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Museums

Inside Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2010

Cool Finds

A Museum in England Is Hiding a Forgery Among Its Masterpieces

A South London gallery is asking its patrons to identify the fake in order to spark discussion about how and why we appreciate the art

The Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis, located in Cornelia, Georgia.

The King’s Keepers: Five Quirky Locations for Finding Elvis Beyond Graceland

From Georgia to Connecticut, Elvis’ spirit lives on in unexpected places

A Christmas tree decorated with iconic spacecraft is on view on the first floor of the Air and Space Museum

Christmas Day is the Only Day of the Year You Can’t Go to the Smithsonian

For those missing your Smithsonian fix, here’s some holiday cheer until the doors open on December 26

An artists' rendition of a different species of Pentaceratops alongside a modern white rhinoceros for scale

New Research

Reexamining Fossils Revealed a New Dinosaur Species

A distinct species of Pentaceratops was hiding in a museum’s fossil collection

The earliest surviving photograph, taken in 1826 or 1827, titled View from the Window at Le Gras.

Armenia: Smithsonian Guide

Where to See the Oldest Artifacts in the World

From a royal soccer ball to a very old book, see humanity’s history of innovation in ten amazing everyday objects

More than two years after his death, the tortoise Lonesome George has been stuffed and put on display in New York.

Lonesome George, the Last Tortoise of His Kind, Is on Posthumous Display in NYC

Driven to extinction by overhunting, the world’s last Pinta Island tortoise is now a taxidermy display at New York’s American Museum of Natural History

The Biomuseo brightens the night sky

Frank Gehry’s Biomuseo in Panama, Finally Open for Business

The eye-popping structure devoted to the nation’s vibrant ecosystems makes its grand debut

William Greiner's photographs, including Merry's, are on view in "Oh! Augusta!" at the Morris Museum of Art in Georgia.

Capturing First Impressions of a City in Transition

William Greiner’s photographs are on view at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, GA

Matt Dean (left) and Jim Dines (right) analyzed pelvic bones of whales and dolphins from 29 different species.

New Research

Promiscuous Whales Make Good Use of Their Pelvises

Hips don’t lie: Whale pelvic bones are not vestigial but instead evolved to help the marine mammals maneuver better during sex

Chippewa men performing in an annual powwow held near Cass Lake, Minnesota.

Cool Finds

An American Tribe Wants a German Museum to Return Native American Scalps

The German Museums Association says that scalps are not subject to the same ethical guidelines that govern other human remains

The maze is constructed out of glossy maple plywood.

Washington, D.C.

The Winding History of the Maze

Love the idea of getting lost in crooked pathways? Check out the National Building Museum’s summer installation

French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel with some of his works in Hong Kong, May 2014. The sculptures he is designing for Versailles have a similar pearl-strand shape.

Cool Finds

For the First Time in 300 Years, a New Permanent Sculpture Will Grace Versailles

A fountain sculpture being installed on the grounds is intended to be the first permanent addition to the collection in centuries

The LACMA exterior as seen from Wilshire Boulevard.

Why Museums Don’t Need Gleaming New Buildings, Especially Not in Los Angeles

An award-winning architect suggests that the city reconsider its plans to raze its iconic art museum

Washington, D.C.

Museums After Hours: D.C.’s Best Kept Secret

If you like visiting the capital’s museums by day, you’ll love what they offer after five

Sir Bobby, 2007

World Cup 2014

The Beautiful Game Becomes Beautiful Art as L.A. Museum Puts Soccer on Exhibit

The work of artists from around the world looks at players, fans and the ball itself

Cool Finds

See Samuel Beckett’s Doodles of James Joyce And Charlie Chaplin

The six-notebook handwritten manuscript has been in private hands since the 1960s

Lent by Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries. (L.4.122.2013_YOS.19_CDP-pub.tif)

Cool Finds

These 1861 Photos Helped Convince Abraham Lincoln to Preserve Yosemite for the Public

Stanford University celebrates the National Park’s 150th anniversary with some retro photos

Cool Finds

Visit a Glass Labyrinth in Kansas City

The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Mo., has a new interactive sculpture in the sculpture garden

Family photographs collected from around the United States are featured in Beyond Bollywood. Here, Pandit Shankar Ghosh, Shrimati Sanjukta Ghosh, with Vikram (Boomba) Ghosh at Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Lagunitas, Calif., ca. 1970.

How Museums and the Arts are Presenting Identity So That It Unites, Not Divides

Curators and practioners of the arts share a renewed focus on how culture and heritage shape who we are as Americans

Window washer Jan Demczur used his squeegee to pry open the elevator doors where he and five others were trapped. Taking turns, they used the squeegee and its metal handle to hack through drywall so that they could squeeze through and escape down the stairs.

How a Squeegee Handle Became a Life-Saving Tool on September 11, 2001

Artifacts now on loan to New York City’s National September 11 Memorial and Museum tell the story in ways that words cannot

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