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September/October 2026

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

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Features

Anahuacalli Museum-Opener

The Marvelous Museums of Mexico City

Breathtaking antiquities. Bright pink horse stables. Artists’ bedrooms. In the sprawling capital, dazzling history is on display at every turn

| Photographs by Alicia Vera
OPENER - A giant Atlantic cockle lies open on the beach in Fort Myers, Florida, while a beachcomber searches for shells in the background.

Who Dwells in a Shell?

Leaping feet, periscope eyes, slinky-shaped nurseries—welcome to the wonderful world of mollusks

Photographs by Devon Matthews
A sample of cerebrospinal fluid

Solving the Long Covid Puzzle

Nearly seven years after the pandemic began, are we finally piecing together how a viral infection becomes a chronic and disabling disease?

| Photographs by Rachel Bujalski and Kate Warren
Duck

A Flair for the Dramatic

Known for its elaborate courtship ritual, the white-headed duck is a conservation icon in Spain. Elsewhere, it’s fighting for a second act

Photograph by Javier Aznar González de Rueda
dice sitting on a green surface

Welcome to Hot Springs

Long before Las Vegas, it was a gangsters’ paradise. Now an Arkansas spa town’s history is coming back to life

| Photographs by Houston Cofield
OPENER - A pair of African wild dogs at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, the largest privately owned nature reserve in South Africa, near the Botswana border.

Room to Roam

African wild dogs are endangered and misunderstood. a bold new effort is giving them space to survive

| Photographs by Marcus Westberg
OPENER - Toby Rawlinson in his Hudson roadster after the First Battle of Ypres, November 1914.

The Fastest Men on the Western Front

In the frantic early months of World War I, British volunteer motorists helped keep Allied armies ahead of their enemies—and heralded a new age of mechanized war

| Photographs by Jooney Woodward
Cathedral illo

Ask Smithsonian

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Departments

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III Looks Back at the Opening of the African American History Museum on Its Tenth Anniversary

Bunch, the museum’s founding director, recalls some of the behind-the-scenes moments that led to the doors opening for the first time a decade ago

Discussion

Your feedback on our special America at 250 issue, including stories about Margaret Fuller, Sequoyah and Woodrow Wilson

Rising With the Punches

Fifty years since Rocky’s first outing, America is still in his corner

Living Frescoes

Far from static, prehistoric paintings were dynamic and lively—especially in torchlight

Leaders of the Pack

A bustle of innovations, beginning after the Civil War, resulted in this back-to-school standby

The Marshall Plan

With care and patience, the future Supreme Court justice built his case against Jim Crow

Mantle of Greatness

One of the most valuable baseball cards in history offers a portal to a golden age

This. Changes. Everything.

A new book argues it was the Gold Rush that set modernity into motion