Smithsonian Stories

Stories that spark curiosity from the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex.

U.S. Flag Themed Challah Cover
National Museum of American History

How a Jewish Textile Artist Folded Her Identities into a Challah Cover

This challah cover reflects the artist's inseparable identities as a Jewish and American woman.
In a museum gallery, draped canvas dangling from string is painted in bright colors
Smithsonian Story

Remembering Abstract Artist Sam Gilliam

See pieces by Gilliam from across the Smithsonian’s collections.
Museum gallery for “¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States”
Smithsonian Story

Five Objects in the New National Museum of the American Latino Gallery

These Smithsonian collections tell how Latino history is American history.
Blue Morpho
Smithsonian Snapshot

Beautiful Blue Morpho

What makes this butterfly blue?
Barbara Dane with the Chambers Brothers at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Smithsonian American Women's History Museum

Six Musicians Who Led Social Change

Learn about six women from the exhibition Music HerStory: Women and Music of Social Change. 
quatter featuring Mankiller
Smithsonian American Women's History Museum

Wilma Mankiller Led as First Woman Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

June 6, 2022, the U.S. Mint released a quarter featuring activist and writer Wilma Mankiller.
EHT Black Hole
Smithsonian Snapshot

Confirmation at Last of a Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way

Eight radio observatories across the planet formed a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope to capture the image.
Muybridge Horse Gait
Smithsonian Snapshot

The Photographer Who Captured Humans and Animals in Motion

Muybridge’s groundbreaking photography captured the moment all of a horse’s hooves were off the ground at once.
Person-sized monarch butterfly wings with a graduation cap and colorfully striped stole
Smithsonian Story

A Dreamer’s Graduation Attire

Explore an object from the first online exhibition from the National Museum of the American Latino.
Loretta Lynn Signing Autographs
Smithsonian Snapshot

The Coal Miner’s Daughter and a Canary Yellow Dress

Country music icon Loretta Lynn created her own look and sound.
Illustration of a woman leaning on a couch reading a book. There is a wall of bookshelves behind her.
Smithsonian Story

Cozy Up with a Book for National Library Week

This dreamy library scene is from the pages of a 1919 design publication.
Map print of the Chicago area with neighborhoods in shown in red, yellow and green
Smithsonian Story

This Map Reimagines 1930s Chicago Without Redlining

Amanda Williams created Cadastral Shaking (Chicago v1) by cutting and shaking up map pieces.
Pink orchid with a yellow center
Smithsonian Story

Meet the Julia Child of Orchids

Rebecca Northen shared her knowledge of orchids with a wide audience.
Miniature flag with pale blue, pink and white stripes
Smithsonian Story

Who Designed the Transgender Flag?

The first transgender pride flag debuted in 1999. Learn about the flag's designer and symbolism.
Design for Title Page, Occupations of Women and Their Compensation
Smithsonian American Women's History Museum

Women Innovators: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

This activity guide includes stories of pioneering innovators and their life-changing innovations.
“Offering Education,” “Offering Life” and “Rejecting Injustice”
Smithsonian Snapshot

Elizabeth Catlett Showcased Issues Through Her Art

Catlett’s sculptures show her long-standing interest in African American dignity, struggle, motherhood, and uplift.
Ethel L. Payne
Smithsonian Snapshot

A Fearless Journalist

Journalist and civil rights activist Ethel Payne was often known as the First Lady of the Black Press.
Book open to pages for family records with handwritten names and dates.
Smithsonian Story

This Bible Kept Record of One Family’s History After Slavery

During Reconstruction, newly freed African Americans embraced liberty by establishing families.
Valentine with a drawing of a girl holding a heart toward a boy holding a sign that reads Votes for Women
Smithsonian Story

These Valentines Pushed for a Woman’s Right to Vote

Send some love that supports the suffrage cause from the National Museum of American History.
sedar plate
National Museum of American History

Six Objects for Jewish American Heritage Month

Artifacts in the collections speak to the long history of Jewish presence first in British North America and then in the U.S.
Lorraine Hansberry in her Greenwich Village apartment
Smithsonian Snapshot

Her Moment in the Sun

Celebrated playwright and civil rights activist Lorraine Hansberry in her Greenwich Village apartment.  
Skeleton of a small rodent holding a nut
Smithsonian Story

Squirreling Away This Winter?

Meet the squirrel ancestor who lived millions of years before the last ice age.
leaf litter
Smithsonian Gardens

Winter Garden Maintenance for Wildlife Friendly Habitats

If you are not looking forward to raking up all those leaves and cutting dormant perennials, you are in luck!
Maya Angelou, Algonquin Hotel, New York, NY, 1987 by Brigitte Lacombe, 1987. Inkjet print. National Portrait Gallery, Smithson
Smithsonian American Women's History Museum

Dr. Maya Angelou Spoke Her Truth through Art and Activism

The U.S. Mint has released a new quarter featuring writer and activist Dr. Maya Angelou.

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