Articles tagged as Pop Culture | Smithsonian Magazine

Europe

How Brussels Became a Real-Life Comic Strip

The city’s colorful murals put it in the running for comic book capital of the world

February 29, 2016

Try to refrain from eating the art

February 17, 2016

A photograph from a staged production of "R.U.R." ("Rossum's Universal Robots").

Cool Finds

78 Years Ago Today, BBC Aired the First Science Fiction Television Program

And no, it wasn’t ‘Doctor Who’

February 11, 2016

Elvis Jigsaw (2011)
Elvis makes an appearance in several images in Short Stories.

Photographer Matt Henry’s Obsession With the 1960s Led to These Amazing Images

Inspired by the movies of the era, he brings together elaborate sets and casts to make his scenes

January 25, 2016

Ai Weiwei
Chinese 1957–
Forever Bicycles, 2011, installation view at Taipei Fine Arts Museum
© Ai Weiwei

Is Ai Weiwei the Andy Warhol of Our Time?

A new exhibition in Melbourne delves into the connections between the artists who define their generations

January 19, 2016

Austria

These Are the “Star Wars” Exhibitions You Are Looking For

Grab your light saber and celebrate the art of the movie series at museums around the world

December 17, 2015

Cool Finds

A Brief History of Plaid

From highlanders to hipsters

November 20, 2015

Actor Bryan Cranston impulsively modeled the Heisenberg hat—now a museum artifact—while nervous curators looked on.

How Crystal Meth Made it Into the Smithsonian (Along with Walter White’s Porkpie Hat)

The wildly popular television show, depicting the dark side of the American Dream, reflects on the struggles of a recession-era middle class

November 12, 2015

First debuted as a minor character in Henson's 1955 TV show Sam & Friends, Kermit the Frog has since become a Hollywood icon.

A New Museum Pays Tribute to the Genius of Jim Henson

Make way for Muppets at Atlanta’s new World of Puppetry Museum

November 2, 2015

American South

The Twisted History of the Gateway Arch

With its origins as a memorial to Thomas Jefferson’s vision of Western Expansion, the Arch has become a St. Louis icon

October 2015

Lebanese-British singer-songwriter Mika performs atop a piano at Fabrique in Milan this June.

Is There a ‘Gay Aesthetic’ to Pop Music?

From Elton John to Mika, the “glam piano” genre may be as integral to the Gay American experience as hip-hop and the blues are to the African American one

August 13, 2015

A Bengali edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The beloved children's book by British scholar Charles Lutwidge Dodgson has been translated into every major language and numerous minor ones, including many that are extinct or invented.

The Mad Challenge of Translating “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

Explore the linguistic tricks used to make Lewis Carroll’s puns, parodies and nonsense accessible in hundreds of tongues

July 23, 2015

On July 13, Barnum's American Museum was the site of a disastrous fire.

Cool Finds

150 Years Ago, a Fire in P.T. Barnum’s Museum Boiled Two Whales Alive

Attracting tourists and locals alike, the museum mixed freakshow performers with educational collections

July 20, 2015

Architects envision a rippling structure that takes a page from the singer’s famous look

July 16, 2015

The original fan gathering only attracted 145 people

July 14, 2015

The Jazz pattern that graced paper cups, like this one in the 1990s, remains a source of fascination in pop culture.

Cool Finds

How the Internet Tracked Down the Designer of the Beloved Jazz Paper Cup

Meet Gina, the woman behind the iconic paper cup pattern

July 1, 2015

Rice Lake in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve.

Canada

One Vancouver Forest Played Just About Every Wooded Locale on “The X-Files”

If the truth is still out there, there’s a good chance it’s in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve

June 24, 2015

One of the LATA 65 students works on a mural in Lisbon.

Cool Finds

Lisbon Artists Are Teaching Graffiti Classes for the Elderly

Grannies learn about street art history and how to tag walls

June 1, 2015

Today nylon adds stretch to fishnets (worn here by Shelley Winters) and a variety of legwear.

Why Nylons’ Run is Over

They were a craze when they debuted 75 years ago, but have since been replaced by new social norms

May 2015

Celebrities: Popular then forgotten. Recognize her? No?Don't worry, this is just a stock photo.

Cool Finds

How Long Do Cultural References Last?

Not forever

March 9, 2015