Arts & Culture

Sonny Assu Uses Graffiti to Reassert Native Culture

The 41-year-old artist mashes decades-old depictions of indigenous peoples with modern-day style

Caedmon’s lofty slogan was “A third dimension for the printed page.”

The Christmas Tale Spoken Record That Launched the Audiobook

Narrated by Dylan Thomas, the album would go on to sell 400,000 copies

Today, the Marsh Collection is treasured for its inherent cultural value as well as its connection to the debates that framed the Smithsonian.

American Culture’s Unlikely Debt to a British Scientist

A fortuitous influx of cash launched the Smithsonian Institution and its earliest art collection

Activists picketing at a demonstration for housing equality while uniformed American Nazi Party members counterprotest in the background with signs displaying anti-integration slogans and racist epithets.

This Photo Book Is a Reminder That the Civil Rights Movement Extended Far Beyond the Deep South

Public historian Mark Speltz's new book is full of images that aren't typically part of the 1960s narrative

Legacy is scheduled to be on display at the Ontario Science Centre beginning in 2017 before embarking on an international tour.

Art Meets Science

This Whale Sculpture Was Modeled After a Beached Orca

Canadian artist Ken Hall built <em>Legacy</em> based on 3D scans of the skeleton of Hope, an orca that died on the coast of Washington in 2002

"I try to go into the personal stuff because I really believe that’s the most universal," says Aziz Ansari.

American Ingenuity Awards

With "Master of None," Aziz Ansari Has Created a True American Original

The star of the breakout television series brings the voice of his generation to the masses

OK Go for launch: Andy Ross, Tim Nordwind, Damian Kulash Jr. and Dan Konopka

American Ingenuity Awards

How OK Go Has Revolutionized the Music Video

To pull off one of their most daring videos, they needed a borrowed Russian transport jet, spreadsheets and calculus, and a lot of motion-sickness medicine

The EcoHelmet is a foldable, recyclable helmet constructed of paper with a water-resistant coating.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Folded Paper Fans Out Into a Full-Size Bike Helmet

The EcoHelmet, this year's James Dyson Award winner, could be used by bike shares across the world

Author Steven Johnson looks at many of history's "artifacts of the future" that hinted at huge technological, scientific and cultural breakthroughs to come in his new book, Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

If Necessity Is the Mother of Invention, Then Play Is Its Father

In a new book, Steven Johnson argues that many inventions, considered mindless amusements in their time, wind up leading to serious innovations later

A forest grows in miniature at Metrotech Commons in Brooklyn for Spencer Finch’s “Lost Man Creek."

Art Meets Science

A Miniature Living Redwood Forest Springs Up In Brooklyn

Artist Spencer Finch explores landscape by building a tiny, scale replica of a California grove

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

A Photojournalist Captures Dramatic Portraits of Dancers in the Streets of Cuba

For Gabriel Davalos, photography is about storytelling

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Lime Marinade, Cohiba Cigar Cases and Other Unique Gifts You Can Buy in Cuba

Korda captured this iconic image of the Cuban revolutionary by chance.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

The Story Behind Che's Iconic Photo

Fashion photographer Alberto Korda took Che Guevara's pictures hundreds of times in the 1960s. One stuck

Ian Marcos Gutiérrez, a 23-year-old printer at the Taller Experimental de Gráfica, in Havana, helps the author prepare a block of lithographic limestone for printing.

Step Inside Cuba's Oldest Printmaking Studio

At the Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Havana, process is everything

Three Taíno Indian sisters pose during a family pig roast in eastern Cuba, where there’s a small but growing movement to explore the indigenous culture that Columbus encountered in 1492.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Searching for Cuba's Pre-Columbian Roots

A newfound quest for identity has led some Cubans to reclaim their Taíno Indian heritage

The Story of How McDonald’s First Got Its Start

From the orange groves of California, two brothers sought a fortune selling burgers

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

A Brief History of the Rumba

Born out of slavery in 19th-century Cuba, the lively music and dance form takes many shapes

The Ilban people of East Borneo captured these six warrior skulls in a single battle. They tossed the heads into a fire pit to cure and then wrapped them in vines to suspend their prize from the rafters of the community longhouse.

Explore Haunting Relics of Death With New Photography Book

Placenta-wiping fetuses are only the tip of the frightberg

With some seed money from her grandparents, Alina Morse started her very own business.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Meet the 11-Year-Old Who Invented a Healthy Lollipop

Made with plant-derived sugar alternatives, Alina Morse's Zollipops help reduce the risk of cavities

Freeman Fisher Gosden and Charles Correll, c. 1935 (detail), as "Amos and Andy"

Commentary

The Long, Unfortunate History of Racial Parody in America

Art historian Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw discusses the painful performative origins

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