Smithsonian Magazine

These Photos Visualize the Legacy of Peter Spencer, Founder of America’s First Independent Black Church

The church was home to the August Quarterly Festival, still running 212 years later and collaborating this year with the ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Scientists Gave Dogs MRIs and Learned That They’re Surprisingly Good at Distinguishing Between Human Emotions, Even Some Negative Ones

A recent study found that man’s best friend processes positive and negative human emotions differently and can distinguish ...
Smithsonian Magazine

When a Carpenter in California Found a Nugget of Gold, It Started a Rush Toward the Nothing Less Than the Modern World

A new book by historian Nathaniel Philbrick makes the case that the James Marshall’s 1848 discovery set in motion events from ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Lydia Kiesling

Lydia Kiesling is a novelist and culture writer whose work has appeared in New York Times Magazine, New Yorker and the Cut.
Smithsonian Magazine

An ‘Extremely Rare’ Half-Male, Half-Female Bird Temporarily Took Up Residence Outside of Chicago

The unusual-looking bobolink is what's called a bilateral gynandromorph. The bird behaved like a male, eventually wooing a ...
Smithsonian Magazine

These ‘Extremely Rare’ 17th-Century Drawings Were Astonishingly Well-Preserved. Now They Are on Display for the First Time in Nearly a Century

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum acquired the drawing book, which has artwork attributed to Rombout Uylenburgh, a celebrated ...
Smithsonian Magazine

These 15 Stunning Photographs Capture All That There Is to Love About the People, Land and Culture of Argentina

See images of the South American country’s charming cities, historic homes, beautiful beaches and majestic mountains ...