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At the Smithsonian / Curators' Corner

The Reverend Jesse Jackson attends an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Jesse Jackson Witnessed Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassination. Here’s How He Carried the Torch for the Civil Rights Movement Into the Future

He emerged as a leader in the 1960s and championed unity among marginalized groups across the U.S.

This vase, made by Salviati & Company around 1960, shows how well Murano glass accommodated itself to modernism. To create the concentric colors, the glassmakers used successive layers of molten glass—first purple, then blue, then clear. The staggered color effect emphasizes and echoes the gourd-like shape of the whole.

Just as the Italian Art of Glassblowing Was on the Verge of Shattering, a Talented Craftsman in Murano Emerged to Revive It

Antonio Salviati opened his glass factory in 1859 to help restore a local landmark to its former glory. A vase at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum tells its story

Emerson was among the leaders of the transcendental movement in Boston.

This 1837 Harvard Speech by Ralph Waldo Emerson Inspired a Generation of American Writers to Declare Their Independence From ‘the Courtly Muses of Europe’

His address advocated for scholars of the young United States to be less “timid,” “imitative” and “tame”

Valborg “Mama” Gravander baking her signature cookies with neighbor children

For This Prize-Winning Swedish Weaver in California, Craft Was Intertwined With Culture—and Cookies

Valborg “Mama” Gravander helped build a community based on her heritage and skill. A piece of her legacy is now on display at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery

A view of the Absolute Equality Mural celebrating Juneteenth, located on Galveston’s Strand Street

See the Birthplace of Juneteenth in These Atmospheric Photos of Galveston, Texas

A photographer’s journey to the Gulf Coast city yields 16 images that reveal how its natural beauty melds with its momentous role in Black history

A portion of the Caribbean Sea washes ashore in Kingston, Jamaica

Discover the Dreamy Beauty of Jamaica’s Beaches, Mountains and Plant Life in These Captivating Pictures

A photographer’s trip to the island yields images that showcase its stunning terrain and vibrant culture

In 1947 New Jersey, leaders of the New York-based YIVO open crates of salvaged artifacts from Europe.

These Irreplaceable Yiddish Artifacts Would Have Been Lost to History If They Weren’t Evacuated to New York After World War II

The founding of a research institute 100 years ago has helped to provide insight on Yiddish culture in the United States and around the world

The upper portion of a statue depicting Martin Luther King Jr. at MacGregor Park in Houston on November 28, 2024

These 15 Photos Show the People and Places of American Streets Named After Martin Luther King Jr.

On a journey to six cities across the country over the course of seven years, a photographer captured images of the roads that bear the civil rights leader’s name

James Earl Carter, Jr. by Robert Clark Templeton, 1980

The Lasting Legacy of Jimmy Carter, Dead at 100

Smithsonian curators remember and honor the 39th president’s uncompromising idealism

Pages from the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski

The Discovery of a Jewish Teenager’s Holocaust Diary Reveals How Songs, Jokes and Stories Served as Cultural Resistance

Yitskhok Rudashevski documented his life while hiding from Nazis, as well as folklore told in his community that “must be collected and preserved as a treasure for the future”

Queen Victoria at the Drury Lane Theatre, Edmund Thomas Parris, 1837

How an Engraving of Queen Victoria Ushered in the Era of the Bouquet Holder in England

The monarch set fashion trends during her time, and the flower holder became a sought-after accessory in Victorian society

The laptop that belonged to Chris Janczewski, former IRS-CI agent

A Federal Agent’s Laptop Held the Keys to Seize $3.6 Billion in Stolen Bitcoin. Here’s How It Ended Up at the Smithsonian

Soon to be on display at the National Museum of American History, the laptop is the centerpiece of a criminal case that shows an evolving understanding of cryptocurrency

Tiana's Bayou Adventure is now open to the public.

What the Changes to Splash Mountain, Now Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Reveal About How Americans See Themselves

Originally based on themes from the 1946 film “Song of the South,” the Disney World attraction debuted in Florida in June. The Disneyland version will be unveiled in California later this year

Gilbert Stuart painted the famous Lansdowne portrait of George Washington. 

Before Andy Warhol Set His Eyes on Marilyn and Prince, There Was Gilbert Stuart and George Washington

Two court cases over 200 years apart reflect what happens when commercial and artistic interests meet

Piles of coal sit in front of a power plant in Utah. Such coal-fired power plants emit greenhouse gases that drive climate change.

What Myths About the Anthropocene Get Wrong

These ten misconceptions underplay how much we have altered the global environment and undermine the new perspective we need to deal with a drastically changed world

Approaching a total eclipse in Queensland, Australia, November 2012

What Indigenous Cultures From Around the World Believe About Eclipses

A Smithsonian folklorist looks back and finds stories that explain how a darkening of daytime skies provokes a foreboding of evil

Hand washing is one of the simplest ways to prevent disease transmission.

The Dirty Secret About How Our Hands Spread Disease

The human hand is an incredible tool—and a deadly threat

A 1942 Memorial Day service at Manzanar, a Japanese American incarceration camp in California

How a 1924 Immigration Act Laid the Groundwork for Japanese American Incarceration

A Smithsonian curator and a historian discuss the links between the Johnson-Reed Act and Executive Order 9066, which rounded up 120,000 Japanese Americans in camps across the Western U.S.

An artist's depiction of a person carving a pendant from bones of a giant sloth roughly 25,000 to 27,000 years ago. Research this year suggested humans and the sloths lived in Brazil at the same time, strengthening evidence that our ancestors populated the Americas earlier than thought.

Thirteen Discoveries Made About Human Evolution in 2023

Smithsonian paleoanthropologists reveal some of the year’s most fascinating findings about human origins

The "1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions" exhibition is on display at the National Portrait Gallery through February 25, 2024.

How the War of 1898 Changed History Forever—in the United States and Beyond

When the nascent naval power invaded Puerto Rico, three artists captured the moment, each explaining its significance in their own way

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