What's new this month?

The 50th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features musical masterpieces from the first decade of the 17th century to the early 21st, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments in an 7-concert series. This concert features music of John Dowland with the Smithsonian Consort of Viols.

The 50th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features musical masterpieces from the first decade of the 17th century to the early 21st, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments in an 7-concert series. This concert features music of Georg Philipp Telemann with the Smithsonian Academy Orchestra.

When Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Ethel Skakel Kennedy—pregnant with their eleventh child—captivated the nation with her resilience and commitment to justice. Her daughter Kerry Kennedy draws on a new biography, family memories, and private papers to illuminate Ethel’s extraordinary life, from her courtship with Robert F. Kennedy to her enduring advocacy and remarkable spirit.

Smithsonian Chamber Music Society audiences are privy to the unparalleled experience of being able to hear two magnificent quartets of instruments—one made by Antonio Stradivari, the other by his teacher Nicoló Amati—in this popular four-concert series on Saturdays. This concert features music composed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Smithsonian Chamber Music Society audiences are privy to the unparalleled experience of being able to hear two magnificent quartets of instruments—one made by Antonio Stradivari, the other by his teacher Nicoló Amati—in this popular four-concert series on Sundays. This concert features music composed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Orchids aren’t just beautiful—they’re ancient survivors, with a lineage stretching back more than 120 million years. Over time, they’ve adapted to nearly every environment, evolving extraordinary forms and captivating people across cultures. Barb Schmidt, the vice president of the American Orchid Society, leads a journey through deep time, from orchids that grew alongside dinosaurs to the dazzling varieties of today. Schmidt explores their evolution, stories of daring orchid hunters, and the cultural meanings that have made these blooms so fascinating.

When French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi first traveled to the United States to propose the construction of a giant tribute to liberty, Americans either rejected the idea or were baffled by it. Nevertheless, completed in 1886, the Statue of Liberty stands today as one of the best-known symbols of the United States. It was ultimately a gift from the French people to the American people, as private citizens, not the two governments, financed it from torch to toe. Historian Edward Berenson illuminates the origins of Lady Liberty, the complex construction process, and her shifting meaning.

Historian and author William I. Hitchcock argues that Americans were not simply indifferent to the rise of fascism before World War II. From Mussolini’s rise in 1922 to Pearl Harbor in 1941, the nation engaged in intense debates over the threat—and appeal—of authoritarianism. Initially focused on the New Deal and avoiding foreign conflicts, Franklin D. Roosevelt gradually recognized fascism’s dangers. Influenced by journalists, advisers, and activists, he helped build a coalition committed to defending democracy, human rights, and freedom worldwide.

In Plato’s time the South of Italy was known as “Greater Greece,” the beautiful land settled in the centuries after 800 B.C.E. by colonists from the Greek mainland. Author Ross King examines how these settlers brought trade and prosperity as well as their religion, customs, alphabet, and language. They also nurtured on Italian soil the political, philosophical, and artistic foundations that would influence and support the world of the Ancient Romans and, much later, that of the Italian Renaissance.

In classical antiquity, Gibraltar inspired the original idea that the Earth was divided into distinct continents. Sailors, poets, and geographers saw Gibraltar as a natural marker separating the Mediterranean from the Atlantic and Europe from Africa. This idea had lasting global ramifications, and the geography of the Strait of Gibraltar helped create the pattern of European imperialism and the trajectory of the slave trade. Historian Geoffrey Plank traces Gibraltar’s story from its connections across the Mediterranean to its role as a symbolic boundary between continents, cultures, and religions.