Well-researched stories from Smithsonian Magazine, Sapiens, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Anthropological archaeologist Amy V. Margaris argues that to do our best science, we need a diverse group of practitioners—in the field and in the museum.

Refusing to loan a friend money can have social repercussions. What strategies do would-be lenders use to make these interactions less fraught?

Finished in October 1825, the Erie Canal connected increasingly specialized regions, altering the economic landscape of the northeast United States.

The Heinz Gaube Lebanese Architectural Photographs Collection, supported by an innovative mapping project, details threatened buildings across Lebanon.

The brevity of the Fifteenth Amendment of the US Constitution belies its impact on American voting rights.

The largest fish, Rhincodon typus, is obviously not a whale, but it’s also unusual for a shark.

But these phenomena, spun off ejections from the Sun, aren’t easy to study.

Shakespeare's tragedy offers a telling parable about the administration of justice—and rife mishandling thereof—in our day.

By exposing his skin on a sunny day, King Edward VIII offered a reminder that a monarch is, after all, nothing but a person.