Search results for ""Smithsonian""

A comprehensive portrait of the controversial self-taught archaeologist C. C. Abbott. In the late nineteenth century, Charles Conrad Abbott, a medical doctor and self-taught archaeologist, gained notoriety for his theories on early humans. He believed in an American Paleolithic, represented by an early Ice Age occupation of the New World that paralleled that of Europe, a popular scientific topic at the time. He attempted to prove that the Trenton gravels—glacial outwash deposits near the Delaware River—contained evidence of an early, primitive population that pre-dated Native Americans. His theories were ultimately overturned in acrimonious public debate with government scientists, most notably William Henry Holmes of the Smithsonian Institution. His experience—and the rise and fall of his scientific reputation—paralleled a major shift in the field toward an increasing professionalization of archaeology (and science as a whole). This is the first biography of Charles Conrad Abbott to address his archaeological research beyond the Paleolithic debate, including his early attempts at historical archaeology on Burlington Island in the Delaware River, and prehistoric Middle Woodland collections made throughout his lifetime at Three Beeches in New Jersey, now the Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark. It also delves into his modestly successful career as a nature writer. As an archaeologist, he held a position with the Peabody Museum at Harvard University and was the first curator of the American Section at the Penn Museum. He also attempted to create a museum of American archaeology at Princeton University. Through various sources including archival letters and diaries, this book provides the most complete picture of the quirky and curmudgeonly, C. C. Abbott.

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The Look of the Book assesses the role of the city of Shiraz in Iranian book production between the early fourteenth and mid-fifteenth centuries. It is the first detailed analysis of all aspects of the book--illumination, codicology, illustration, calligraphy, and binding--during this significant era when the "look of the book" was transformed. Four periods of change are identified: the years following 1340, until the end of Injuid rule in Shiraz; the later 1350s and the 1360s, during Muzaffarid rule; the years from 1409 to 1415, when the Timurid prince Iskandar Sultan was governor of Shiraz; and the decade (1435-45) following the death of Ibrahim Sultan, Iskandar's cousin and successor as governor. Although the focus is Shiraz, the author’s comparative and chronological approach to the material means production elsewhere in Iran is also considered, while the results of the study increase our understanding of the history and development of the arts of the book not only in Shiraz, or even Iran as whole, but also in other centers of the Islamic world that followed the Iranian model. Highlights of this book, which is heavily illustrated with exquisite illuminated manuscript pages, are its examination of illumination, an overlooked area of book production; the codicological aspects of the manuscripts, including paper and text layout; and the development of nasta‘liq script. The manuscripts studied are held in more than fifty collections, primarily those in Dublin (Chester Beatty Library), Istanbul (Topkapi Palace Library and Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts), London (British Library), Oxford (Bodleian Library); Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale de France); and Washington, DC (Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution).

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For fans of Where the Crawdads Sing, this “marvelous debut” (Alice McDermott, National Book Award–winning author of The Ninth Hour) follows a Washington, DC, artist as she faces her past and the secrets held in the waters of Florida’s lush swamps and wetlands.Loni Murrow is an accomplished bird artist at the Smithsonian who loves her job. But when she receives a call from her younger brother summoning her back home to help their obstinate mother recover after an accident, Loni’s neat, contained life in Washington, DC, is thrown into chaos, and she finds herself exactly where she does not want to be. Going through her mother’s things, Loni uncovers scraps and snippets of a time in her life she would prefer to forget—a childhood marked by her father Boyd’s death by drowning. When Loni comes across a single, cryptic note from a stranger—“There are some things I have to tell you about Boyd’s death”—she begins a dangerous quest to discover the truth, all the while struggling to reconnect with her mother and reconcile with her brother and his wife. To make matters worse, she meets a man whose attractive simple charm threatens to pull her back towards everything she’s worked to escape. Torn between worlds—her professional accomplishments in Washington, and the small town of her childhood—Loni must decide whether to delve beneath the surface into murky half-truths and avenge the past or bury it, once and for all. “Fans of Delia Owens and Lauren Groff will find this a wonderful and absorbing read” (Suzanne Feldman, author of Sisters of the Great War).

