CURRENT ISSUE

November 2011

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine image Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine mobile image

Features

La Dea statue

A Goddess Goes Home

A statue's journey from Sicily to the United States and back again illuminates the ethical pitfalls of acquiring antiquities

Francesco Rutelli

Acquisition Guidelines

George Catlin Niagara Falls

Go With the Flow

A new exhibition of 19th-century wonders underscores the debt America owes to a single resource: water

Christians and Muslims in Cairo

Aftershocks

The toppling of Egypt's government has led to a renewal of violence against the nation's Christian minority

Black rhino in Kenya

Defending the Rhino

As demand for rhino horn soars, police and conservationists in South Africa pit high technology against increasingly sophisticated poachers

Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower

Shanghai Gets Supersized

China's leaders once vowed to make the city the "Head of the Dragon" of new wealth. That projection now seems like an understatement

International Potato Center

The Eyes Have It

The lowly potato fed Europe's exploding population and gave rise to modern industrial agriculture. A new best seller dishes the dirt on the tuber that changed the world

Departments

From the Editor

Comings and Goings

To every thing there is a season

Letters

Letters

Readers Respond to the September Issue

Wild Things: Feathered dinosaurs, king crabs and spotted hyenas

Traveling snails, brainwashed rats and more updates from the world of wildlife

Indelible Images

The Man Behind the Mask

Ralph Eugene Meatyard had a strange way of getting his subjects to reveal themselves

My Kind of Town

Plains Speaking

A New Yorker gets a new perspective on the prarie

This Month in History

November Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

The Civil War

Flare-Ups - November 1861

As generals come and go, tempers and fields burn

From the Castle

Simple Pleasures

Around the Mall

Matchmakers

At the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, conservationists explore ways to encourage endangered whooping cranes to make whoopee

The Object at Hand

Swan Song

The final flight of a World War II biplane evokes the exploits of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen

Q&A

Q&A: Diosa Costello

The first Latina on Broadway dishes on her career and how she got her breakout role in South Pacific

What's Up

What's Up

The Last Page

Guess Who Came to Dinner

A table for one can be the best seat in the house