What you won’t see: books. At least, not many. What you will see is an explosion of classical and Renaissance decor glorifying all things knowledge-related: Greek and Roman ...

Imagine church bells played as nimbly as handbells and with as much nuance as a piano. That’s the sound of a carillon, an instrument made of 50 bells connected to a clavier ...

On Sept. 12, 1973, Cher appeared on the “Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” wearing not much more than a beaded bikini, a skirt and a long headdress of white feathers. She lo...

Here at their headquarters, the Daughters of the American Revolution express their love of the USA in the language of home decor. Galleries of artifacts donated by members and...

At the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, squawks, barks and howls have finally replaced beeping trucks and blaring jackhammers. After five years of planning and renovation, the zo...

The European Renaissance gets a lot of credit for scientific and artistic advancements, but Europeans owe much to the Muslims of the seventh to 17th centuries, who provided br...

In 30 years of photographing protests in Washington, Lucian Perkins had never encountered a demonstration that lasted as long as the Occupy movement, whose participants camped...

It’s been fewer than 100 years since American women gained the right to vote. That’s what the National Woman’s Party, headquartered here since 1929, wants you to remembe...

A not-sad consequence of modern medicine is that there are fewer disease-mangled tissue samples for pathologists to study. That’s one reason this museum’s collection is so...

“Whose body?” “Who is beyond the law?” “When was the last time you laughed?” Those are among the questions posed in “Belief+Doubt,” Barbara Kruger’s new inst...

Brewery owner Christian Heurich liked his beer warm and his buildings fireproof. He was a pragmatic businessman who kept his company afloat through Prohibition by making and s...

Dutch filmmaker and performance artist Jeroen Eisinga works in the unsettling tradition of body-based art. For Eisinga’s brightly named 2009 short film “Springtime,” on ...

Today, craft art is much more than cross-stitching. The Renwick Gallery’s “40 Under 40: Craft Futures” showcases works by 40 young artists that push expectations of trad...

On Aug. 15, which would have been Julia Child’s 100th birthday, tributes will undoubtedly pour in from Food Network personalities and “Top Chef”-testants. But when Child...

Bloody Butcher Corn. Rattlesnake Master. Voodoo Lily. These aren’t the names of zombie characters in some new video game — they’re plants. The U.S. Botanic Garden's "Sav...