UPDATED For the first time in 25 years, a baby orangutan has been born at the National Zoo. The male Bornean orangutan was born at 8:52 p.m. Sept. 12 to 19-year-old mother Batang. The Great Ape House will remain closed indefinitely to provide Batang a quiet space to bond with her infant. Continue reading It’s a boy!
With over 138 million collection objects, 2.1 million library volumes, and 137,000 cubic feet of archives, the stories of how our collections have made their way to the Smithsonian are almost as varied as the collections themselves. From a tiny mosquito to a space shuttle, we’ve seen, and moved, it all. This is an ode to all the collectors and movers that have made the Smithsonian what it is today. Continue reading Mind your step and take a brief tour through 17 decades of collecting
The Smithsonian is joining the National Park Service in celebrating the centennial of America’s national parks with a new photography exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, an exhibition exploring the intersection of the U.S. mail and our national parks at the National Postal Museum and a new documentary airing on the Smithsonian Channel Aug. 28. Continue reading Preserve. Enjoy. Inspire.
As the largest education, research and museum organization in the world, the Smithsonian’s reach extends from the depths of the ocean to the outer reaches of space. Our scientists and scholars, curators and conservators, can be found in every corner of the globe. Discover the difference we’re making in communities around the world. Continue reading Where in the World Is the Smithsonian?
Remember middle-school sleepovers? The giggling, the ghost stories, the midnight raids on the fridge? Well, imagine rolling out your sleeping bag beneath a 50-foot whale, at the home of the Star-Spangled Banner, or in the shadow of the space shuttle Discovery. That’s exactly what kids and their grown-up companions can do when they attend a Smithsonian Sleepover. Continue reading To sleep, perchance to dream…of a once-in-a-lifetime adventure
When disaster strikes, whether natural or manmade, we rush first to aid the injured, succor the survivors and bury the dead. But once the flood waters recede, the aftershocks quiet and the horrors of war dim, we are faced with other casualties: the damage to and loss of the art, architecture and other aspects of our irreplaceable cultural heritage. Continue reading It takes a village to save the village
For a millennial. 40 years must seem like an eon, while for someone nearing retirement, it seems like the blink of an eye. Staff from the Air and Space Museum reflect on the past four decades: what’s changed, what hasn’t and what’s on the horizon. Continue reading The more things change…
Earlier this month, dozens of interns and fellows from across the Smithsonian followed clues and scoured 13 museums as they raced to compete in the Summer 2016 scavenger hunt. Continue reading Good practice for hunting down those research grants
Delegates may go to political conventions to support their candidate, partisans may follow them on social media to share the next viral meme, but Political History curators have an agenda all their own when it comes to the conventions. Continue reading Collecting history as it happens at the 2016 political conventions
To commemorate the 47th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing on the moon, the Air and Space Museum will display the rarely seen space helmet and gloves worn by Neil Armstrong. Bonus! Cool 3D images of the lunar module. Continue reading To the moon…and back again
Vote now for the Autumn 2025 Windows Lock Screen. Voting ends Sunday, September 21st! Continue reading Vote now for the Autumn 2025 Windows Lock Screen
(Ed. note: We should note that it's never wise to stand behind a cow, even a buttery one. Cow pies never win blue ribbons.) Continue reading Behind the Butter Cow: A Look at the Renwick’s new State Fair exhibition
More than $2.5 million in grants has been awarded to fund projects ranging from exposing little kids to nature, the link between movement and emotional wellbeing and building a robotic telescope. Continue reading 2025 Together we Thrive
Melanie Adams will serve as interim director beginning August 26. Continue reading Director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum is stepping down
