Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Cool Finds

It's thought that JFK's heartfelt letter to his mistress, Mary Pinchot Meyer, was written just a month before his assassination.

Cool Finds

A Steamy Letter From JFK Is up for Auction

The president had a real way with the ladies—and with an em dash

This year's ConIFA World Football Cup will be anything but average.

Cool Finds

There’s a World Cup for Unrecognized States

This game is for soccer’s international underdogs

Cool Finds

Instead of Tagging Real-Life Surfaces, Graffiti Artists Can Use a New Simulator

Fake bombing has never felt so real

The longer a structure has been exposed to the water, the more weathered it appeared.

New Research

This “Lost Underwater City” Was Actually Made by Microbes

Though these formations may not be evidence of a lost city, they show off some intriguing chemistry

La Cité du Vin.

Cool Finds

Bordeaux’s New Wine Museum Is Open for Business

The “City of Wine” is a vino lover’s amusement park

Cool Finds

This Museum Made Art Out of a John Deere Harvester

‘Continuous Service Altered Daily’ finds life inside a familiar machine

Cool Finds

A Brief History of General Tso’s Chicken

From haute cuisine to takeout

Cool Finds

Paris’ Iconic “Love Locks” Bridge Is Now Home to a Set of Creepy Statues

The rotating art installation on the Pont des Arts bridge was inspired by classical mythology

A selection of "Emotikis" inspired by Maori culture and traditions.

Age of Humans

Emotikis and New Keyboards Bring Indigenous Cultures to Text Messaging

From Maori emojis to First Nations languages

A sketch of a Lycaeides melissa samuelis butterfly.

Art Meets Science

Vladimir Nabokov’s Butterfly Drawings Take Flight in This New Book

A little-known fact: The author of “Lolita” was also an avid lepidopterist

Cool Finds

Are the Fancy New Curling Brooms Fair? Robots and Lasers Will Help Figure It Out

So-called “Frankenbrooms” are causing tension amongst the world’s curlers

A page of a manuscript of Gregorian chants

Cool Finds

Inside the Effort to Digitize Medieval Monks’ Chants

Scanning and interpreting centuries-old manuscripts is a challenge because musical notation wasn’t formalized yet

Kelly Slater tests his new wave machine in Lemoore, California

Cool Finds

Surf Legend Builds Artificial Wave That Could Bring Surfing to the Masses

The World Surf League just bought Kelly Slater’s artificial wave technology, a move that could bring surfing to places like Nebraska

A close-up of Abraham Lincoln's signature on the Emancipation Proclamation.

Cool Finds

Dozens of Rare Documents From American History Just Sold at Auction

Original copies of the 13th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation just sold for millions

"Red and Green II" Georgia O'Keeffe, 1916 Watercolor on paper, laid down on paper.

Cool Finds

A Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Wanted Destroyed Is on Display for the First Time in Nearly 60 Years

O’Keeffe’s watercolor returns to the town where she painted it

Cool Finds

These Are America’s Most Well-Read Cities

Did your bookish burg make Amazon.com’s list?

A beer funnel, one of the pieces of equipment used to make beer in China 5,000 years ago

Cool Finds

Gan Bei! Chinese Brewed Beer 5,000 Years Ago

Researchers analyzed deposits on ancient pots and jugs to find out Chinese brewers made sophisticated barley beers 1,000 years earlier than thought

Sarah Josepha Hale was the 19th century's answer to Oprah.

Cool Finds

Five Fascinating Details About the Media Mogul Who May Have Written ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’

Everywhere that Sarah Josepha Hale went, success was sure to go

Cool Finds

Houston Opens Up Its Huge “Underground Cathedral” to Visitors

A haunting 1920’s city reservoir full of 25-foot columns and shafts of light is now open to the public

Cool Finds

When It Rains in Boston, the Sidewalks Reveal Poetry

Water-resistant spray paint creates hidden poems on Beantown’s streets

Page 123 of 281