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Museums

The capsized hull of the U.S.S. Oklahoma (right) is visible next to the U.S.S. Maryland.

The Story Behind Pearl Harbor’s Most Successful Rescue Mission

Eighty years ago, civilian Julio DeCastro and his colleagues at the Hawaii base’s naval yard saved 32 sailors trapped inside the U.S.S. “Oklahoma”

The new exhibition “¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States” opens next spring in the Molina Family Latino Gallery at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the New National Museum of the American Latino

Years away from having a building of their own, Smithsonian staff are already at work on the exhibition ¡Presente! for next year

Art dealer Helen Fioratti and her husband, Nereo, purchased the mosaic from an aristocratic Italian family in the 1960s and used it as a coffee table in their Manhattan apartment for some 45 years.

Cool Finds

A Mosaic From Caligula’s ‘Pleasure Boat’ Spent 45 Years as a Coffee Table in NYC

Authorities returned the ancient artwork, now on view at a museum near Rome, to Italy following a multi-year investigation

Dozens of Smithsonian Institution professionals share their favorite reads from this year.

The Best Books of 2021

Smithsonian Scholars Pick Their Favorite Books of 2021

The writings of many fine authors support the research and ambitious undertakings of an Institution rising to the challenges ahead

Critics of the statue have emphasized not only to the deferential position of the two other figures but also Roosevelt’s racist beliefs and actions.

Controversial Teddy Roosevelt Statue Will Be Moved From NYC to North Dakota

The equestrian monument will leave the steps of the American Museum of Natural History, finding a new home at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library

This 1925 painting depicts an idealized version of an early Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth.

How to Tell the Thanksgiving Story on Its 400th Anniversary

Scholars are unraveling the myths surrounding the 1621 feast, which found the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag cementing a newly established alliance

David Allan, Edinburgh Milkmaid With Butter Churn, circa 1780–90

See a Rare Watercolor of a Black Woman Living in Edinburgh in the Late 18th Century

Staff at the National Galleries of Scotland, which recently acquired the David Allan painting, hope to uncover more information about the sitter’s identity

Virtual reconstruction of Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan as it may have looked around 600 C.E., when it decorated a manmade cave temple in southern Cambodia

A Botched Restoration Left These Ancient Cambodian Statues With Swapped Limbs

Now properly pieced together, the sculptures of Hindu deity Krishna are on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art

Ai Weiwei's Whitewash (1995–2000), pictured here in the M+ museum's newly opened galleries, features 126 Neolithic clay jars unearthed in China.

Major Contemporary Art Museum Debuts in Hong Kong Amid Censorship Concerns

M+ promises to be a leading cultural destination, but China’s new national security law threatens its curatorial freedom

The room combines art that evokes imagined futures and artifacts from different contexts within the African diaspora.

The Met’s New Period Room Envisions a Thriving Afrofuturist Community

The Manhattan museum’s latest imagined space blends Black history and contemporary art

The museum acquired the collection in recognition of its historical significance—and to keep the objects from circulating elsewhere.

German Museum Acquires 15,000 Artifacts Documenting the History of Anti-Semitism

Holocaust survivor Wolfgang Haney collected the items over three decades

Art collector John Foster spotted this sculpture, titled Martha and Mary, in the front yard of a St. Louis home in 2019. 

Cool Finds

Art Enthusiast Spots Long-Lost Sculpture by Black Folk Artist in Missouri Front Yard

William Edmondson had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1937 but was buried in an unmarked grave following his death in 1951

In October, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History displayed this vandalized, bullet-ridden marker—one of three placed at the Mississippi site where, in 1955, police found the body of 14-year-old Emmett Till.

Why Museums Are Primed to Address Racism, Inequality in the U.S.

Smithsonian leaders discuss how the Institution can be a powerful place for investigating and addressing society’s most difficult issues

A view of the Anahuacalli Museum's main "temple" structure, which was inspired by Aztec architecture and completed in 1964

Diego Rivera’s Utopian ‘City of the Arts’ Debuts 64 Years After the Artist’s Death

The Anahuacalli Museum has expanded its campus to create a community art center first envisioned by the Mexican muralist in 1941

The Denver Art Museum's newly renovated campus, with the 50,000-square-foot Sie Welcome Center in the foreground

Denver Art Museum’s Much-Anticipated Renovation Centers Indigenous Voices

The four-year, $150 million project added 30,000 square feet of exhibition space to the Colorado museum’s high-rise building

A view of the schooner-barge Michigan, which sank in Lake Superior on October 2, 1902, alongside the M.M. Drake

Cool Finds

Three 19th-Century Shipwrecks Discovered in Lake Superior

”[W]e have never located so many new wrecks in one season,” says the director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society

The Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine, hosts an "All Souls Walk" at the town's Hope Cemetery.

In Cemeteries Across the Country, Reenactors Are Resurrecting the Dead

Gravesite readings and performances keep the stories of the dearly departed alive for a new generation

Artist Meret Oppenheim, photographed by Margrit Baumann in 1982

Looking Beyond Surrealist Artist Meret Oppenheim’s Famous Furry Teacup

A new exhibition highlights the dazzling breadth of the 20th-century painter, sculptor and photographer’s oeuvre

Vote for the creepiest doll via the center's Facebook and Instagram pages.

Which Historical Doll Will Be Crowned the Creepiest?

A Minnesota museum’s third annual contest invites the public to vote on which of nine antique toys is the most unsettling

Vincent van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, April–May 1885

The Untold Story of van Gogh’s Once-Maligned Masterpiece, ‘The Potato Eaters’

An exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum spotlights the artist’s dynamic depiction of peasant life—a painting that critics hated and he loved

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