CURRENT ISSUE

April 2002

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Features

Goya and His Women

An exhibition at Washington's National Gallery of Art takes a fresh look at one of Spain's most celebrated artists and the women he painted

Ping-Pong Diplomacy

Blending statecraft and sport, table tennis matches between American and Chinese athletes set the stage for Nixon's breakthrough with the People's Republic

Canadian biologist Pierre DAmours surveys rivers

Lost at Sea

What's killing the great Atlantic salmon?

Rising Sun

Opening this month on Alexandria's Mediterranean waterfront, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina reflects the spirit of its ancient forebear

The carcass of a cargo ship, already sheared of its forward structure, sits where it was parked on the beach at Chittagong, Bangladesh

Multiple Viewpoints

Photographer Edward Burtynsky's politically charged industrial landscapes are carefully crafted to elicit different interpretations

Joinery techniques in even the largest modern structures are similar to those used by Henry David Thoreau to build his simple cabin

Building to a Different Drummer

Today's timber frame revivalists are putting up everything from millionaire mansions to a replica of Thoreau's cabin

Lincoln's second inauguration speech

Absence of Malice

In a new book, Historian Ronald C. White, Jr., explains why Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, given just weeks before he died, was his greatest speech

Departments

From the Editor

Mail Call

You may have written to us. We may have even received it

From the Secretary

Cartwheels at 50

Indelible Images

Shades of Merriment

Robert Capa, famous for his battle photographs, made friends along the way

Smithsonian magazine
Points of Interest

Sweet Taste of Spring

The season's first sap makes the finest maple syrup— but not without some backbreaking labors of love

Chris Granstrom
The Object at Hand

It's a Wurlitzer

The giant of the musical instrument collection makes tunes— rootin '—tootin' or romantic

Mary K. Miller
Phenomena & Curiosities

Crystal Moonbeams

A pair of Mexican miners stumble upon a room filled with what could be the world's largest crystals

People File

A Model Son

Chesapeake Bay's maritime history comes alive in miniature wood carvings by a Maryland craftsman

Presence of Mind

Wittgenstein's Ghost

When two philosophers nearly came to blows, they defined a debate that rages a half century later

Taking Issue

Table Talk

A magazine should have the zest of a good dinner party

The Last Page

Changing Spots