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Learn all the essential facts about volcanoes and earthquakes in this illustrated, interactive, and educational activity book for kids.What happens when a volcano erupts? Why do earthquakes hit particular places? How do tsunamis occur? SI Active Learning: Volcanoes & Earthquakes covers all these questions and more! Children will have fun learning through doing, with dozens of different activity types to fully engage with and explore geology.Kids aged 8–12 will be occupied for hours as they pore over the information-packed pages in this natural science book and tackle the wide range of puzzles and activities – including mazes and tangles, code-breakers, matching games, anagrams, word searches, logic games, classification and identification games, quizzes, sudoku, odd one out, drawing, and coloring. This exciting volcanoes and earthquakes book for children includes: - Fascinating facts and information with write-in exercises and activities inspiring children to truly understand and engage with geology.- Over 100 fun activities and puzzles to help children learn and test their knowledge.- Detailed, high-quality illustrations and photography, alongside engaging text.- In-depth information on earthquakes, volanoes and how earth science works.This book on geology for kids is filled with fascinating facts, detailed illustrations, and over 100 write-in activities and puzzles to keep budding volcanologists busy, and to inspire children to truly engage with natural science. Active Learning, in collaboration with the Smithsonian, is a brand new series of interactive, educational activity books combining accessible information with engaging activities and puzzles. Designed to support teachers, educators, and parents around the world, Active Learning books are ideal for supplementing your child’s education at home.

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An examination of kings' courts and lords' courts in Normandy that opens a new chapter in the debate over absolutism, sovereignty, and the nature of the state in early modern France. Hidden deep in the countryside of France lay early modern Europe's largest bureaucracy: twenty- to thirty-thousand royal bailiwick and seigneurial courts that served more than eighty-five percent of the king's subjects. The crowncourts and lords' courts were far more than arenas of litigation, in the modern sense. They had become the nexus of local governance by the middle of the seventeenth century, a rich breeding ground for men who controlled the villages, towns, and bailiwicks of France. Yet even as the centralizing state was reaching its zenith under Louis XIV, the king's largest permanent bureaucracy became increasingly alienated and cut adrift from the crown, many decades before the French Revolution. In The King's Bench, Zoë Schneider vividly brings to life the teeming world of the local courts, with their magistrates and jailers, townspeople and peasants. Together they contested that vital border where the private world of families and property collided with the public commonwealth. Schneider chronicles the transformation of local governance after the mid-seventeenth century, as judges and their courts became the face of public order in the countryside. With this richly detailed local study of Normandy in the seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries, Zoë Schneider opens a new chapter in the debate over absolutism, sovereignty, and the nature of the state in early modern France. Zoë A. Schneider has taught at Georgetown University and with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

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Barkcloth or tapa, a cloth made from the inner bark of trees, was widely used in place of woven cloth in the Pacific islands until the 19th century. A ubiquitous material, it was integral to the lives of islanders and used for clothing, furnishings and ritual artefacts. Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth takes a new approach to the study of the history of this region through its barkcloth heritage, focusing on the plants themselves and surviving objects in historic collections. This object-focused approach has filled gaps in our understanding of the production and use of this material through an investigation of this unique fabric’s physical properties, transformation during manufacture and the regional history of its development in the 18th and 19th centuries.The book is the outcome of a research project which focused on three important collections of barkcloth at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. It also looks more widely at the value of barkcloth artefacts in museum collections for enhancing both contemporary practice and a wider appreciation of this remarkable fabric. The contributors include academics, curators, conservators and makers of barkcloth from Oceania and beyond, in an interdisciplinary study which draws together insights from object-based and textual reseach, fieldwork and tapa making, and information on the plants used to make fibres and colourants.This book will be of interest to tapa makers, museum professionals including curators and conservators; academics and students in the fields of anthropology, museum studies and conservation; museum visitors and anyone interested in finding out more about barkcloth.

