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Latest Features

A hawksbill sea turtle munches away on a sponge near Juno Beach.

SCIENCE

Journey Under the Sea With 15 Amazing Photos of Marine Life

Piles of coal sit in front of a power plant in Utah. Such coal-fired power plants emit greenhouse gases that drive climate change.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

What Myths About the Anthropocene Get Wrong

In recent years, many scientists have been able to watch people trying to find their way and measure how well they do.

SCIENCE

Why Do Some People Always Get Lost?

Ann P. Rowe transferred around 88 books and 4,556 archaeological specimens from her father’s collection to Peru.

HISTORY

Why the Daughter of an American Archaeologist Sent Her Father's Collection to Peru

None

SCIENCE

What Happens When Animals Cross the Road

Visitors to the Red Flat in Sofia, Bulgaria, immerse themselves in the lives of an average 1980s-era Bulgarian family.

TRAVEL

How Museums in Central and Eastern Europe Tell the Complicated Story of Life Behind the Iron Curtain

Visitors left notes, photos and mementos at the base of an oak tree Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl had favored after escaping from the Central Park Zoo. A memorial for Flaco was held there on March 3.

SCIENCE

What Flaco the Owl’s Death Teaches Us About Making Cities Safer for Birds

Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, the real Baron Münchhausen, was a retired German officer who fought with a Russian regiment in two campaigns against the Ottoman Empire.

HISTORY

The 18th-Century Baron Who Lent His Name to Munchausen Syndrome

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine April/May 2024 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Travel

The English Farmers Who Harvest Rhubarb by Candlelight

The secret to the world’s sweetest rhubarb? Sealed sheds, total darkness and a little old-fashioned flair

2.

Smart News

The Nepali Army Is Removing Trash and Bodies From Mount Everest

They expect to haul off ten metric tons of garbage and up to five bodies from the world's tallest peak

3.

Smart News

A Michigan Hunter Thought He Killed a Large Coyote. It Turned Out to Be an Endangered Gray Wolf

Wildlife officials believe the animal was likely the first gray wolf spotted in the southern Lower Peninsula in 100 years

4.

Smart News

Family Accidentally Ends Up With 50 Baby Octopuses After Their Pet—Thought to Be Male—Laid Dozens of Eggs

Now, the Oklahoma residents are working with aquariums and researchers that might take the babies

5.

History

The 18th-Century Baron Who Lent His Name to Munchausen Syndrome

The medical condition is named after a fictional storyteller who in turn was based on a real-life German nobleman known for telling tall tales

Smithsonian Voices
Smithsonian Books

How the Tobacco Industry Lured Customers with Baseball Cards

National Museum of Natural History

This Volunteer Week, Get to Know the Smithsonian Volunteer Who Meticulously Curated Thousands of Tiny Crustaceans

Smithsonian Education

Smithsonian Education Awards Ceremony Honors Outstanding Contributions of Educators to Inspire Learners Everywhere

National Museum of Natural History

Just Our Type: Museum's Dinosaur Skeleton Becomes the Scientific Standard for Its Species

Smithsonian Education

Going Deep Into Our Understanding of Our Ocean Planet Through Museum Learning

National Air and Space Museum

The Final Reno Air Show

See All

Special Report
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Alaska

Alaska is nicknamed "The Great Land," and for good reason: it is wild, rugged and expansive. In a series of articles, Smithsonian magazine explores the history, culture and natural wonders of the 49th state.

View Full Report

Featured Stories

Alps-Style Hut-to-Hut Travel Is On Its Way to Alaska

The World’s Most Grueling Race Journeys 1,000 Miles Down the Yukon

These Students Are Part of a 75-Year Study to Map Alaska’s Glaciers

  image   image

Smithsonian Videos

Preview thumbnail for video 'Ten Fun Facts About Jellyfish

Ten Fun Facts About Jellyfish

Play
Preview thumbnail for video 'The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

Preview thumbnail for video 'The Best Small Towns to Celebrate Winter

The Best Small Towns to Celebrate Winter

Photo of the day

A fleet of boats casts its vibrant blue nets, creating a tapestry of traditional fishing. The fishermen communities of Sundarban which mainly rely on fishing for economic reasons are adjusting and thriving in the face of environmental changes, especially related to fisheries and rivers. Fishing in Sundarbans

History

JBS Haldane and Edwin Martin Case (pictured) experimented on themselves to study the effects of nitrogen narcosis, in which the gas becomes a powerful narcotic drug under increased pressure.

