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Museums

Previously, the public only had access to about 30,000 listings of works in the Louvre’s collections.

You Can Now Explore the Louvre’s Entire Collection Online

A new digital database features 480,000 works from the Paris museum’s holdings

Candida Alvarez's Estoy Bien (2017) provided the inspiration for the title of a new exhibition at El Museo del Barrio.

How a Sweeping Survey in NYC Redefines What It Means to Make ‘Latinx’ Art

A new triennial at El Museo del Barrio features a wide range of works by 42 artists and collectives

Cover of the autobiography of Beba Epstein written in the 1933-34 school year, with a picture of her.

Smithsonian Voices

How the Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl Inspired an Exhibition

The discovery of a forgotten document leads to a deep dive into a Jewish family’s Eastern European history that was all but lost

François Pascal Simon Gérard, Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain, circa 1808

New Jersey Estate Owned by Napoleon’s Older Brother Set to Become State Park

In 1815, exiled Spanish king Joseph Bonaparte fled to the U.S., where he lived in luxury on a sprawling, 60-acre estate

The 74-foot-tall slab will be installed at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The Newseum’s Iconic First Amendment Tablet Is Headed to Philadelphia

Weighing in at 50 tons, the marble slab previously adorned the facade of the now-shuttered journalism museum in D.C.

In “Deep Time,” curators used each fossil, including the sea scorpion Eurypterus lacustris, to weave a detailed timeline of Earth’s history.

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on What Makes for a Great Museum Exhibition

A well-curated show makes the unknown feel familiar—and reveals the unexpected

A scrapbook about Alonzo Orozco and David Salazar, semipro players in Los Angeles in the 1920s and ’30s.

This Summer, a New Smithsonian Exhibition Takes You Inside Béisbol

At the American History Museum, cover all the bases with Latino ballplayers

At the new exhibition at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, scent dispensers will let viewers smell scents associated with the paintings.

Don’t Just Look at These Paintings—Smell Them Too, Says New Dutch Exhibition

“Scent dispensers” will emit odors fragrant and foul to evoke 17th-century Europe

In makeshift home laboratories, a team of scientists discovered that cotton flannel is the optimal fabric, and their latest study says that the moisture from our breath makes the mask more effective.

How to Build a Better Homemade Face Mask, According to Science

When Covid-19 hit, Smithsonian researchers set up makeshift home laboratories to conduct groundbreaking studies on mask fabric materials

Children participate in a hands-on science activity with the Smithsonian Latino Center for a Dia del Niño festival hosted by LA Plaza de Cultura y Arte in Los Angeles, California.

Smithsonian Voices

How to Take the Museum to Learners Who Can’t Be There

Educators can make a big difference in the lives of young students who have never met a scientist, seen a microscope, or been to a museum

Staff hang a work by Rachel Ruysch in the Amsterdam museum's Gallery of Honour on March 8, 2021.

For the First Time in Its 200-Year History, the Rijksmuseum Features Women Artists in ‘Gallery of Honour’

The Amsterdam institution is spotlighting works by Dutch Golden Age painters Judith Leyster, Gesina ter Borch and Rachel Ruysch

Frida Kahlo, Still Life, 1951, oil on masonite

Five Rarely Seen Frida Kahlo Artworks United for Dallas Exhibition

The show features lesser-known paintings and drawings, most of which date to the end of the iconic Mexican artist’s life

A close-up look at one of the pieces of stolen armor

Authorities Recover Intricate Renaissance Armor Stolen From the Louvre in 1983

An appraiser’s quick thinking helped recover the treasures, which vanished from the Paris museum 38 years ago

Virgin's hyperloop system uses magnetic levitation technology to reduce friction and low-pressure sealed vacuums along the track that minimize air resistance.

Futures

Smithsonian’s ‘Futures’ Exhibition to Feature Virgin Hyperloop’s Record-Breaking Transportation Pod

Virgin Hyperloop’s Pegasus vehicle will be on display for viewers to take a closer look at its interior this fall

Left: Cara Romero, Wakeah, 2018, and right: Flor Garduño, Reina (Queen), 1989

Major Donation to MoMA Spotlights a Century of Women Photographers

Newly announced gift of 100 works by 76 artists runs the gamut from photojournalism to experimental images

“It’s not a historical museum,” Henrik Lübker says. “It’s more an existential museum.”

This Hans Christian Andersen Museum Asks You to Step Into a Fairy Tale

Opening soon in the storyteller’s hometown of Odense, Denmark, the museum allows visitors to experience his multilayered stories

A "deliberately inconvenient" twin champagne glass created by Athens-based architect Katerina Kamprani

Virtual Travel

Take a Virtual Tour of Failed Designs, From the DeLorean to Google Glass

An online exhibition showcases 40 creative flops, including a curvy ping-pong table and a doll dubbed Little Miss No-Name

Blickling Hall is listed in Britain’s earliest public record, the Domesday Book, which was written in the 11th century. The house was at one point the home of Geoffrey Boleyn, grandfather of Anne Boleyn, who may have been born there around 1507.

Historic British Mansion Fights Moths With Tiny Parasitic Wasps

The moths eat wool and silk, putting historic artifacts—like a tapestry gifted to the house by Catherine the Great—at risk

The museum plans to store some 250,000 of its 620,000 artifacts at a new facility in Liévin.

How the Louvre Is Protecting Its Cultural Treasures Against Extreme Weather

Spurred by flooding linked to climate change, the Paris museum is relocating a third of its collection to a new conservation center

Engineers concluded that the museum building (above: the Assyrian Hall in February 2019) was structurally sound and could be repaired. But much work would need to be done.

Iraq’s Cultural Museum in Mosul Is on the Road to Recovery

The arduous process, says the Smithsonian’s Richard Kurin, is “a victory over violent extremism”

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