The bizarre sanitarium staple that became a spreadable obsession
New scholarship points to a paradox of historic scope: Our writing system was devised by people who couldn’t read
Debunking the myth that the great national park was a wilderness untouched by humans
A legal battle brews over access to some of the world's largest human-made structures of their kind
Born enslaved, he was elected to Congress in the wake of the Civil War. But the impact of this momentous step in U.S. race relationships did not last long
From a Smithsonian show on first ladies to Mexican muralists, Rembrandt and the making of the Met, these were some of our favorite virtual experiences
Who speaks Latin these days? A surprisingly large number of people, thanks to the late friar, who died on Christmas Day at 81
From Anglo-Saxon artifacts to copper's antibacterial properties, systemic racism and murder hornets, these were the most-read stories of the year
Smithsonian’s archaeologist Ella Beaudoin and paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner reveal some of the year’s best findings in human origins studies
The museum mourns the passing December 21 of Hank Adams (Assiniboine–Sioux, 1943–2020)
This year's most intriguing discoveries include an Aztec skull tower, fossilized footprints and Nazi shipwrecks
How a once-raucous holiday became a time of childlike wonder and beribboned consumerism
This extraordinary year, we asked how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting people’s families and communities
A Smithsonian research fellow weighs in on the ways culture proves both vital and resilient
How did a misdialed phone number lead to a holiday tradition.
Smithsonian editors highlight some articles you might have missed from the past year
Expensive, heavy, non-functioning and a little scary looking, the doll created by America's hero-inventor was a commercial flop
Research shows that visitors often ignore information that conflicts with what they already believe about history
Only one is known to survive today and it is in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
The path to flight in modern birds was full of forks, twists and dead ends
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