Museums

“A key tenet of ... constitutional democracy is the peaceful transfer of power following U.S. presidential elections, dating back to the republic’s first presidential election,” said Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, in a statement. “This week, that core belief was shaken.”

How the Smithsonian and Other Museums Are Responding to the U.S. Capitol Riot

Leading institutions have started collecting artifacts and working to contextualize last week's violent attack

Activists toppled and defaced Edward Valentine's statue of Jefferson Davis during Black Lives Matter protests in Richmond last summer.

Why a Virginia Museum Wants to Display a Defaced Sculpture of Jefferson Davis

"Actually bringing that statue back to the spot where it was created has a unique power to it," says the Valentine's director

This 1465 fresco by Domenico di Michelino depicts Dante, holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to hell.

Follow Dante Into Purgatory With Online Exhibition of 'Divine Comedy' Drawings

The Uffizi Gallery's digital show features 88 illustrations by 16th-century artist Federico Zuccari

(Top row) Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg, Barron Ryan, Arturo Elizondo, (middle row) Samantha Pratt, Gitanjali Rao, Anitra Belle Henderson, (bottom row) Kennyjie, Andrea Ponti and Brett Phaneuf

Ten Innovators to Watch in 2021

These visionaries are imagining an exciting future with chicken-less eggs, self-piloting ships and more

North American species like the Colorado potato beetle and the fall armyworm have become invasive elsewhere.

Have Any North American Species Become Invasive Elsewhere in the World?

You've got question. We've got experts

The carriage that Ulysses S. Grant rode to his second inauguration is one of 900 items in the exhibition "The American Presidency."

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the Year Ahead for Museums

After a year fraught with challenges, we must build on our strengths for a common purpose

Closed to the public and financially strained, museums nevertheless managed to create thought-provoking alternatives to in-person viewing.

The Top Ten Online Exhibitions of 2020

From a Smithsonian show on first ladies to Mexican muralists, Rembrandt and the making of the Met, these were some of our favorite virtual experiences

“We look forward to building two world-class museums to further amplify these stories and help our country learn more about the impact that women and Latinos have had on the fabric of our nation,” says a Smithsonian spokesperson.

Congress Approves Smithsonian Museums Honoring Women and Latino Americans

The legislative body's year-end spending bill authorized the creation of two much-anticipated museums

A "crazy quilt"—a chaotic style without repeating features—by an unidentified 19th-century artist incorporates politicians' campaign banner portraits.

The Surprisingly Radical History of Quilting

Works on display in an Ohio exhibition highlight political art by marginalized people

Encounters with the giant oarfish—the world's largest bony fish—may have inspired sailors to tell tales about fantastical sea serpents.

Meet the Real Animals Behind Mermaids, Dragons and Other Mythical Creatures

You can now take a virtual tour of a "Harry Potter"–inspired exhibition exploring the origins of fantastical beings

A previous iteration of the museum focused on preserving memories of small-town Southern Jewish life as many Jews moved to larger cities. The new center will expand to cover the broader Southern Jewish experience.

Planned Museum Will Spotlight Jewish Communities in the American South

Set to open in New Orleans next year, the cultural institution will showcase stories spanning 300 years and 13 states

A curatorial assistant found the wood fragments in a misfiled cigar box bearing the image of Egypt's old flag.

Missing Great Pyramid Artifact Found in Cigar Box in Scotland

The wood fragments—among just three items ever taken from the Giza tomb—date to the fourth millennium B.C.

The portal currently features 613,458 entries documenting the people, events and places involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

Who Were America's Enslaved? A New Database Humanizes the Names Behind the Numbers

The public website draws connections between existing datasets to piece together fragmentary narratives

The spectacled tyrant (Hymenops perspicillatus) inhabits harsh, dry deserts, which new research suggests tend to produce new species at a higher rate than lush, biodiverse places like the Amazon.

Earth's Harshest Ecosystems May Birth New Species Fastest

A genetic study of nearly 1,300 different birds suggests places with fewer species spit out new ones more frequently than biodiversity hotspots

Submissions will be included in an online exhibition, “Reclamation: Recipes, Remedies, and Ritual,” set to open in January 2021.

Your Cherished Family Recipes Could Be Featured in a Museum Exhibition

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is asking the public to share recipes that document unique family histories

The winner (and one guest) will be invited to attend the Mona Lisa's annual inspection—one of the few times the work emerges from behind bullet-proof glass.

How You Could Be One of the Only People in the Room With the 'Mona Lisa'

A Christie's auction benefitting the Louvre offers a winning bidder the chance to attend the painting's annual inspection

The cold and isolation of the Svalbard archipelago helps preserve the Arctic World Archive's contents.

Norway Preserves 'The Scream' for Future Generations by Burying Digital Copy in Arctic Coal Mine

The Munch masterpiece joins digitized art and artifacts from more than 15 countries in the "futureproof" Arctic World Archive

Grounded travelers, be thankful for these travel books released in 2020.

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2020

In a year of travel restrictions, these titles helped us channel our wanderlust

Fourteen years ago, a team of commercial fossil hunters discovered a dinosaur pelvis jutting out of a hillside on a private farm in Montana, and their discovery revealed an intertwined T. rex and Triceratops.

The Mystery of the 'Dueling Dinosaurs' May Finally Be Solved Now That They've Found a Home

The duo is headed to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, where researchers will soon determine whether the fossils were even sparring at all

To keep Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit from degrading, conservators designed a custom mannequin that allows air to circulate inside.

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the Invisible Work of the Smithsonian's Conservators

From deep cleaning to painstaking repairs, caring for Smithsonian’s 155 million objects requires serious TLC—and steady hands

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