how the city reimagined private remembrance as a vital part of public life

By Peter Ross | Photographs by Tomas van Houtryve

The furry mammal’s voracious appetite helps preserve vital marine ecosystems

By Alex Fox | Photograph by Gretchen Kay Stuart

The expert navigator and best-selling author Tristan Gooley helps millions of followers read nature’s clues to find their way back home

By Richard Grant | Photographs by Lydia Goldblatt

The Smithsonian’s collections speak to the resolve and ingenuity of America’s service members

Your feedback on cranberry bogs, the true history of Valley Forge and Cormac McCarthy's secret library

How the high-minded, sleuthing Hardy Boys helped define American boyhood

Dozens of Winslow Homer’s fragile watercolors are freed from the vault for a rare display

Rediscover the American jurist who helped lead the prosecution at Nuremberg 80 years ago

Before he was a movie star, Audie Murphy wore this jacket as he made himself a global hero in World War II

Applejack, beloved by our first president, presents a deliciously bracing, cold-jacked history

A wild jump paved the way for Evel Knievel’s immortality—and for today’s stunt culture

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