Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Museums

Some of Van Gogh's most iconic floral artworks, painted in 1888 and 1889, are facing the test of time.

New Research

X-Rays Show That Van Gogh’s Sunflowers Will One Day Wilt

A new analysis shows that half of the canvas held in Amsterdam is painted with pigments that darken with exposure to UV light

Alfred Stieglitz, Ida O'Keeffe, 1924, gelatin silver print, Collection of Michael Stipe

Ida O’Keeffe Is Finally Getting Her First Solo Museum Exhibition

Georgia O’Keeffe’s younger sister was also an artist, and this fall the Dallas Museum of Art is bringing her work into the spotlight

Thornton Dial, “History Refused to Die” (2004)

Future of Art

For the First Time, See Historically Excluded Black Folk Artists at the Met

‘History Refused to Die’ shows off the masterful works made by self-taught artists from the American South

"Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan" by Ilya Repin

Man Attacks Ivan the Terrible Painting, Blames Vodka

The painting has been a focal point of recent debate around the notorious tsar’s image

The inscription unveiled when the tape was removed

Future of Art

Tape-Removing Gel May Be a Game Changer for Art Restoration

The newly developed hydrogel helps dissolve tape adhesive, one of the stickiest challenges for art conservation and restoration experts

Joe, the "fat boy" from the Pickwick Papers.

The Case for Charles Dickens, the Science Communicator

A new exhibition dives into the Victorian novelist’s passion for science

None

Inside Contemporary Native Artist Rick Bartow’s First Major Retrospective

‘Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain’ arrives at the Autry Museum of the American West

Though the differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens may seem pronounced, scientists didn't always embrace the idea that humans evolved from other species.

How Do Scientists Identify New Species? For Neanderthals, It Was All About Timing and Luck

Even the most remarkable fossil find means nothing if scientists aren’t ready to see it for what it is

A 1933 statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis is removed from University of Texas' South Mall after UT President Gregory Fenves cleared it to be placed in a campus museum.

Are Museums the Right Home for Confederate Monuments?

The idea that once they are taken down, these statues “belong in a museum” doesn’t take into account that museums may not want them. Should they?

Cuneiform tablet seized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from Hobby Lobby.

Cool Finds

Some of Hobby Lobby’s Smuggled Artifacts May Come From Lost Sumerian City

Among the 3,800 artifacts being repatriated to Iraq today include pieces believed to be from Irisagrig, a site archaeologists have yet to find

This Mawson & Swan camera owned by Winslow Homer, ca. 1882, was gifted to Bowdoin College Museum of Art by Neal Paulsen.

Exhibition to Bring Winslow Homer’s Long-Lost Camera—and Photography—Into Focus

After four years of research, the new medium’s impact on Homer’s art will be explored this summer at Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Hank Willis Thomas sculpture

Five Things to See at Alabama’s New Memorial to Lynching Victims

The memorial, along with a new museum, exposes America’s fraught legacy of racial violence from slavery to lynchings to mass incarceration

Giant, Intact Egg of the Extinct Elephant Bird Found in Buffalo Museum

Fewer than 40 such eggs are held in public collections today

Cool Finds

Murder Most Fowl: Forensic Scan Shows the Legendary Oxford Dodo Was Shot

Micro-CT scans shows lead scattered across the back of the skull of what is believed to be the taxidermied remains of the dodo brought to Britain

The group of Muuscoctopus found on the Dorado Outcrop.

Cool Finds

Colony of Beautiful, Doomed Purple Octopuses Found Off Costa Rica

Hundreds of unidentified cephalopods were found nursing their eggs near a deep-sea vent

Interactive touchpools in the aquarium.

Europe

Be Part of a Catch-and-Release Aquarium in Scotland

The Mull Aquarium in Tobermory invites visitors to help stock the tanks

Museum Bhavan may look small but it contains 298 pages and 241 images.

Future of Art

Pocket-Sized Exhibition Shows Museum Experience Is Not One Size Fits All

Dayanita Singh’s ‘Museum Bhavan’ won the coveted Infinity Award this month for offering the public a way to intimately and innovatively interact with art

A Tyrannosaurus Rex head on display in Beijing. The country's fossil boom has resulted in a bevy of options for tourists seeking pterosaurs, feathered dinosaurs and early bird specimens.

Ten Chinese Museums Where You Can See a Dinosaur Fossil Up Close

The country’s dino explosion has created a mecca for tourists intent on catching a glimpse of feathered dinos and other prehistoric wonders

Liu Cun Yu, the director of the Beipiao Pterosaur Museum, poses in front of a full-scale model of a Moganopterus zhuiana, a species named after his wife.

The Great Chinese Dinosaur Boom

A gold rush of fossil-finding is turning China into the new epicenter of paleontology

Page 63 of 89