From the Collections

“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

The meat-eating predator Ceratosaurus tried to take down Stegosaurus, but the plant-eater got away and gained the upper hand.

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

Meet the Dinos of ‘Deep Time’

Of the 700 specimens that roam the Smithsonian’s new Hall of Fossils, these six standout dinosaurs make a big impression

Dermacentor marginatus, female, on stomach and on back

More Than One Million Ticks Make Up This Cringe-Worthy Collection in Georgia

The U.S. National Tick Collection is the largest continuously curated collection of ticks in the world

The Smithsonian has completed its multi-year conservation project of the Neil Armstrong spacesuit, digitizing the historic Apollo artifact so that soon authentically realized duplicates can be downloaded for study and appreciation.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

In Celebration of 50 Years Since the Moon Landing, Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit Set to Return to Public View

Duplicates of the 3D scanned historic Apollo artifact will also tour Major League ballparks this summer

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

Marion Donovan demonstrates the "Boater," around 1950.

Meet Marion Donovan, the Mother Who Invented a Precursor to the Disposable Diaper

The prolific inventor with 20 patents to her name developed the "Boater," a reusable, waterproof diaper cover in the late 1940s

Francis Rogallo (above, in 1959 in a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia) along with his wife Gertrude, originally conceived of their paraglider in the mid-1940s to make aviation more practical and economically available to more aviators.

The Paraglider That NASA Could Have Used, but Didn't, to Bring Astronauts Back to Earth

Francis Rogallo's invention would have brought returning space vehicles in for a runway landing, instead of an ocean splashdown

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

Julie Packard (detail) by Hope Gangloff

Women Who Shaped History

Fishes Were Julie Packard’s Wishes for Her New Smithsonian Portrait

National Portrait Gallery unveils a painting honoring the renowned ocean conservationist and director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Italian poster was created for Lamarr's 1946 World War II film, I Conspiratori (The Conspirators). Her image reflects the allure that led to her being called the “most beautiful woman in the world.”

Ingenious Women

Thank This World War II-Era Film Star for Your Wi-Fi

As the National Portrait Gallery acquires a film poster of Hedy Lamarr, it’s worth reflecting on her double life as an actress and a pioneering inventor

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Smithsonian Voices

Works of Pioneering Photographer Constance Stuart Larrabee to Be Digitized

The work of Constance Stuart Larrabee, a pioneering photographer, will soon be digitized

Jennifer Levasseur from the National Air and Space Museum notes that the museum’s supply of popular astronaut foods is less comprehensive than its collection of rejects. “We only get what they didn’t eat (above: Apollo 17's spiced fruit cereal is now in the collections)."

Rita Rapp Fed America’s Space Travelers

NASA’s food packages now in the collections of the Air and Space Museum tell the story of how a physiologist brought better eating to outer space

The Emily Howland photo album containing the portrait of Tubman, (above: detail, ca. 1868) was unveiled this week at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

A Previously Unknown Portrait of a Young Harriet Tubman Goes on View

"I was stunned," says director Lonnie Bunch; historic Emily Howland photo album contains dozens of other abolitionists and leaders who took an active role

Queen Liliʻuokalani (above in Honolulu in 1917) “was one of the most successful composers . . . so much so that her repertoire remains at the forefront of those performed by Hawaiian musicians today,” says the Smithsonian's John Troutman

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How the Music of Hawaiʻi’s Last Ruler Guided the Island’s People Through Crisis

A prolific composer, Queen Liliʻuokalani created some of the most popular Hawaiian tunes and compositions of all time

A portrait (detail, above) of Mary Church Terrell, a prominent D.C. activist and suffragist. The image is just one of dozens of turn-of-the-century photographs featured in "Pictures with Purpose"

For Turn-of-the-Century African-Americans, the Camera Was a Tool for Empowerment

A new installment in the Smithsonian's “Double Exposure” photo book series depicts black Americans championing their lives through photography

Keepers suspect that the mother might already be pregnant with a second.

Is That Wallaby Sprouting a Second Head?

Last week, the first baby wallaby to be born at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in three decades poked its head out of its mother’s pouch

On the lid of the two-ounce can of Madam C. J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower, her top-selling product, appears an African-American woman with thick, flowing hair. That woman was Walker herself.

Ingenious Women

How Business Executive Madam C. J. Walker Became a Powerful Influencer of the Early 20th Century

A tin of hair conditioner in the Smithsonian collections reveals a story of the entrepreneurial and philanthropic success of a former washerwoman

In a feat of surgical skill, Denton Cooley attached the temporary artificial heart device in only 47 minutes.

The Rivalry Between Two Doctors to Implant the First Artificial Heart

Featuring titans of Texas medicine, the race was on to develop the cutting-edge technology

Gladys Bentley’s powerful voice, fiery energy on the piano and bold lyrics made her a star of New York City nightclubs.

Women Who Shaped History

The Great Blues Singer Gladys Bentley Broke All the Rules

For the Smithsonian’s Sidedoor podcast, host Haleema Shah tells the story of an unapologetically gay African-American performer in 1920s and 30s

Margaret Hamilton stands next to a stack of program listings from the Apollo Guidance Computer in a photograph taken in 1969.

Women Who Shaped History

Margaret Hamilton Led the NASA Software Team That Landed Astronauts on the Moon

Apollo’s successful computing software was optimized to deal with unknown problems and to interrupt one task to take on a more important one

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