The memorial features a 125-foot bas-relief created by sculptor Emily Bedard that moves chronologically from the buildup of the operation to the conflict and liberation.

See the Sweeping Dune Walls and 125-Foot Bas-Relief Sculpture at the National Mall’s Newest Memorial, Dedicated to Veterans of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm

The Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial is an oasis-like place for honoring the Americans who served and lost their lives in combat to liberate Kuwait in the early 1990s

Sarah Kuta

An American Legion member and Korean War veteran salutes at a Memorial Day service.

History

Celebrate the Nation’s Veterans With These 20 Stirring Photographs of American Military Heroes

Updated: November 10, 2026 12:40 p.m. | Originally Published: November 9, 2023

Smart News

The Handwritten Final Draft of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Was Considered Lost. It Turned Out to Be Sitting in a Desk Drawer for Decades

November 10, 2026 4:45 p.m.

Octopuses Are the Ultimate Escape Artists. Now Scientists Know How the Creatures Contort Themselves to Squeeze Through Tiny Holes

November 10, 2026 4:17 p.m.

Dismantled to Survive the Nazi Blitz, Coventry Cathedral’s Stained Glass Is ‘a Medieval Jigsaw Puzzle.’ Its 12,000 Fragments Are Now Digitized for Public View

November 10, 2026 12:27 p.m.

This Adorable, Orphaned Baby Walrus Was Rescued by Two Researchers in Alaska. Now, He’s Found a New Home in Florida

November 10, 2026 11:00 a.m.

Voyager 1 Is the Farthest Human-Made Object in the Universe—and the Spacecraft Is About to Reach One Light-Day From Earth

November 10, 2026 9:00 a.m.

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History

Celebrate the Nation’s Veterans With These 20 Stirring Photographs of American Military Heroes

Updated: November 10, 2026 12:40 p.m. | Originally Published: November 9, 2023

Giant panda Bao Li eats bamboo in his outdoor habitat on January 4, 2025

At the Smithsonian

How Do Pandas Have Sex While in Human Care? As the National Zoo’s Director Details in Her New Book, It Takes a Village of Dedicated Keepers

November 10, 2026 9:44 a.m.

A portrait of Joan of Arc (left) and a statue of Kimpa Vita in Angola (right)

History

This African Prophet Was Burned at the Stake 320 Years Ago. Today, Kimpa Vita Is Celebrated as the ‘Kongolese Joan of Arc’

November 9, 2026

Top view of a crocodile in Gatun Lake, next to the Panama Canal, on March 23, 2015

At the Smithsonian

The Panama Canal Has an Unusual Ecosystem, Flowing From Fresh Water to Salt Water and Serving as a Home to Crocodiles, Manatees and Sea Squirts. New Intruders Pose a Growing Threat to the Waterway

November 9, 2026

Children of a refugee family from East Germany crowd close to get a better view of the food in a CARE package they received soon after they arrived in West Berlin in 1956

At the Smithsonian

CARE Packages Provided a Lifeline for World War II Survivors. Here’s How the Group Turned Leftover Army Rations Into an 80-Year Legacy

November 6, 2026

Protesters occupied the Department of Health, Education and Welfare's regional offices in San Francisco for 26 days in 1977.

History

The Real Story Behind the 504 Sit-In for Disability Rights, the Longest Peaceful Occupation of a Federal Building in American History

November 6, 2026

Uncovering the past. Understanding the present. Informing the future.

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November 2026

History The Mighty Metropolis of the Maya

Diane and Arlen Chase have spent a good portion of their lives uncovering the once-great city of Caracol. Their groundbreaking research is rewriting everything we thought we knew about the Maya

OPENER Thomas Jefferson Illustration by Chloe Niclas

At the Smithsonian Untangling an American Mystery

A lock of hair, advances in genetic science and a community of descendants all contributed to solving an American mystery

Arts & Culture The Skywatchers

Researchers study paintings and literature to uncover untold history of the works, sometimes finding themselves trying to discern celestial bodies from dust

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Smart News

While Cleaning Out Her Aunt’s Manhattan Apartment, a Woman Found a Long-Lost Georgia O’Keeffe Painting Buried Beneath Fur Coats in the Closet

Smart News

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Has Accumulated So Many Microplastics They Might Be Changing the Color of the Ocean

History

This African Prophet Was Burned at the Stake 320 Years Ago. Today, Kimpa Vita Is Celebrated as the ‘Kongolese Joan of Arc’

At the Smithsonian

The Panama Canal Has an Unusual Ecosystem, Flowing From Fresh Water to Salt Water and Serving as a Home to Crocodiles, Manatees and Sea Squirts. New Intruders Pose a Growing Threat to the Waterway

Smart News

Where Did Stonehenge’s Mysterious, Six-Ton Altar Stone Really Come From? Geologists Rule Out the Scottish Hypothesis as the Search Deepens

Special Report

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

A Smithsonian magazine special issue in celebration of the nation's 250th

View Full Report

Featured Stories

Arts & Culture

Georgia O’Keeffe Ignored Advice to Mimic Great European Masters. Her Goal Instead Was to Be a Great American Painter

O’Keeffe’s New Mexico studio Ghost Ranch. Opposite, a 1918 photo portrait by future husband Alfred Stieglitz.

History

Born in 1810, Margaret Fuller Was Labeled a Child Prodigy. She Later Used Her Intellect to Ask Important Questions About Women’s Role in America

A portrait of Fuller, inspired by her 1845 Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which argued for equality of the sexes. The book’s opening illustration featured mystical symbols of harmonizing opposites, including the Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail.