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In the early 1970s, Nancy Rexroth began photographing the rural landscapes, children, white frame houses, and domestic interiors of southeastern Ohio with a plastic toy camera called the Diana. Working with the camera’s properties of soft focus and vignetting, and further manipulating the photographs by deliberately blurring or sometimes overlaying them, Rexroth created dreamlike, poetic images of “my own private landscape, a state of mind.” She called this state IOWA because the photographs seemed to reference her childhood summer visits to relatives in Iowa. Rexroth self-published her evocative images in 1977 in the book IOWA, and the photographic community responded immediately and strongly to the work. Aperture published a portfolio of IOWA images in a special issue, The Snapshot, alongside the work of Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, and Emmet Gowin. The International Center for Photography, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution included IOWA images in group exhibitions.Forty years after its original publication, IOWA has become a classic of fine art photography, a renowned demonstration of Rexroth’s ability to fashion a world of surprising aesthetic possibilities using a simple, low-tech dollar camera. Long out of print and highly prized by photographers and photobook collectors, IOWA is now available in a hardcover edition that includes twenty-two previously unpublished images. Accompanying the photographs are a new foreword by Magnum photographer and book maker Alec Soth and an essay by internationally acclaimed curator Anne Wilkes Tucker, who affirms the continuing power and importance of IOWA within the photobook genre. New postscripts by Nancy Rexroth and Mark L. Power, who wrote the essay in the first edition, complete the volume.

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Take a trip back in time to an astonishing lost world.See a huge variety of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals come to life in mind-blowing detail. This is the ultimate visual encyclopedia about dinosaurs!Feathered, furry and scaly - they're all here! It's the perfect dinosaur book for children aged 9-12 years. Here's what you'll find inside:- Exclusive images of the world's best and most complete dinosaur fossils photographed on location in North America and Europe- Brand-new, exclusive digital images that reflect the most important new findings on feathered dinosaurs- The content covers key curriculum topics in geography, biology, and science- Created in association with the world-renowned Smithsonian InstitutionThis children's educational book about dinosaurs is packed with incredible facts about dinosaurs, stunning life-like reconstructed images and additional information about habitat, diet, and behaviour. Based on the latest research and up-to-date information, you'll find everything from woolly mammoths and dinosaur eggs to Tyrannosauroids and Pterosaurs. More than 100 prehistoric species are featured in this fascinating dinosaur reference book. You might be familiar with the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops, but have you ever seen horse-eating birds and millipedes the size of crocodiles? Then look no further. Other topics such as evolution, fossilisation, and climate change are explored in-depth to build up a complete picture of the dinosaur era.Dinosaurs A Children's Encyclopedia is part of the series of award-winning, best-selling DK children encyclopedias and has been completely revised. More than just a catalogue of facts and photos - it's a visual celebration of the history of all life on Earth, with a special focus on dinosaurs and the prehistoric world.

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Take a trip back in time to an astonishing lost world.See a huge variety of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals come to life in mind-blowing detail. This is the ultimate visual encyclopedia about dinosaurs!Feathered, furry, and scaly — they’re all here! It’s the perfect dinosaur book for children aged 9-12 years. Here’s what you’ll find inside: • Exclusive images of the world's best and most complete dinosaur fossils photographed on location in North America and Europe • Brand-new, exclusive digital images that reflect the most important new findings on feathered dinosaurs • The content covers key curriculum topics in geography, biology and science • Created in association with the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution This children’s educational book about dinosaurs is packed with incredible facts about dinosaurs, stunning life-like reconstructed images, and additional information about habitat, diet, and behavior. Based on the latest research and up-to-date information, you’ll find everything from woolly mammoths and dinosaur eggs to Tyrannosauroids and Pterosaurs. More than 100 prehistoric species are featured in this fascinating dinosaur reference book. You might be familiar with the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops, but have you ever seen horse-eating birds and millipedes the size of crocodiles? Then look no further. Other topics like evolution, fossilization and climate change are explored in-depth to build up a complete picture of the dinosaur era.Dinosaurs: A Visual Encyclopedia is part of the series of award-winning, best-selling DK children encyclopedias and has been completely revised. More than just a catalog of facts and photos — it’s a visual celebration of the history of all life on Earth, with a special focus on dinosaurs and the prehistoric world.

