Museums

Doing the Ring Shout in Georgia, ca. 1930s Members of the Gullah community express their spirituality through the “ring shout” during a service at a local “praise house.”

Anacostia Community Museum Attempts Record-Breaking Ring Shout

Traditional dance in which participants dance counterclockwise in a circle to the beat of clapping and a stick that is banged on a wooden surface

Nina Simon advises museums how to involve visitors in the design of exhibitions.

Nina Simon, Museum Visionary

The author helps museums create systems in which visitors participate in exhibition design

An 1868 surgery kit, part of Harvard's Warren Anatomical Museum.

Highlights From the Warren Anatomical Museum

The collections inside this museum hold intriguing objects that tell the story of 19th century American medicine

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Visit a Science Museum on Saturday

The Guggenheim was Wright's crowning achievement. "The strange thing about the ramp—I always feel I am in a space-time continuum, because I see where I've been and where I'm going," says the director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives.

The Triumph of Frank Lloyd Wright

The Guggenheim Museum, turning 50 this year, showcases the trailblazer's mission to elevate American society through architecture

The Audubon Insectarium is the largest freestanding museum in the country dedicated solely to insects and relatives.

Going Buggy at the New Audubon Museum

Crickets, spiders, ants and many other insects thrive in historic New Orleans, where kids and adults learn about creepy crawlers

High school senior Ferris Bueller skips class with his girlfriend and his best friend to take a life-affirming joy ride through Chicago.

Five Movies That Memorably Feature Museums

The ‘Night at the Museum’ films aren’t the only films that take place largely in the confines of a museum

Shawn Levy, director of both Night at the Museum films, hopes his latest film will inspire people to visit America's museums.

Q and A with Director Shawn Levy

The director of both Night at the Museum movies talks about the ups and downs of filming at the Smithsonian

The ivory pleated dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in the 1955 comedy “The Seven Year itch” is the most popular attraction at the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Motion Picture Museum.

Hollywood on Exhibit

Movie memories come to life inside the filmmaking collections of these seven 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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