Smithsonian Magazine

A Couple Walking Their Dogs Noticed 2,000-Year-Old Footprints on the Beach. They Were Visible for Just Days Before Waves Erased Them Forever

Archaeologists raced to document the semi-fossilized tracks in eastern Scotland. They were likely made by humans, deer and ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Nearly 50-Foot-Long Sock Monkey Sculpture Is the Largest on Earth, Guinness World Records Confirms

Guinness World Records has officially declared a sock monkey the size of a semi-truck to be the largest sculpture of its kind ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Humans May Have Used These Mysterious Symbols to Encode Information Tens of Thousands of Years Before the First Writing Systems

The symbols, discovered on 40,000-year-old artifacts in caves in southwest Germany, may have been a precursor to the first written language ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Why Did a Man Build This Secret Passageway Below a Dresser Drawer Nearly 200 Years Ago? Historians Think It Was Part of the Underground Railroad

Staffers at the Merchant's House Museum in Manhattan are unraveling the mysteries of the narrow tunnel, which is hidden ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Carrie Honaker

Carrie Honaker writes about food, culture and travel. Her work has appeared in Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Plate, Southern Living, and more.
Smithsonian Magazine

These Extraordinary Photographs of Golden Age Hollywood Stars, From Greta Garbo to Clark Gable, Are Worth a Second Look

Photographer George Hurrell gets another exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, spotlighting a dazzling array of ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Famous 17th-Century Elephant Sculpture in Rome Keeps Losing the Tip of Its Tusk

Designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the statue holds an 18-foot-tall Egyptian obelisk on its back. The four-inch fragment of its tusk was found nearby ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Meet the ‘Bop Artist’ Who Was Inspired by Dreams and Hosted Some Surreal Salons in Her Chicago Brownstone

Dizzy Gillespie said his friend Gertrude Abercrombie was able to translate the spirit of jazz music onto a canvas ...
Smithsonian Magazine

The Sahara Desert Hasn’t Always Been a Dry, Desolate Landscape. Some Scientists See Signs It May Be Greening Again

Petroglyphs on sandstone at a national park in Chad bear witness to wildlife that once roamed the area before the continent’s ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Can Apes Play Pretend? What Scientists Learned From Having Imaginary ‘Tea Parties’ With Kanzi the Bonobo

The study focused on Kanzi, a language-trained bonobo who died in March 2025 at the age of 44. Ape Initiative.
Smithsonian Magazine

Lifelong Learning Might Lower Your Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease, a New Study Suggests

While the research does not point to a direct, causal link, it hints that activities like reading, writing and playing games ...
Smithsonian Magazine

How Do Horses Whinny? Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out How the Majestic Animals Make This Distinctive Sound

An equine makes the low-pitched part of its whinny by vibrating its vocal cords—similar to how humans speak and sing—and the high-pitched part by whistling ...