Smithsonian

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Say Goodbye to Tian Tian and Family

Giant panda, as well as mate Mei Xiang and cub Xiao Qi Ji are heading back to China on Wednesday

(Newser) - For nearly a quarter century, giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have called the Smithsonian's National Zoo in DC home, part of a "panda diplomacy" initiative with China established during the Nixon years that involved loaning pandas to the US for breeding and research purposes. Now, the...

Fox Kills 25 Flamingos at Smithsonian Zoo

(Newser) - The Smithsonian National Zoo says it is "devastated" after a fox made its way into the outdoor flamingo habitat and killed 26 birds—25 flamingos and one pintail duck. Zoo officials say workers spotted the dead birds Monday morning and saw a wild fox in the enclosure, the Washington ...

How Smithsonian Is Honoring 'This Extraordinary Period'

Vaccine vial, shipping containers among new artifacts

(Newser) - The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has acquired the vial that contained the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine administered in the US as part of its plans to document the pandemic and "this extraordinary period we were going through." The acquisition, along with other materials related...

You Probably Recognize the Memento Fauci Donated to Smithsonian

The good doctor gives museum his personal model of the coronavirus

(Newser) - Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of the US government’s pandemic response, has donated his personal 3D model of the COVID-19 virus to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the AP reports. The museum on Tuesday honored Fauci with its Great Americans Medal. “Dr. Fauci has helped...

Utah Senator Blocks National Latino Museum

And one for women, with Mike Lee saying we don't need 'separate but equal' Smithsonian museums

(Newser) - For more than 25 years, there's been an effort to establish a national Latino museum within the Smithsonian Institution's museum family. And that dream seemed closer to coming to fruition this week, with bipartisan legislation toward that end on the Senate table. Enter Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who...

Rock Used as Doorstop Actually Worth $100K

Farmer says it landed in his backyard in the 1930s

(Newser) - A Michigan man curious about a rock he'd used for decades as a doorstop now knows its secret: it's a meteorite worth $100,000, the AP reports. In fact, the nearly 23-pound hunk of iron and nickel is the sixth largest meteorite found in Michigan, according to the...

Portraits of the Obamas Revealed in DC

'That's pretty sharp,' former president says of Kehinde Wiley's likeness of him

(Newser) - The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled portraits of former President Obama and Michelle Obama. Barack Obama's portrait was painted by Kehinde Wiley, an artist best known for his vibrant, large-scale paintings of African-Americans. For Michelle Obama's portrait, the gallery commissioned Baltimore-based artist Amy Sherald, first-prize winner of the...

Portraits of Obamas Will Be a 1st for National Portrait Gallery

Smithsonian hires black artists to paint presidential portraits for 1st time

(Newser) - For the first time ever, the Smithsonian has hired black artists to paint the president and first lady for its National Portrait Gallery, the Wall Street Journal reports. Kehinde Wiley will paint Barack Obama, who requested him specifically. Wiley is known for juxtaposing his subjects—often young black men in...

Saving the Ruby Slippers Will Cost America $300K

And the Smithsonian is turning to Kickstarter for the funds

(Newser) - The Smithsonian needs your help preserving a piece of American film history. Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz are in need of some serious TLC, Entertainment Weekly reports, and the museum explains its federal funding doesn't extend to "non-core" projects like this one. To that...

US Finally, Officially Has a National Black History Museum

The push for the museum started more than 100 years ago

(Newser) - The first national museum devoted exclusively to the history and culture of African-Americans is now open, the AP reports. The Obamas opened the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall by ringing a bell from a historic African-American church. The museum is the...

Museum 'Must-See' Dedicated to Black History, Culture

'NYT' review of Smithsonian's long-awaited museum, set to open next Saturday

(Newser) - A week from Saturday, a 130-year-old bell from a church erected by slaves will ring to herald the grand opening of a 400,000-square-foot DC museum that's been talked about since 1915, NPR reports. The idea for that museum, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and...

New Dolphin Species Hid in Museum for 55 Years

Meet Arktocara yakataga

(Newser) - The discoverers of a brand new dolphin species didn't even have to leave the office to make their find, UPI reports. Smithsonian curator Nicholas Pyenson and researcher Alexandra Boersma were presumably going about their business when—in Boersma's words—"this beautiful little skull from Alaska" jumped out...

'White Whale' Discovered in Depths of the Smithsonian

Old fossil has been redescribed as the Albicetus oxymycterus

(Newser) - It's quite the epic timeline: Some 15 million years ago, the creature swam in our oceans. In the 1880s, its remains were found in California. In 1925, Remington Kellogg classified it in an extinct genus of walrus. Now, nine decades later, researchers with the Smithsonian's National Museum of...

Smithsonian Launches $500K Kickstarter for Famous Suit

They'll leave lunar dust on Neil Armstrong's moonwalk getup, though

(Newser) - "Reboot the Suit" is the slogan for the Smithsonian Institution's new campaign to restore Neil Armstrong's famous moonwalk spacesuit—and the museum group has launched its first-ever Kickstarter campaign to reach its $500,000 goal, Smithsonian reports. Funds raised will go toward conserving the spacesuit so it...

1st Sunken Slave Ship Found After 220 Years

212 slaves died on the Sao Jose-Paquete de Africa, en route to Brazil

(Newser) - The first-ever wreckage of a ship that went down with slaves on board has been found just 100 yards off the coast of South Africa where it sank in 1794. The Portuguese ship, Sao Jose-Paquete de Africa, set out from Mozambique Island with more than 400 slaves shackled in its...

Neil Armstrong Brought Back 'Purse' From the Moon

Full of 'odds and ends' from Apollo 11

(Newser) - After Neil Armstrong's death, his widow, Carol, found something unexpected in a closet: a white bag full of parts from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle. The spacecraft parts were originally thought to have been left on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the New York Daily News...

Will and Grace Enters the Smithsonian

Items from TV show part of a larger LGBT history collection

(Newser) - Hundreds of photographs, papers, and historical objects documenting the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are being added to the Smithsonian Institution's collection today, including items from the popular TV show Will and Grace. Show creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, along with NBC, are donating objects...

New Effort: Bring Passenger Pigeon Back to Life

As Smithsonian honors 100th anniversary of the last one's death

(Newser) - The passenger pigeon was once so plentiful, a flock of billions darkened Ontario's skies for 14 hours in 1866; the birds were considered a "poor man's food," the AP reports, to the point that domestic workers tired of eating so many. But their numbers dwindled shockingly...

In 9/11 Museum: a Life-Saving Squeegee

Men used it to escape World Trade Center elevator

(Newser) - On 9/11, six lives were saved by a squeegee handle. Six men, including a window washer, were trapped in an elevator at One World Trade Center during the attacks. When their car began falling downward, they were saved by the emergency stop button. But at that point, the men smelled...

Jurassic Park-esque Find: Blood-Filled Mosquito Fossil

But don't expect dinosaurs anytime soon

(Newser) - OK, so the mosquito is only 46 million years old—too recent to have sucked dinosaur blood. But for the first time in history, scientists have found a fossilized skeeter that's still got a belly full of blood, harkening back to the plot of Jurassic Park, the Smithsonian points...

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