Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Thought Innovation

Barbed Wire was designed for "preventing cattle from breaking through wire-fences," Glidden writes in his application.

Patent Pending

The Supreme Court may soon reinvent the rules for invention

None

35 Who Made a Difference: Steven Spielberg

A renowned director contemplates the lessons of history

Thayer contended that even brilliantly plumaged birds like the peacock can blend into, and thus be camouflaged by, their habitats.  To illustrate his theory, he and his young assistant Richard Meryman painted Peacock in the Woods for Thayer's coloration book.

A Painter of Angels Became the Father of Camouflage

Turn-of-the-century artist Abbott Thayer created images of timeless beauty and a radical theory of concealing coloration

Page 12 of 12