The Inside Story of the $8 Million Heist from the Carnegie Library
How precious maps, books, and art vanished from the Pittsburgh archive over the course of 25 years.
Great articles, every Saturday.
How precious maps, books, and art vanished from the Pittsburgh archive over the course of 25 years.
Travis McDade Smithsonian Aug 2020 15min Permalink
In 1936, Karp Lykov whisked his family into the Siberian wilderness to escape Bolshevik persecution. They remained there, alone, until discovered by a helicopter crew in 1978.
Mike Dash Smithsonian Jan 2013 15min Permalink
The true story of the first Thanksgiving.
Charles C. Mann Smithsonian Dec 2005 30min Permalink
Why did we turn an isolated teenage girl into the world’s most famous Holocaust victim?
Dara Horn Smithsonian Nov 2018 15min Permalink
At the height of the Cold War, America’s most secretive counterespionage effort set out to crack unbreakable ciphers.
Liza Mundy Smithsonian Sep 2018 20min Permalink
Thirty years ago, a series of documentaries introduced the world to an isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea. What happened when the cameras left?
Sean Flynn Smithsonian Feb 2018 30min Permalink
Ida Wood, who lived for decades as a recluse in a New York City hotel, would have taken her secrets to the grave—if her sister hadn’t gotten there first.
Karen Abbott Smithsonian Jan 2013 10min Permalink
A minute-by-minute account of one of the worst sailing disasters in American history.
Matthew Teague Smithsonian Jul 2017 25min Permalink
Watching the most famous frames in history with Errol Morris.
Ron Rosenbaum Smithsonian Oct 2013 15min Permalink
In 1939, acting on a tip and clues from The Iliad, archaeologists unearthed King Nestor’s palace on Pylos. Recently, another discovery in Pylos, the grave of an even earlier soldier, could change our entire understanding of how western civilization developed.
Jo Marchant Smithsonian Jan 2017 20min Permalink
How a poet and an architect rescued a nation’s riches.
Tony Perrottet Smithsonian Jan 2017 25min Permalink
A harrowing journey through Alaskan waters in an ancient tugboat.
Brendan Jones Smithsonian Sep 2016 15min Permalink
A Marxist archaeologist uncovers traces of fugitive slave settlements deep in the Great Dismal Swamp.
Richard Grant Smithsonian Sep 2016 15min Permalink
How “Count” Victor Lustig, one of America’s great con men, worked his scams.
Jeff Maysh Smithsonian Mar 2016 10min Permalink
A short but comprehensive history of solanum tuberosa.
Charles C. Mann Smithsonian Nov 2011 Permalink
“It’s an old book!” Harper Lee told a mutual friend of ours who’d seen her while I was in Monroeville. “But if someone wants to read it, fine!”
Paul Theroux Smithsonian Jun 2015 25min Permalink
On spending your life among large felines.
Susan Orlean Smithsonian Jun 2015 20min Permalink
A segregated housing development washed away in a flood can still explain why Portland, Oregon, is such a “white” city.
Natasha Geiling Smithsonian Feb 2015 Permalink
In Russia’s Far East, an orphaned female tiger is the test case in an experimental effort to save one of the most endangered animals on earth.
Matthew Shaer Smithsonian Jan 2015 Permalink
Hunting people who hunt elephants.
Joshua Hammer Smithsonian Jul 2014 Permalink
From Norwegian waters to European plates.
Franz Lidz Smithsonian Aug 2014 10min Permalink
The life and times of James McClintock, the man behind the famed H.L. Hunley who also may or may not have faked his own death.
Mike Dash Smithsonian Jul 2014 Permalink
Cassie Chadwick pulled her first con in 1870, at the age of 13. Over the next 30 years, she would scam her way to $633,000, about $16.5 million in today’s dollars.
Karen Abbott Smithsonian Jun 2012 10min Permalink
More than 50 years after Nelson Rockefeller's son went missing following a boat accident in New Guinea, the true story emerges. He made it to shore, but didn't make it much farther.
Excerpted from </em>Savage Harvest</a>.</p>
Carl Hoffmann Smithsonian Feb 2014 Permalink
The neurologist explores the mystery of hallucinations.
Ron Rosenbaum Smithsonian Dec 2012 Permalink