Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Marilyn Monroe

Monroe in the 1952 film Don’t Bother to Knock

Marilyn Monroe Collections Assembled for Her 100th Birthday Cut Through Hollywood Glamour to Reveal the Star’s Human Side

A selection of the movie star’s clothing, jewelry and dark, personal letters will be auctioned for the big anniversary of her birth

Marilyn Monroe performs in front of service members in Korea in 1954.

On This Day in History

The Wartime Organization That Brought Hollywood Stars Like Marilyn Monroe and Nancy Sinatra to the Front Lines to Entertain the Troops

Established on this day in 1941, the United Service Organizations offers wholesome entertainment options to off-duty service members

Cher, Elton John and Diana Ross at Rock Awards Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (1975)

London Museum Celebrates the Diva—From Marilyn Monroe to Lizzo

An upcoming exhibition will explore how the label has been applied to performers throughout history

Andrew Dominik's Blonde doesn't purport to be historically accurate. Instead, like the Joyce Carol Oates novel it's based on, the film seeks to be spiritually faithful to the image Monroe embodied.

Women Who Shaped History

Who Was the Real Marilyn Monroe?

“Blonde,” a heavily fictionalized film by Andrew Dominik, explores the star’s life and legend in a narrative that’s equal parts glamorous and disturbing

Set to an asking price of $200 million, Pop artist Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is poised to become the most expensive 20th-century painting sold at auction.

Iconic Andy Warhol Portrait of Marilyn Monroe Could Sell for Record-Breaking $200 Million

One of the artist’s “Shot Marilyns,” the sage blue silkscreen could become one of the most expensive 20th-century paintings ever sold at auction

The Forever Marilyn statue's June 20 unveiling attracted protesters who view Seward Johnson's 26-foot-tall sculpture as an outdated symbol of sexism.

Why a Newly Installed Statue of Marilyn Monroe Is So Controversial

In the era of #MeToo, some view the sculpture—now on view in California—as a symbol of sexism

Marilyn Monroe playing on the beach

Cool Finds

Model Your New Year’s Resolutions After Marilyn Monroe’s in 1955

The actress wrote that she wanted to “keep looking around me — only much more so”