CURRENT ISSUE
January/February 2024
Features
Tracing a Lost Ancestry
For millions of enslaved people, bondage stole more than freedom—it severed a link to the past. Now their descendants are finding new ways to recover their heritage
Homecoming
Ada Anagho Brown connects African Americans with the lands and cultures their forebears were forced to leave behind
Civil War History, Reframed
A bold new photographic project celebrates Black heroes of the conflict that transformed the nation
Origin Stories
In Charleston, South Carolina, members of the local Black community are teaming up with scientists to produce a novel study of the trans-Atlantic slave trade
The Leatherback Guardians
In Panama, conservationists are tracking endangered turtles—and fighting for their legal rights
No Place Like Home
Now in self-imposed exile in Portugal, Artist Ai Weiwei is constructing a massive edifice that captures his earliest ambitions—and his love for the country he can’t return to yet can’t seem to forget
Running Mates
As giraffe populations plummet across Africa, scientists have designed an ingenious method to study and protect them
Under the Surface
At crime scenes around the world, the forensic entomologist Paola Magni is taking the study of bugs into uncharted waters
Departments
Robert S. Duncanson and James P. Ball Were the Height of Black Artistry in 19th-Century America
A new exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum reunites the work of two titans of their fields
Discussion
Your feedback on robot artists, marsupial frogs and abolitionist icons
Command Center
The general's war tent, an iconic part of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, carries as much symbolism now as it did then
A Feast for the Senses
A sumptuous new exhibition of Islamic art aims to leave museumgoers hungry for more
A Whole New Music
In the most American recording in history, one of our greatest jazzmen raised the stakes for everyone who came after
Second Nature
A new generation is discovering the rambling Southern route of the country’s first great environmentalist
Making a Racket
How an obscure paddle sport became king of the court
Heads Up!
How an eye-popping museum specimen boosted the beleaguered blue whale
The Writing on the Wall
With help from a now-extinct bear, archaeologists have unlocked the mysteries of Spain’s Cova Dones
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