History

The American Revolution’s Overlooked Influence? Physics. How ‘Common Sense’ Spelled Out Astronomical Expectations for a New Nation

After Isaac Newton, above, revolutionized celestial mechanics, admirers such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Paine, left, saw in Newton’s natural laws a model for democratic self-government.

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Vietnam War Memorial

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Smithsonian Podcast: There’s More to That

Smithsonian magazine covers history, science and culture in the way only it can — through a lens on the world that is insightful and grounded in richly reported stories. In There’s More to That, meet the magazine’s journalists and hear how they discover the forces behind the biggest issues of our time.

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The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

April 23, 2026 | 34 minutes

A Photographer’s Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

April 9, 2026 | 32 minutes

The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

March 26, 2026 | 31 minutes

Venomous Snakes Represent a Serious Public Health Problem. Scientists Are Biting Back With a Groundbreaking Antidote

March 12, 2026 | 28 minutes

History

This African Prophet Was Burned at the Stake 320 Years Ago. Today, Kimpa Vita Is Celebrated as the ‘Kongolese Joan of Arc’

Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita believed herself to be possessed by the spirit of St. Anthony. The movement she led in the early 1700s promoted an Indigenous African form of the Christian faith

November 9, 2026

The Real Story Behind the 504 Sit-In for Disability Rights, the Longest Peaceful Occupation of a Federal Building in American History

November 6, 2026

Archaeologists in Scotland Discovered the Skeleton of a Roman-Era Man Who Was Decapitated Nearly 2,000 Years Ago. Now, You Can See What He Might Have Looked Like During His Lifetime

November 3, 2026

More History

Science

In Cretaceous Brazil, a prehistoric mammal the size of a cougar or a large dog left telltale tracks on sand dunes.

Fossil Footprints in Brazil Hint at a Cougar-Size Mammal That Walked Among Dinosaurs. It’s Another Sign That Some Early Beasts Grew to Impressive Sizes After All

Don’t think of all Mesozoic mammals as meek and tiny—alongside the terrible lizards, some were giants in their own right

November 6, 2026

The Four-Color Theorem Has Haunted Mathematicians for Decades. It Just Got a Rare New Proof, but Some Still Long for a Simpler Solution

November 4, 2026

The World’s Newest Carnivorous Plant Is a Red Sundew That ‘Death Hugs’ Its Insect Prey. Its Survival Depends on a Rare and Disappearing Florida Habitat

October 29, 2026

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Innovation

The user, if pregnant, will feel raised bumps on both sides of the flat lollipop—a reaction to hCG, a hormone that the body produces during pregnancy.

This Lollipop Could Help Blind Women Independently Detect Pregnancy

Design student Sneha Rao is developing Tact, an edible pregnancy test that allows people with vision impairment to feel its results on their tongues

October 6, 2026

The Humble History of the Bedpan

September 24, 2026

This Brain Implant Allows People With Paralysis to Speak and Gesture at the Same Time Via a Mind-Controlled Virtual Avatar

October 6, 2026

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Travel

“It’s a national treasure,” says Sara Brown Aicher, a retired U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist who spent 31 years at the refuge. “It is one of the last places like it.”

America’s Newest UNESCO World Heritage Site Is a Swamp—and That’s Exactly Why You Should Go

Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is one of the world’s rarest surviving wetland ecosystems. Its new global recognition reveals why protecting this landscape matters far beyond the American South

November 5, 2026

How an Irish Backroad Tradition Is Rolling Into Small-Town America

November 2, 2026

Greece Has Its Own Pompeii, and the Ruins Tell a Captivating Story of a Sophisticated, Seafaring Bronze Age Society

November 3, 2026

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Arts & Culture

Andy Warhol poses with his beloved dachshund Archie in November 1973.

From Hunting Hounds to Modernist Muses, Dachshunds Have Done It All. See the World’s First Art Exhibition Dedicated Exclusively to the Sausage Dog

A new exhibition in Germany traces how the low-slung breed captured the imaginations of artistic heavyweights like Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and David Hockney. The museum even lets well-behaved pups tour the galleries

November 3, 2026

For Over Four Years, the Hirshhorn Worked to Revitalize Its Sculpture Garden. Today, It’s Home to a ‘King and Queen,’ a ‘Wish Tree’ and a 55,000-Pound Vertical Swimming Pool Artwork

October 30, 2026

She Painted the First Known Self-Portrait of an Artist at Work—and Signed It—Nearly 500 Years Ago. Who Was Catharina van Hemessen?

October 21, 2026

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At the Smithsonian

King and Queen, Henry Moore, bronze, 1952-1953

For Over Four Years, the Hirshhorn Worked to Revitalize Its Sculpture Garden. Today, It’s Home to a ‘King and Queen,’ a ‘Wish Tree’ and a 55,000-Pound Vertical Swimming Pool Artwork

Newly refreshed by Japanese artist-architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, the sunken garden welcomes National Mall visitors with bronze masterpieces, contemporary stunners and a stage set for creative performances

October 30, 2026

What Can Space Offer Humanity? In Pursuit of the Answer, Astronauts Have Been Making a Home in Microgravity for Decades

October 30, 2026

At the Bodega, Customers Can Get Pork Rinds, Plantains and Just About Anything They Need. Here’s How These Stores Became a ‘Community Anchor’ of Latino Life

October 15, 2026

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