$12 million -- That's the whopping number of dollars Oprah Winfrey handed over to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the museum announced Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. Winfrey's name will adorn a 350-seat theater in the new museum, which is slated to open in 2015 on the National Mall. She already donated $1 million to the project in 2007 and has served on the museum's advisory council since 2004.

See the process involved when a massive specimen arrives at the Smithsonian

We asked visitors to the National Mall what they thought should be in the Smithsonian collections in 2050. The consensus? Lady Gaga and much more...

Aerial America: Wilderness premieres Sunday, Sept. 7 at 9PM ET/PT

Carefully planned gardens provide visitors a place to relax and reflect during their visit to the Smithsonian.

We asked visitors to the National Mall what they thought should be in the Smithsonian collections in 2050. The consensus? Lady Gaga and much more...

Behind the scenes of Smithsonian magazine's iPad app. To learn more about the app, visit: http://www.smithsonian.com/app

Home to the worlds largest shell collection, the Smithsonian catalogues and studies shells both large and small, spiky and smooth (Brendan McCabe).

A pair of 3-year-old giant pandas—a male named Bao Li and a female called Qing Bao—have officially arrived at the Zoo, where they will first acclimate to their new home

The pachyderm, named Kamala, was suffering from osteoarthritis when zoo staff chose to euthanize her

A Two-Day Festival in the historic Arts & Industries Building brings community, artists and scholars together for a “Culture Lab”

By raising her son to be curious about the natural world, this mother helped shape the trajectory of the National Museum of Natural History

Archives, Room Use Only - TK5118.H5 S66 1858

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has opened a new Public Observatory that contains a 16-inch, 3,000-pound Boller and Chivens telescope, on loan from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Through this powerful telescope, museum visitors can now observe the sun (with a special filter), the moon and the brighter stars and planets, such as Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, during daylight hours. Funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation.

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Dennis W. Kelly has been named director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., effective Feb. 15, 2010.

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It’s not an exaggeration to say Hedrick was ecstatic when she peered into her inverted phase contrast microscope and found "Amphisolenia quadrispina" floating in her sample. “For 20 years I’ve been hoping to see something like this,” she says.

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Take to the water with this behind-the-scenes video about Maryland blue crab research at the Smithsonian's Environmental Research Center. Fisheries Ecologist Eric Johnson takes viewers on a journey along the Rhode River to show how scientists tag and monitor Maryland blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

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On Aug. 10, 1846, U.S. President James K. Polk signed the legislation that established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust administered by a Board of […]

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Two scientists at the Smithsonian Institution have been honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for their innovative research and scientific leadership. It is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

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The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has released the first completely portable bilingual species identification guide for the shore fishes of the tropical Eastern Pacific as a free iPhone application.

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A baby boom is underway at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Two Guam rail (Gallirallus owstoni) chicks hatched March 3 and 4; they join six others in the Zoo’s collection—three of which live at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.

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If you love new animal species and have an Internet connection, chances are you have already seen the beautiful new golden bat species, Myotis midastactus. […]

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Among the bats, rats and other ferocious animals that lie within the storage drawers of the mammal collection in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural […]

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“The Smithsonian Institution”―When most people hear the name, museums, scientific research, even Dorothy’s ruby slippers and the Wright brothers’ plane come to mind. But many […]

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There’s something exciting and strange about having an idea. It can come suddenly. Unexpectedly. Randomly. Intensely. Ideas can uninvitingly appear full-forced and bright—like the cliché […]

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With roughly 5,500 individuals remaining in the wild, the black rhino population is critically endangered. To help save these iconic African giants, at risk for […]

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People often use the words turtle and tortoise interchangeably, but these reptiles have distinct differences: Turtle shells are typically more flattened and not as deeply […]

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Smithsonian scientists have joined NASA and other organizations this summer to do something incredible: launch a spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, into space and have […]

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Every queen deserves a castle, and the ruler of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s naked mole-rat colony is no different. After 27 years in a maze […]

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The National Museum of Natural History will permanently display the Dom Pedro Aquamarine, which is the largest single piece of cut-gem aquamarine in the world, beginning Dec. 6.

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In a 24-hour-period between July 9 and 10, 2009 a clouded leopard cub, a Przewalski's horse, and a red panda cub were all born at Smithsonian's National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia.

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John Ososky, preparator in the Osteology Laboratory at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., explains how skeletons of animal specimens are prepared for exhibtion and for study—with the assistance of nearly 1 million flesh-eating beetles.

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When animal care staff at the Smithsonian's National Zoo need to know when to breed their pandas or when to expect a cub they turn to the Endocrine (Hormones) Research Lab at the Zoo's Front Royal, Va. facility.

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Dr. JoGayle Howard of the Smithsonian's National Zoo discusses her work to breed and study one of the world's most endangered cats, the clouded leopard. More about the National Zoo's work to save clouded leopards: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/SCBI/ReproductiveScience/ConsEn...
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/support/annualappeal/cloudedleo... ... (more info)

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Animal care staff at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, are hand-rearing the pair of clouded leopard cubs born on March 28, increasing the chances that the cubs will be more successful at breeding later in their life.

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Kari Bruwelheide, forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, discusses how she came to work at the museum, the power of human remains and the information that bones can contain. She and her colleagues continue to discover new ways to interpret evidence from bones and burials.

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Meet the Smithsonian's Matthew Carrano, curator of Dinosauria at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Matthew studies all things dinosaur, but focuses on the evolutionary history of predatory (meat eating) dinosaurs.

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Meet Smithsonian scientist Justin Touchon, a National Science Foundation (NSF) postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

Justin's work focuses on developmental ecology and reproductive plasticity of the hourglass treefrog (Dendropsophus ebraccatus) and red-eyed treefrog (Agalychnis callidryas). Justin and his advisor, Karen Warkentin, were the first to have witnessed the frogs laying eggs in water, in addition to doing so on land -- something with major implications for the evolutionary biology of similar creatures.

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This film is from the collections of the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Clip from silent film, Beautiful Japan (1917-18), by travel-lecturer Benjamin Brodsky. Benten Festival is celebrated on Shiraishi Island. Benten (Benzaiten) is the Goddess of the Sea and one of the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan.

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Clip from silent edited film "Bryson Jones Travelogue: Lure of the West" (ca. 1927) shows Mount Rushmore National Memorial under construction, including blasting off cliff face, scaffolding, men working, and the completed monument.

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Silent black & white archival film clip from "Japan: Promotional and Theatrical Footage, ca. 1927". The full film, which is 17 minutes long, includes segments from what are believed to be a theatrical film, a promotional film and, possibly, amateur film - all of unknown origin.

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