Pokémon Go: Games, Art, and Open Spaces

With six Pokéstops in and around the building, players of Pokémon Go know that the Smithsonian American Art Museum is an ideal place to play this game. Players can catch a Doduo near our Jenny Holzer, spot a Paras basking in the glow of Megatron/Matrix, or corner a Zubat as it appears to zoom out of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting.

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Your Gift Matters.

From saving endangered species to preserving our nation's treasures for the next generation, we are working to make a difference every day. Be a part of something bigger. Make your gift today!

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How To Hold a Dead Star in Your Hand

Space objects are rather far away, making it impossible to touch them (meteorites that fall to the ground notwithstanding). Advances in both astronomy and technology, however, now allow you to do the next best thing: Hold a 3-D model of a star in your hand.

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Cranking Up the Heat in the "Wetland of the Future"

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, in Edgewater, Md., is using infrared heat lamps above ground and heated wires buried below ground to warm up plots of land to simulate global warming in a wetland. The experiment, "Coastal Wetland Carbon Sequestration in a Warmer Climate," will help scientists better understand what happens to ecosystems in a hotter planet with higher CO₂ concentrations.

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Folklife Festival Final Day: Top 10 Photos

The 2016 Folklife Festival ended on July 10 with whip cracks, a mass dance to accordion melodies, and last-minute lemonade and taco runs. Explore the top 10 photos from the Festival's last day.

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The Man Behind the "Mania"

Owls, skulls, demure shepherdesses, and bucking broncos: All of these figures and dozens more are part of Walter McConnell's monumental porcelain sculptures, now on view at the Freer | Sackler. Chinamania is an installation named for the craze for Chinese blue-and-white porcelain that swept London in the 1870s and still exists in the West.

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Only in America

An altered photograph of a roadside motel is printed on a cardboard sleeve for R.E.M.'s 7-inch single "Only in America," designed by Bruce and Karen Licher. Although the grain makes it hard to read the motel sign, the motel itself is wellknown — a prime example of mid-century Googie architecture known for a Space Age look.

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Technology and Political Conventions

In a Presidential election year, political news coverage is instantaneous and continuous thanks to smartphones with cameras and microphones. There was a time, however, when live broadcasting from political conventions and rallies was novel.

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The Torchon Lace Company: The Fine Line Between Entrepreneurship and Fraud

Walking down a street in Chicago in 1901, Sylvester G. Lewis saw a large group of women enthralled with a lady making lace in a window display. Lewis also recognized a business opportunity for making a reputation and fortune for himself...

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New Release: Classic Folk Sings for Kids from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

In Classic Folk Songs for Kids, curator Jeff Place culls a cross-section of 26 classics from the Smithsonian Folkways vaults to tell an intriguing story of American signature sing-alongs. The songs' origins are as fascinating as the songs are fun: centuries-old European ballads, African-derived game songs, a sea chantey, a railroad jingle, camp songs, and even an opera song! And the singers themselves are a who's who of American folk music artistry—Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Cisco Houston, Suni Paz, and many more.

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Trivia

Play ball! With baseball season underway across the United States, test out your early baseball knowledge. What material did A.G. Spalding & Bros. use to make baseball cores? 


Think you know the Answer?