Arts & Culture

“In order to interpret the past," says Matternes (above), "you have to have a pretty good working knowledge of conditions in the present.”

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

Meet the Master Muralist Who Inspired Today's Generation of Paleoartists

The treasured Jay Matternes murals of lost Mesozoic worlds are featured in a new Smithsonian book

"Ray's Rock" on Omaha Beach, where medic Ray Lambert was part of the first wave during D-Day

One of the Few Surviving Heroes of D-Day Shares His Story

Army medic Ray Lambert, now 98, landed with the first assault wave on Omaha Beach. Seventy-five years later, he could be the last man standing

Curious sculptures have popped up throughout the Smithsonian campus in its gardens and are meant to show the inner-workings and relationships of insect and plant habitats.

The Gardens Around the National Mall Are Growing Giant Nests and Fanciful Tunnels

The new exhibition “Habitat” is a whimsical, art-filled lesson on ecosystems and how they work

Industrial designer Raymond Loewy influenced a number of brands.

Meet the Product Designer Who Made Mid-Century America Look Clean and Stylish

From refrigerators to cars to Air Force One, Raymond Loewy's distinctive "cleanlining" sold products

Anirudh Sharma and his team have developed a device that can capture air pollution at its source; once collected, they turn the soot into ink.

This Ink Is Made From Air Pollution

About 45 minutes of diesel car pollution reaps 30 milliliters of AIR-INK, now on display at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

S.T.A.R. (2012) by Tuesday Smillie. Watercolor collage on board.

LGBTQ+ Pride

New Brooklyn Museum Exhibit Explores the Cultural Memory of Stonewall

Artists born after the galvanizing moment in gay rights history, which took place 50 years ago, present their interpretations

Blue Hole Regional Park, just south of Austin, Texas, is sought after for its canopy of bald cypress trees and its two rope swings.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

The Sublime Sensation of the Swimming Hole

Kick off your shoes and jump into summer's most refreshing tradition on a lazy afternoon

“As the times have become increasingly more political, people have begun projecting more politicalness into the work,” notes artist Jeffrey Gibson, who is a featured artist this week at the National Portrait Gallery's "Identify" program.

Artist Jeffrey Gibson’s Artwork Activates Overlooked Histories and Marginalized Identities

The National Portrait Gallery’s “Identify” performance showcases the multimedia artist’s masterful 50-person drumming event

P-R-Z-E-... aw, forget it. P-horse!

Didn't Make the National Spelling Bee? Play the Smithsonian Spelling Bee

We present a list of some of the toughest words to spell, pulled straight from the collections

Sensing threads prepared with bromothymol blue (top thread), methyl red (middle thread) and MnTPP (bottom thread) are exposed to ammonia at 0 ppm (left panel) 50 ppm (middle panel) and 1000 ppm (right panel).

Clothing May Soon Be Able to Change Color in the Presence of Harmful Gases

Tufts University engineers have developed dyed threads that change hues when exposed to carbon monoxide and other hazards

The original Mary Sue

Pop History

The Women Who Coined the Term 'Mary Sue'

The trope they named in a 'Star Trek' fan zine in 1973 continues to resonate in 2019

The museum worked with San Francisco ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners to feed hundreds of news interviews, quotes from Dalí's autobiography and other written works, and archival video footage into an artificial intelligence system to recreate the artist.

With a Little Help From A.I., the Dali Museum Brings the Famed Surrealist to Life

Visitors to the museum in St. Petersburg, Florida can meet Salvador Dalí “in person”

Tony Cragg is just one of the many celebrated artists whose work can be viewed at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England.

Six of the World’s Most Spectacular Sculpture Parks

From New York to Norway, these galleries without walls all debut new exhibitions this spring and summer

At nearly 91, Dr. Ruth is still committed to the cause

Women Who Shaped History

Dr. Ruth Changed the Way America Talked About Sex

A new documentary chronicles the revolution Ruth Westheimer brought to the air

The Awakening, February 20, 1915 Chromolithograph

Nine Women’s History Exhibits to See This Year

Museums around the country are celebrating how the contributions of remarkable women changed everything from human rights to mariachi music

"My job as an artist is to inspire and heal," he says. "Around the election, my listeners were so distraught and I was distressed, too... so I felt compelled to create a piece of music ["Marigolds"] that would heal and educate."

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Kishi Bashi on Turning Hard History Into Memorable Music

Plus, listen to an exclusive debut of 'Marigolds' off his new album, 'Omoiyari'

Jaume Plensa, Behind the Walls, 2019, presented by Richard Gray Gallery and Galerie Lelong, Frieze Sculpture at Rockefeller Center, New York 2019

The Striking New Artworks That Follow Rockefeller Center's Grand Tradition of Public Art

Frieze Sculpture, on view for just two months, sparks a conversation between works created more than 80 years apart

The Impossible Whopper signals the growing market for meatless meat

Pop History

We're Entering a New Age of Meatless Meat Today. But We've Been Here Before

At the turn of the 20th century, the first mock meat craze swept the nation

In 1904, Joseph Kekuku, inventor of the Hawaiian steel guitar, left Hawaii to perform on the American West Coast. Newspaper critics called him the “world’s greatest guitar soloist.”

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed American Music

The season finale of Sidedoor tells the story of an indigenous Hawaiian instrument with a familiar sound and unexpected influences

One of Brigham Young University engineering professor Larry Howell's initial origami projects was a solar array that compacted to 9 feet during launch, but deployed to 82 feet across in space to generate power.

How Origami Is Revolutionizing Industrial Design

Scientists and engineers are finding practical applications for the Japanese art form in space, medicine, robotics, architecture and more

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