Articles

Every mark in Robert McCurdy’s portraits, above: Untitled (The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso), is meticulously rendered from the baby hairs that frame his subjects’ temples to the crow’s feet that border their eyes.

Why Robert McCurdy's Photo-Realist Portraits Stop Viewers in Their Tracks

The key to these singular portraits of influential leaders of our time rests in the gaze and the exacting details of the clothing

Researchers are hoping to track the conditions lobsters experience as they travel through the supply chain with an eye to reducing the number that die along the way.

A New Device Tracks Lobsters as They Move Through the Supply Chain

Researchers hope the technology can be used to reduce the number of the crustaceans that die along the way

The depiction of corsets in the premiere episode of "Bridgerton" is more of the same mythmaking from popular culture.

Based on a True Story

What 'Bridgerton' Gets Wrong About Corsets

Women's rights were severely restricted in 19th-century England, but their undergarments weren't to blame

After composing and transcribing music for my wedding day, Red Baraat was born. Dave Sharma leads the baraat (wedding procession) on dhol, as I walk with my mother, family, and friends. August 27, 2005.

Smithsonian Voices

Musician Sunny Jain Reflects on Jainism, Jazz and the Punjabi Dhol Drum

While the originations of the dhol are not known with complete certainty, what is known is that it is a sound that has migrated

(Top row) Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg, Barron Ryan, Arturo Elizondo, (middle row) Samantha Pratt, Gitanjali Rao, Anitra Belle Henderson, (bottom row) Kennyjie, Andrea Ponti and Brett Phaneuf

Innovation for Good

Ten Innovators to Watch in 2021

These visionaries are imagining an exciting future with chicken-less eggs, self-piloting ships and more

A Perseid meteor burns up against the night sky over Big Bend National Park.

Ten Celestial Events to Look Forward to in 2021

Eclipses, meteor showers and dazzling views of planets will excite amateur and professional astronomers alike in North America

The Aranui 5 is a passenger-freighter vessel that makes 14-day voyages between Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.

This Polynesian Cruise Ship Has a Resident Tattoo Artist

Sailing between Tahiti and the Marquesas, Eddy Tata provides passengers with Polynesian-style tattoos based on their life stories

From left: “Left Side Right Side” (still) by Joan Jonas, 1972. Alice Walker by Bernard Gotfryd. Louis Armstrong (detail) by Philippe Halsman.

Smithsonian Voices

Warm Up Your Winter With the National Portrait Gallery's Online Events

Visitors and families can enjoy all the museum has to offer from the comfort of their own homes

Still from the 1974 film Julie by Robert and Ingrid Wiegand

Women Who Shaped History

Women Artists Reflect on How They Helped Shape SoHo

A Smithsonian online event kicks off a new monthly series exploring the pioneering art films and videos made by women

Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell were the first and third women doctors in the United States.

Women Who Shaped History

The Way Americans Remember the Blackwell Sisters Shortchanges Their Legacy

Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell deserve to have their incredible stories told in full

North American species like the Colorado potato beetle and the fall armyworm have become invasive elsewhere.

Ask Smithsonian

Have Any North American Species Become Invasive Elsewhere in the World?

You've got question. We've got experts

The carriage that Ulysses S. Grant rode to his second inauguration is one of 900 items in the exhibition "The American Presidency."

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the Year Ahead for Museums

After a year fraught with challenges, we must build on our strengths for a common purpose

Ory in November 1945, during his comeback after working as a janitor.

Kid Ory Finally Gets the Encore He Deserves

The childhood home of the musician who put New Orleans jazz on the map will soon open to the public

At the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan, Alaska, Nathan Jackson wears ceremonial blankets and a headdress made from ermine pelts, cedar, abalone shell, copper and flicker feathers.

Alaska

How Native Artisans in Alaska Bring Innovation and Humor to Their Craft

In Indigenous communities along the coast, a lively artistic movement plays with tradition

Cotton coverlet quilted in Texas, 19th century.

Artisan America

The State of American Craft Has Never Been Stronger

Today’s craft renaissance is more than just an antidote to our over-automated world. It renews a way of life that made us who we are

By studying recent mass extinctions on islands like Hawaii, Dr. Helen James is painting a picture of bird biodiversity today. Her research involves digging up fossils in caves to study bygone species, like the Kioea.

Smithsonian Voices

Meet One of the Curators Behind the Smithsonian's 640,000 Birds

Helen James' work on avian extinction helps in understanding how bird species today respond to threats like human encroachment and environmental change

Smithsonian Associates Streaming presents "Mr. President: An Evening with Martin Sheen" on January 19.

Smithsonian Voices

An Evening With Martin Sheen and 24 Other Smithsonian Programs Streaming in January

Kick off the New Year with Smithsonian Associates' virtual multi-part courses, studio arts classes and study tours

A dung beetle rolls its meal in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa.

How Dung Beetles Roll Their Food in a Straight Line

As they craft their humble lives from piles of manure, the insects look to the skies for direction

Veteran food critic Florence Fabricant has called peanut butter “the pâté of childhood.”

A Brief History of Peanut Butter

The bizarre sanitarium staple that became a spreadable obsession

Hieroglyphs line the walls in a shrine to the goddess Hathor at Serabit el-Khadim.

Who Invented the Alphabet?

New scholarship points to a paradox of historic scope: Our writing system was devised by people who couldn’t read

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