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Latest Features

A bus being treated with ultraviolet light in Shanghai, China. Although types of UV light are already in use to decontaminate vehicles and indoor spaces, the wavelengths used are dangerous to people. Researchers hope that wavelengths of far-UVC light can be used harmlessly when people are present.

INNOVATION

Could UV Light Reduce the Spread of Covid-19 in Indoor Spaces?

This year's Craft2Wear Show features over 60 premier jewelry, leather and wearables artisans from across the country.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

The Art of Wearing Works of Art

Five-day-old red-eyed treefrog embryos are tightly curled inside dehydrated eggs packed closely together. It’s dry enough to make them begin to hatch early amid heating.

SCIENCE

When the Heat is On, Red-Eyed Treefrogs Hatch Early

“This room is one of the masterworks of late 19th-century art and design, says the museum’s curator of American Art Diana Greenwold.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Whistler’s 'Peacock Room' Open After Weeks of Restoration

Forest Lawn Memorial-Park doubled as a spectacle of art, Christianity, architecture and patriotism.

HISTORY

Inside the Disneyland of Graveyards

On October 21, some 60,000 pilgrims descend on the town of Portobelo, Panama, to celebrate the Festival del Cristo Negro.

TRAVEL

Panama's Black Christ Festival Stirs Up Sorrow and a Sense of Survival

An artist’s reconstruction of Qianodus duplicis, the earliest known fish that had a mouth with teeth

SCIENCE

Haul of Fossil Fish Pushes Back the Origin of Teeth and Jaws

To grab pedestrians’ attention, Pahl built a 19-foot-tall hammer and erected it on the lawn in front of the museum in 2007.

TRAVEL

A Small Town in Alaska Is Home to the World's First Hammer Museum

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine October 2022 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Smart News

This 10-Year-Old Boy Makes Art That Sells for Over $100,000

Fifth-grader Andres Valencia’s inspirations range from Picasso to Pokémon

2.

History

The True History Behind Netflix's 'Blonde'

"Blonde," a heavily fictionalized film by Andrew Dominik, explores the star's life and legend in a narrative that's equal parts glamorous and disturbing

3.

Innovation

Could UV Light Reduce the Spread of Covid-19 in Indoor Spaces?

Some wavelengths of light in a range called far-UVC kill microbes in experiments and appear to be harmless to people

4.

History

Inside Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, the Disneyland of Graveyards

How Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, a star-studded cemetery in Los Angeles, corporatized mourning in America

5.

History

The Real History Behind 'The Woman King'

A new film stars Viola Davis as the leader of the Agojie, the all-woman army of the African kingdom of Dahomey

Smithsonian Voices
Earth Optimism

Wild Souls: Earth Optimism Book of the Month

National Museum of Natural History

Meet the Smithsonian Scientist Unlocking Crucial Conservation Clues in the Genetic Code of Koalas

Smithsonian Associates

An Evening with Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra Plus More Programs in October

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

Exhibit of Library Treasures Opens at National Museum of African American History and Culture

National Museum of the American Indian

Five Ideas for Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2022

National Museum of Natural History

What the Demise of Mammoths Can Teach Us About Future Extinctions

See All

Special Report
None

Alaska

Alaska is nicknamed "The Great Land," and for good reason: it is wild, rugged and expansive. In a series of articles, Smithsonian magazine explores the history, culture and natural wonders of the 49th state.

View Full Report

Featured Stories

For More Than 60 Years, Indigenous Alaskans Have Hosted Their Own Olympics

This Wonder Bird Flies Thousands of Miles, Non-Stop, as Part of an Epic Migration

The World's Largest Collection of Standing Totem Poles Keeps Getting Bigger

Made Possible Through the Support of Travel Alaska Logo-CMYK_Large_transp.png

Smithsonian Channel

Preview thumbnail for video 'A Biologist on an Underwater Scooter Delights Young Dolphins

A Biologist on an Underwater Scooter Delights Young Dolphins

Play
Preview thumbnail for video 'Journey to the Dark Side of the Moon

Journey to the Dark Side of the Moon

Preview thumbnail for video 'You’re Not Ready for How Playful Komodo Dragons Can Be

You’re Not Ready for How Playful Komodo Dragons Can Be

Photo of the day

An adult humpback whale sings calmly underwater while it rains heavily on the surface. Humpback Whale Sings Under the Storm

History

Forest Lawn Memorial-Park doubled as a spectacle of art, Christianity, architecture and patriotism.

Inside the Disneyland of Graveyards

How Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, a star-studded cemetery in Los Angeles, corporatized mourning in America

Ruins of Tikal, where researchers found high concentrations of mercury 

Ancient Maya Cities Were Polluted With High Levels of Mercury

“The first people to look at the Rosetta Stone thought it would take two weeks to decipher,” says Edward Dolnick, author of The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone. “It ended up taking 20 years.”

Two Hundred Years Ago, the Rosetta Stone Unlocked the Secrets of Ancient Egypt

Science

An artist’s reconstruction of Qianodus duplicis, the earliest known fish that had a mouth with teeth

Haul of Fossil Fish Pushes Back the Origin of Teeth and Jaws

The unexpected finds illustrate life during a critical and little-understood time period

A European eel swims in the Baltic Sea. 

The Utterly Engrossing Search for the Origin of Eels

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, D.C, on June 29, 2022. The EPA announced the launch of an office for advancing environmental justice and civil rights on Saturday. 

EPA Creates National Office for Environmental Justice and Civil Rights

Innovation

Market research firm Fact.MR estimated that global nonalcoholic wine sales reached $1.6 billion in 2021 and will double in the next decade.

The Science Behind Nonalcoholic Wine

Drinking habits are changing, and vintners are exceeding tasters' expectations with new options stripped of their alcohol

None

The Remarkable Effort to Locate America's Lost Patents

Manual breast pump with black bulb, dating to sometime between 1920 and 1959

The Sucky History of the Breast Pump

Arts & Culture

Lizzo plays President James Madison’s flute at the Library of Congress

Lizzo Played a 200-Year-Old Glass Flute Given to James Madison

The Library of Congress invited the musician, a classically trained flutist, to play the instrument at her concert this week

Abigail Disney beside a poster for The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales earlier this month

Abigail Disney Criticizes Labor Practices at the Company Her Family Founded

On October 21, some 60,000 pilgrims descend on the town of Portobelo, Panama, to celebrate the Festival del Cristo Negro.

Panama's Black Christ Festival Stirs Up Sorrow and a Sense of Survival

Travel

Detail of the Chief Johnson totem pole

The World's Largest Collection of Standing Totem Poles Keeps Getting Bigger

Eighty sculptures in and around Ketchikan, Alaska, tell the ancestral stories of Indigenous clans

About two to three million birds of prey fly through Panama each fall, in what amounts to the world’s third-largest raptor migration.

Watch Millions of Raptors Fly Across Panama This Fall

The Eiffel Tower at night

To Save Energy, the Eiffel Tower Dims Its Lights Early

At the Smithsonian

Neal V. Loving’s WR-3, shown at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, will move to the redesigned galleries on the National Mall.

The West Wing of the National Air and Space Museum Prepares to Take Flight

The Smithsonian museum reopens to the public, transforming the way we tell the story of aviation

Florence Pugh (left) stars in Don't Worry Darling as Alice, a 1950s housewife who resides in an idyllic California community with her husband, Jack (Harry Styles, right).

The Feminist Inspiration Behind 'Don't Worry Darling'

The Bell X-1, a miracle of form and function.

How the Bell X-1 Ushered in the Supersonic Age