Magazine

To recreate the face of a pregnant Egyptian woman, Hew Morrison first digitally mapped her skull, then added muscles and soft tissues—and, finally, the most subjective element: the eyes.

Art Meets Science

How One Forensic Artist Brings the Dead to Life

Using DNA analysis and historic records, his work allows us to look ancient humans in the eye

Designed in 1906, Glenn Curtiss' first V-8 motorcycle required a longer, sturdier frame than any previous bike to support the massive weight of the engine.

A Century Ago, Glenn Curtiss Was the 'Fastest Man on Earth'

Before he changed aviation forever, the daredevil achieved an unparalleled speed record on land

Primary image: Sleeping Quarters, by Czech Jewish prisoner Bedřich Fritta, depicts gruesome conditions. After the SS discovered Fritta’s work, they detained him and sent him to Auschwitz, where he died. Background (detail): A musical score by Viktor Ullmann, which was created at Terezin.

Amid the Horrors of the Holocaust, Jewish Musicians Composed Songs of Survival

At the Terezin concentration camp, some of Europe's top artists found solace in creating new work. Today one musician is determined to give them an encore

None

Readers Respond to the June 2023 Issue

Your feedback on fireflies, Caribbean artisans and more

None

How Graffiti Left a Mark on the Art Scene

Hip-hop’s street artists created a splashy new genre that burst into galleries and museums

Big Boi in between verses at Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta on September 10, 2016.

A Rap Legend Looks Back on 50 Years of Hip-Hop

Outkast’s Big Boi traces the genre’s indelible impact on global music and culture

The artist’s rendering of the USS Indianapolis. Smith often draws highly detailed features, such as the guns, separately and only later places them onto the larger work.

A Veteran’s Artistic Tribute to Naval Might and Sacrifice

JD Smith has dedicated himself to creating incredibly detailed and historically accurate renderings of warships that fought in World War II

Unfinished pencils at the Musgrave plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee—“The Pencil City.”

See Inside One of America’s Last Pencil Factories

The family-owned facility in Tennessee produces more than 70 million pencils annually

Why do chickens have wings if they can’t use them to fly?

Why Are Chickens So Bad at Flying? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

GUN SITE Gun Site was constructed on the former Anchor Ranch, a 320-acre property to the west of the main research site. The area had a flat, empty space where scientists studied projectiles and ballistics. Its main drawback was its proximity to a road, but efforts to blockade traffic during tests were largely successful.

An Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Los Alamos Lab Where J. Robert Oppenheimer Created the Atomic Bomb

In never-before-seen photographs, explore the secret U.S. facility and home to the Manhattan Project scientists who developed the first nuclear weapon

Robert W. Bowles of Long Island competes at the first Sunfish World Championship in the U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1970. Bowles placed ninth that year. 

How the Most Popular Sailboat Ever Was Invented

The Sunfish taught millions of Americans to seize the breeze

Though stationary, fibers of different colors and textures are combined in ways that suggest water or air in motion and subject to the whims of turbulence.

Material Wealth

The Deep Cultural Significance of the Art of Felt

A river of fabric? Janice Arnold’s installations, inspired by the people of Central Asia, go to great lengths to evoke wonder

Fiber-weaving expert Marques Hanalei Marzan.

Material Wealth

This Hawaiian Artist Weaves Contemporary Style With Ancient Tradition

Fiber artist Marques Hanalei Marzan carries on the artistic customs of his ancestors

Bisa Butler selects fabrics that symbolically honor and protect her subjects.

Material Wealth

The Genius Behind Bisa Butler's Vibrant Quilts

The renowned artist's exuberant portraits celebrate Black history and take the form to a new level

Left to right, Butler’s larger-than-life fabric depictions are inspired by African American stories she’s compelled to share. Marzan links fibers from plants indigenous to Hawaii and other Pacific islands into astonishing shapes. Arnold builds on thousands of years of felt-making in creations that allude to community and nature, such as a flowing river.

Material Wealth

Meet the Artists Reinventing American Fiber Art

These innovative creators are quilting, weaving and felting dramatic pieces that bring American fiber arts to unexplored heights

A bandicoot uses its nose to sniff out subterranean insects, leaving behind shallow holes known as “snout pokes.”

The Unlikely Survival Story of Australia's Bandicoots

The defenseless marsupial was nearly wiped out by invasive species. Now rescuers are pinning hopes on a remnant island population

George Washington used the light of this brass candle stand while laboring over his farewell address in 1796.

How George Washington Wrote His Farewell Address

A candle stand used by the first president illuminates his extraordinary last days in office

A 1658 map of Iceland, reprinted from Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, includes a sea monster known for catching its fish through cunning.

What Medieval Manuscripts Reveal About the Hidden History of Whales

A clever cetacean feeding trick may have launched a legend

Sunrise near the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie. Cather “made the outside world know Nebraska as no one else has done,” Sinclair Lewis once said.

Women Who Shaped History

Explore the World of Willa Cather in Her Nebraska Hometown

Maybe the author of “O Pioneers!” is no longer the height of literary chic. But a century later she’s still a superstar in her small prairie community

Paula Rego drew inspiration for her triptych Crivelli’s Garden (top) from a 1490s altarpiece, La Madonna della Rondine (above), by Carlo Crivelli. She said of her fanciful, figure-packed work: “The whole thing is full of stories, it’s just story after story after story.”

The Inspiration Behind a Monumental Display of Biblical Women

An artist conjures a whimsical new version of a magnificent 15th-century mural

Page 9 of 84