To Help the Allied War Effort, These Scientists Got Drunk on Nitrogen

During World War II, British researchers conducted tests on themselves to gauge how submariners' brains would function at extreme depths

The hideout boasted more than 1,000 bunk beds, a 400-seat cafeteria, individual auditoriums for both the Senate and the House of Representatives, vast water tanks, and a trash incinerator that could serve as a crematorium.

The Town That Kept Its Nuclear Bunker a Secret for Three Decades

Michael Douglas stars as Benjamin Franklin in the new Apple TV+ series "Franklin."

The Real Story Behind Apple TV+'s 'Franklin'

Science

Visitors left notes, photos and mementos at the base of an oak tree Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl had favored after escaping from the Central Park Zoo. A memorial for Flaco was held there on March 3.

What Flaco the Owl’s Death Teaches Us About Making Cities Safer for Birds

Ornithologists and conservationists say humans can take key steps to make urban environments less hazardous for our avian friends

Piles of coal sit in front of a power plant in Utah. Such coal-fired power plants emit greenhouse gases that drive climate change.

What Myths About the Anthropocene Get Wrong

This false-colored image of Mercury reflects the varying age and mineral composition of the surface.

The Seven Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Mercury

Innovation

A bright spot for sake is in America. In 2022, according to the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, the U.S. was the No. 1 export market in terms of volume and second market in value for sake. 

An American-Made Sake Movement Is Underway

In the last decade, a truly homegrown effort has bubbled up in the United States

The Library Company reading room on Juniper Street in Philadelphia c. 1935, one of the group’s main locations from 1880 to 1935.

How Ben Franklin Invented the Library as We Know It

Texas Motor Speedway staff watch the August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse through special eclipse glasses.

This Is the Gear You Need to View the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Arts & Culture

American video artist Brian Fridge created a five-billboard series in Dallas called View Finder that portrayed a solar eclipse.

The Long History of Art Inspired by Solar Eclipses

For centuries, curious artists have been trying to make sense of the celestial event

An oak peacock moth lands on a window behind dancing wedding guests, illuminated in red light. This photograph won the category for butterflies and dragonflies.

See 11 Winning Images From the Close-Up Photographer of the Year Awards

The latest winner of a Japanese literary prize said she used ChatGPT to write parts of her novel.

ChatGPT Helped Write This Award-Winning Japanese Novel

Travel

Farmer Robert Tomlinson harvests forced rhubarb by candlelight on his farm in Pudsey, near Leeds in northern England, in January 2022. 

The English Farmers Who Harvest Rhubarb by Candlelight

The secret to the world’s sweetest rhubarb? Sealed sheds, total darkness and a little old-fashioned flair

Lofoten Islands, Norway

Northern Europe and the British Isles

A close-up of blooming blossoms captures their stunning detail.

Behold 15 Beautiful Photos of Cherry Blossoms in Bloom

At the Smithsonian

Clark Gable and Joan Crawford by George Hurrell, 1936, Gelatin silver print

How 'The Magic Man of Hollywood' Captured the Golden Age's Biggest Stars

George Hurrell’s photographs of actors from the 1930s and 1940s dazzle in a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

Hazel Fellows sews pieces of an Apollo A7L spacesuit on the production line at International Latex Corporation (ILC) in 1968.

From the Inventor of Mass-Market Paper Bags to a Scientist Who Unraveled the Mysteries of Polio, Meet Five American Women Whose Remarkable Achievements Have Long Been Overlooked

William H. Johnson, Harriet Tubman, ca. 1945, oil on paperboard.

How Painting Portraits of Freedom Fighters Became William H. Johnson’s Life’s Work