Dark matter, memory, dragons and butterflies - all can be found this month in the area's museums. more ›

Suckers for Lost Generation literature and the birth of modern art have Gertrude Stein flavored events to look forward to this week. more ›

The 10th version of the first ladies exhibit opens today at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, featuring 26 dresses worn by first ladies as well as mementos from the days when the country referred to a first lady as "lady presidentress" or "republican queen.” more ›

The Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Bulding on the National Mall may soon have a new use: the location for the Smithsonian American Latino Museum. more ›

We've heard people say that the quickest way for authorities around the country to legitimize the Occupy Wall Street-related protest is to evict them from their tent camps. But the Smithsonian looking to curate a collection of signs and other artifacts from the protest probably comes in a close second, doesn't it? more ›

Late gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny will lie in state in the Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square on November 3 between 3 and 8 p.m. more ›

In a "breaking news" article, American Spectator editor Patrick Howley admitted to having infiltrated the Action Committee protest and being a key participant, and perhaps instigator, of the group that tried to gain entry into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on Saturday. more ›

Good morning, Washington. The National Air and Space Museum closed Saturday and at least one person was pepper-sprayed after hundreds of anti-war demonstrators tried to enter the museum to protest a drone exhibit. The group was carrying signs that are forbidden inside, and some individuals reportedly began shoving guards when asked to leave the signage at the door. more ›

A group that may have been affiliated with Occupy D.C. or the Stop the Machine movement was maced while trying to protest at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum this afternoon. The museum is now closed. more ›

This Saturday is Museum Day, where museums across the country open their doors à la the Smithsonian and let the public in for free. more ›

So this is how we got to spy on Boris and Natasha. For today only, until 5:30 p.m., the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum will be hosting a free, public viewing of the newly declassified HEXAGON (KH-9) satellite in the parking lot of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The now hefty, ten-foot in diameter relic of the cold war took pictures of the Soviet Union and other targets from 1971 to the early 1980s during its lifespan. more ›

Today marks the 165th birthday of the Smithsonian Institution -- so we thought we'd help celebrate with a collection of our favorite photographs from every museum, building or panda habitat the Smithsonian offers to Washington. more ›

This week we were saddened to hear that, for the sixth time, Mei Xiang did not have a Butterstick in the oven. But these cuddly pictures should tamp down some of the sturm und drang. more ›

City Paper’s Arts Desk occasionally features musings from D.C. rapper Head-Roc, who on Friday wrote fervently about what he sees as the burgeoning return of go-go music. more ›

Local videographer and DCist reader Raymond Schillinger read our post about yesterday's celebration of aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe's 1861 military balloon reconnaissance demonstration in front of the Smithsonian Castle, and sent in this video he recorded during the event, including a nice time-lapse of the balloon being inflated. more ›

Chris Richards, about as close as civilization is ever going to get to a bona fide scholar on the Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership, reports today that the Unidentified Funky Object has a new owner: the Smithsonian. more ›

A public meeting will be held tonight to discuss the long-term future of the D.C. Circulator, including a potential fare hike and the extension and creation of new routes over the next couple of years. But the D.C. Department of Transportation has instituted some more immediate changes which will go into effect tomorrow, including the termination of service along the Smithsonian-National Gallery of Art route. more ›

Former professional baseballer Pedro Martinez is having a couple of busy days in Washington. Tomorrow, Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery will unveil a portrait of the Dominican star, who won the World Series in 2004 and made eight All-Star teams. Until then, Martinez will spend his time in town running a mini-clinic with -- who else? -- Mayor Vince Gray. more ›

It's obvious that the Smithsonian Institution doesn't keep up with Reddit. Otherwise, they probably would have realized that a set of Smithsonian advertisements -- created by two students in 2009 at Atlanta's Creative Circus and bearing the Institutions' name along with some clever copy -- were burning up the Internet before one of the designers tipped them off. more ›

The oldest structure owned by the Smithsonian, the Holt House, sits on the grounds of the National Zoo - yet you've likely never visited it, nor possibly known of its existence. The house, which can be seen from Adams Mill Road, was built in 1810. The estate was one of many large country estates built on Rock Creek Park during the early years of our Federal city. The house is within the boundaries of an old land grant known as “Pretty Prospects.” Now, the Holt House is one of the few estates that remains, and it's not in great shape. more ›

As the temporary collection they created notched its 5,000th visitor, Mike Blasenstein and Michael Dax Iacovone -- the pair who were "banned" from the Smithsonian museums last December after protesting the removal of David Wojnarowicz's "A Fire in My Belly" from the National Portrait Gallery -- are now allowed to return to the the Institution's museums. more ›

A fire broke out inside a cooling tower near the National Museum of Natural History this morning, creating a large cloud of smoke over the National Mall which was visible for miles. more ›

We'll be sure to remind you as the date gets closer, but you'll probably want to get it on your calendar in advance: as part of their Year of Three-Day Weekend Closures, both the Federal Triangle and Smithsonian stations will be closed on Presidents Day weekend, February 18-21. more ›

It's been nearly two months since the Smithsonian removed David Wojnarowicz's "A Fire in My Belly," and the criticism towards Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough’s decision has not died down. In fact, one of the Smithsonian's own museums, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden released a statement on their website decrying the precedent that Clough set. more ›

News came out late this week that the Museum of Modern Art in New York has acquired the video, David Wojnarowicz's "A Fire in My Belly," that the Smithsonian removed from an exhibit in the National Portrait Gallery in December. The MoMA, a private institution, has certainly never scared away from exhibiting controversial art. While this is certainly a powerful statement to the merit of the video, as Kriston Capps points out, it seems the more subversive move goes to the Museum of Censored Art, which opened next to the National Portrait Gallery this week. more ›