Articles tagged as Cultural Preservation

A few throw pillows and a touch of new paint? No way.

July 14, 2015

Art, fossils and natural beauty

July 13, 2015

Bordeaux, Champagne wine regions get world heritage designations

July 8, 2015

Urban Explorations

These Are the Most Threatened Historical Places in America

The Grand Canyon, The Factory and the A.G. Gaston Motel are just a few of the 11 names on the list

June 24, 2015

The famous Cyclone roller coaster in Coney Island, New York.

Urban Explorations

Ride America’s Most Historic Roller Coasters

This summer, ride the coasters that add history to their thrills

June 23, 2015

Inspired by the quote “you must be the change you wish to see in the world, the artists of the S.A.G.E. Coalition in Trenton, New Jersey transformed an abandoned lot into a vibrant community garden and gathering space.

Commentary

Growing a Digital Garden Archive

The Smithsonian issues a call to preserve American garden heritage with a website that collects personal stories, photos, video and audio

April 27, 2015

Librarian Aboubakar Yaro examines an Islamic manuscript from the 17th century at the Djenne Library of Manuscipts, in Djenne, Mali, September 2012. Djenne is thought to have at least 10,000 manuscripts held in private collections, dating from the 14th to 20th centuries.

Why We Have a Civic Responsibility to Protect Cultural Treasures During Wartime

With the recent deliberate destruction of cultural treasures in the Middle East, we remember the measures taken in the past to preserve our heritage

April 10, 2015

One of the colossal Buddha statues, before it was destroyed.

Planned Afghan Cultural Center Will Honor Ancient Statues Destroyed by the Taliban

The winning design will memorialize two ancient Buddha statues demolished in 2001

April 6, 2015

Ganden Sumtseling Monastery in Shangri-La was built in 1679 at the direction of the Fifth Dalai Lama.

Retracing the Footsteps of China’s Patron Saint of Tourism

Travelers are discovering the Ming dynasty’s own Indiana Jones, an adventurer who dedicated his life to exploring his country’s Shangri-Las

April 2015

The details of the replica (under construction last year), its area nearly the size of a football field, are based on 700 hours of laser scanning in the actual cave.

Finally, the Beauty of France’s Chauvet Cave Makes its Grand Public Debut

A high-tech recreation of the immortal artworks shines a new light on the dawn of human imagination

April 2015

A mummified corpse of a Chinchoro girl between 4,000 and 8,000 years old gets a cleaning.

New Research

Saving the World’s Oldest Mummies From Rot in a Warmer, Wetter World

Why are the ancient bodies of the Chinchorro people stored in a Chilean museum rapidly degrading into black ooze?

March 10, 2015

Last year at a celebration of International Mother Language Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh, thousands attend a monument commemorating those killed during the Language Movement demonstrations of 1952.

The Human Right to Speak Whatever Language You Want is Worth Celebrating

With an ever increasing lack of language diversity, There Needs to Be More Recognition of February’s International Mother Language day

February 18, 2015

Cool Finds

Save the Voices of Tolkien, Joyce And Tennyson

The British Library is fighting time and budget constraints to save its vast collection of audio recordings

January 14, 2015

Asked to choose one artifact, the Smithsonian's Undersecretary for Arts, History and Culture Richard Kurin selected this spinning wheel from the collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

For Every Object, There Is a Story to Tell

A Smithsonian curator is asked to select just one artifact

December 17, 2014

Who is this random guy? It's John Tyler, the tenth president of the United States.

New Research

Soon Enough No One Will Remember Bill Clinton

People mostly remember first and recent US presidents, forgetting almost all the ones that came between

November 28, 2014

Raymond C. Yazzie, 2012. Coral, Lone Mountain and Orvil Jack turquoise, opal, sugilite, 14-karat gold. Collection of Janice Moody.

Why is Turquoise Becoming Rarer and More Valuable Than Diamonds?

With depleting mines, turquoise, the most sacred stone to the Navajo, has become increasingly rare.

November 24, 2014

Cool Finds

When Becoming a Man Means Sticking Your Hand Into a Glove of Ants

Young men must subject themselves to a ritual involving bullet ant-filled gloves not once but 20 times

October 27, 2014

A corridor leading to the infectious disease ward at Ellis Island's defunct hospital.

Cool Finds

Ellis Island Is Opening an Abandoned Hospital to the Public for the First Time in 60 Years

There are 29 abandoned buildings in all, several of which visitors can explore

October 16, 2014

New Research

How Conversations Around Campfire Might Have Shaped Human Cognition And Culture

We can perhaps thank campfire story time for getting us where we are today

September 22, 2014

The Fight for Catalonian Independence Took the Form of a Giant “V” in the Streets of Barcelona

Hundreds of thousands of protestors formed a giant red and yellow V, symbolizing the “Way Forward” and marking the region’s national holiday

September 11, 2014