Summer 2026

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

Features

The “Ether Dome” at Massachusetts General Hospital is now a National Historic Landmark.

Theater of Relief

Inside the historic Boston operating room that gave the world anesthesia—and brought pain to the men who claimed the credit

Photographs by Ty Cole | Text by Douglas Starr

The view from Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York.

Rediscovering America's Original Grand Tour

Journey back 200 years to the nation’s first great tourist trail, revisiting the sites and wonders that put a young nation on the map

By Tony Perrottet | Photographs by Lauren Petracca

How to Build a Character

Benjamin Franklin was the patron saint of American inventors. Among his greatest creations were his authorial personas

H.W. Brands | Illustration by Victoria Maxfield

Awakening a Nation’s Conscience

Through remarkably careful reporting, one author evoked slavery’s brutality so vividly that America couldn’t look away

Geraldine Brooks | Illustration by Romy Blümel

America’s Prophet at a Crossroads

At a crucial moment, abolitionist Frederick Douglass stepped up to redefine the stakes of the Civil War

David W. Blight | Illustration by Sam Green

A King Among the Muckrakers

Lincoln Steffens invented a new kind of journalism: reputable, unsparing and above all objective

Jon Grinspan

The Mothers Who Nurtured Suffrage

In a poignant pattern, many of the most important contributions to suffrage were enacted—or inspired—by mothers

Lucia Graves

Through the Lens of Justice

The “father of documentary photography” created stark and eloquent images, mounting a sharp critique of child labor in the U.S.

Ted Scheinman

Woodrow Wilson’s Daring Home Front

The much-misremembered president arguably made the U.S. a more economically equal place

Richard Norton Smith | Illustration by Douglas B. Jones

Empowering the Grassroots for Good

With focus, idealism and a conspicuous lack of vanity, Ella Baker spearheaded many civil rights victories

Victor Luckerson | Illustration by Hsiao-Ron Cheng

A New Kind of Writing

Sequoyah’s invention of the Cherokee syllabary was so elegant, it was easy to mistake for magic

Andrew Lawler | Illustration by Mer Young

OPENER - Lightning strikes in Peckham, Oklahoma.

Masters of the Sky

The little-known story of the meteorologists and combat pilots who teamed up to decipher the science of thunderstorms and changed flying, and forecasting, forever

By Hal Sundt

The self-styled song collector set out to capture the authentic sounds of America, from spirituals and lumberjack songs to the blues. We’re only beginning to appreciate the long-term legacies of what he found

By Chris Heath | Illustrations by Tim O'Brien

A Southern Melting Pot

How “Virginia housewife” Mary Randolph blended diverse traditions to cook up America’s first regional cuisine

Michael W. Twitty | Photographs by Scott Suchman

Flash of Genius

Clarence Birdseye devised a new method of freezing fish, opening up a world of ready-made foods

Michelle Stacey | Illustration by Daria Kirpach

Changing the Game

A few of the innovations, some visionary, some surprisingly simple, that took U.S. sports to maturity—and into prime time

David J. Roth

OPENER - This image released by Netflix shows characters, from left, Mira, Rumi, Zoey in a scene from “KPop Demon Hunters.”

The Teen Machine

Drive-ins. Woodstock. Pagers. TikTok. How generations of adolescents have reliably fueled pop culture

April White

Hashing It Out

Once an unassuming presence on keyboards, the pound sign stirred debate—and drove the global conversation

Clive Thompson | Illustration by Kotryna Žukauskaitė

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The Everything Device

One device made it possible to hold a telephone, a watch, a calculator, the mailbox, credit cards, a meteorologist, a television, a detailed map of the globe, millions of songs and books … all in one hand.

Tracy Scott Forson | Photographs by John Kachik

Clive Campbell in 1980. “Hip-hop is both an American immigrant story and a global story,” he later said. “It belongs to everybody.”

Magic on the Mic

With hip-hop, teens in New York City birthed an entirely new style of music—and a culture to go with it

Kim Osorio

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A Comic Origin Story

A groundbreaking cartoonist paired images with a running narrative in 1896 to create the first comic strip. They've mutated into books, blockbuster movies and Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novels

Roy Schwartz | Photographs by Frank Stockton

A Guiding Light

Irna Phillips’ daytime television melodramas tackled thorny social issues, enticing millions to tune in tomorrow

Meredith Blake | Illustration by Addison Green

Conqueror of the Console

How an unheralded tinkerer helped bring the joy of arcade games into America’s living rooms

Victor Luckerson | Illustration by Tuhina Sharma

Departments

Secretary Lonnie Bunch Says the Smithsonian Keeps 'The Nation’s Memory' in an Exclusive Essay for America’s 250th Birthday

The acclaimed historian and head of the Institution argues that the semiquincentennial presents the perfect opportunity for Americans to consider their nation’s past and future