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Museums

Woman's four-piece ball gown. Europe, circa 1868.

Costume’s Cultural Reveal

The Los Angeles County Museum aims to draw new visitors and historic insights with a landmark costume acquisition

"Sleepover with the Sharks" is one of two overnights the museum offers.

Nights at the Museums

You don’t have to be Ben Stiller to spend the night behind the scenes at a museum

The drawing room of Sir John Soane’s Museum

Small House Museums

Details on visiting these unique institutions

Library dining room of the Sir John Soane Museum

Europe’s Small House Museums

Sir John Soane’s Museum in London and other idiosyncratic house museums in Europe yield pleasures beyond their size

Babe Ruth, the star of Headin’ Home (1920)

Crowd Pleasers

Too good to be true?

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Rogues Gallery

Ten of the most incredible art heists of the modern era

Filing cabinets full of fakes at the Museum of Fakes

Showcasing Shams

At the Museum of Fakes, what’s not real is still art

Computer History Museum

Digital Attic

Dag Spicer, senior curator at the Computer History Museum, discusses 1950s mainframes, an original Apple One and Steve Wozniak’s baby shoes

Jeweler Harry Winston donated the famous Hope Diamond—the largest-known deep blue diamond in the world—to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It arrived in a plain brown package by registered mail, insured for one million dollars. Surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds and hanging from a chain with 45 diamonds, the rare gem attracts 6 million visitors a year to the Natural History Museum.

Diamonds Unearthed

In the first installment of a multi-part series, Smithsonian diamond expert Jeffrey Post explains how the rare crystals form

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Ways of Seeing

Inviting artists to help showcase its collections is just one way the Hirshhorn Museum is expanding its vision

The Libeskind-designed Jewish Museum Berlin

Jewish Museum Berlin

Architect Daniel Libeskind’s zinc lightning bolt of a building is one of the most revolutionary structures built since the war in Germany or anywhere

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The Best and Brightest

A small museum illuminates Las Vegas’ past by restoring the city’s classic neon signs

One Per Customer

The Price of Freedom: Americans at War

Americans at War

A new exhibition explores the personal dimensions of war: valor and resolve—but also sacrifice and loss

The hall combines natural history with state-of-the-art technology.

New Hall on the Mall

A dazzling exhibition space celebrates mammalian diversity through re-creations of habitats on four continents

The condition of the main facade in 1979, showing absence of the main steps

Boss

The New York City courthouse that caused his downfall has been returned to its former glory, and Tweed’s odious reputation has been refurbished

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Star-Spangled Principles

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Generosity and Standards

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Destination: Cruising through the Archives

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Smithson’s Best Bet

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