CURRENT ISSUE

April 2003

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Features

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To Fly!

A new book traces the Wright brothers' triumph 100 years ago to an innovative design and meticulous attention to detail

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Fabricating Art

Laura Breitman fashions photo-realist collages out of whole cloth

mother bear with a tranquilizer dart shot from the helicopter

Bear Trouble

Only hundreds of miles from the North Pole, industrial chemicals threaten the Arctic's greatest predator

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Mr. Lincoln's Washington

The house where the conspirators hatched their heinous plot now serves sushi, and the yard where they were hanged is a tennis court

The Dance Class (La Classe de Danse), 1873–1876, oil on canvas, by Edgar Degas

Degas and His Dancers

A major exhibition and a new ballet bring the renowned artist's obsession with dance center stage

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Growing Up Maya Angelou

The famed writer discusses her childhood, her writing and the importance of family

Louisiana Purchase

Westward Ho!

When Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, he altered the shape of a nation and the course of history

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The Curse of Count Dracula

The prospect of a tourist bonanza from a Dracula theme park in Transylvania excites some Romanians, but opponents see only red

Departments

Phenomena & Curiosities

Bringing Up Baby

Scientists zero in on the caring and cunning ways of a seldom-seen waterbird

Indelible Images

Manhattan Bound

A new book of photographs by octogenarian Helen Levitt charts her amused view of an ever-evolving New York

Points of Interest

Hewed From History

In Charleston, South Carolina, shipwrights re-create a 19th-century schooner

The Object at Hand

Power Balls

Out of the park: signed balls soar into the stratosphere

Presence of Mind

The Stuff of Genes

Fifty years after the discovery of DNA's structure, the payoff hasn't matched the hype. But really, we've only just begun

Editor's Note

Exotic Climes

Going the extra mile for bears and bats

From the Secretary

Particulars of Context

There's art in the history at the Archives of American Art

This Month in History

April Anniversaries

Momentous or merely memorable

Books

Journal of the Plague Years

Two courageous pioneers showed how a fearsome scourge could be defeated

The Last Page

Playing by Ear

People say the darndest things. At least I think they do