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Winner of the National Book Critics Circle AwardA Smithsonian Book of the YearA New York Review of Books “Best of 2020” SelectionA New York Times Best Art Book of the YearAn Art Newspaper Book of the YearA powerful document of the inner lives and creative visions of men and women rendered invisible by America’s prison system.More than two million people are currently behind bars in the United States. Incarceration not only separates the imprisoned from their families and communities; it also exposes them to shocking levels of deprivation and abuse and subjects them to the arbitrary cruelties of the criminal justice system. Yet, as Nicole Fleetwood reveals, America’s prisons are filled with art. Despite the isolation and degradation they experience, the incarcerated are driven to assert their humanity in the face of a system that dehumanizes them.Based on interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated artists, prison visits, and the author’s own family experiences with the penal system, Marking Time shows how the imprisoned turn ordinary objects into elaborate works of art. Working with meager supplies and in the harshest conditions—including solitary confinement—these artists find ways to resist the brutality and depravity that prisons engender. The impact of their art, Fleetwood observes, can be felt far beyond prison walls. Their bold works, many of which are being published for the first time in this volume, have opened new possibilities in American art.As the movement to transform the country’s criminal justice system grows, art provides the imprisoned with a political voice. Their works testify to the economic and racial injustices that underpin American punishment and offer a new vision of freedom for the twenty-first century.

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How Meatyard made a stage set of his native Kentucky to portray his circle of friends and compose his eerie tableaux Stages for Being examines the photography that Ralph Eugene Meatyard created in and around Lexington, Kentucky, where he found abandoned houses in the countryside to use as sets, and directed friends and family members in scenes that suggest both ritual and theater. Establishing mood with natural lighting, he used masks, dolls and found objects as unsettling props and mined architectural detail for abstract compositional elements. Meatyard culled inspiration from a wide variety of sources. An autodidact in areas as diverse as jazz, painting, literature, history and Zen Buddhism, his voracious reading sparked endless ideas for his carefully constructed photographs. His process was also informed by consistent dialogue with a robust group of Kentucky peers, including the writer, environmental activist and farmer Wendell Berry; photographers Van Deren Coke and Robert C. May; the Trappist monk Thomas Merton; the painter Frederic Thursz; and the writer, poet and philosopher Guy Davenport, all of whom worked in the region but were engaged with contemporary ideas and practice in their fields. Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925–72) attended Williams College as part of the Navy's V12 program in World War II. Following the war, he married, became a licensed optician and moved to Lexington, Kentucky. When the first of his three children was born, Meatyard bought a camera to make pictures of the baby. Photography quickly became a consuming interest. He joined the Lexington Camera Club, where he met Van Deren Coke, under whose encouragement he soon developed into a powerfully original photographer. Meatyard's work is housed at the Museum of Modern Art, George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, the Smithsonian Institution and many other important collections.

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This book tells the story of the last sword ever designed by a major power for its army to use as a weapon, not as an article of a dress uniform. The sword was the U.S. Model 1913 Cavalry Saber; the designer was George S. Patton, then a lieutenant on the staff of the Army chief of staff. Patton participated in the modern pentathlon in Stockholm in 1912, which included fencing, coming fifth overall. No one in the U.S. Army could be better suited, therefore, to design its last major edged weapon. The Last Sword provides an illustrated overview of the history of cavalry swords and their employment on the battlefield from the end of the Renaissance, through the Napoleonic Era, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, culminating with the Patton cavalry saber, and includes descriptions of a number of the more famous cavalry charges. Patton's unswerving belief in the value of horse-mounted cavalry, and in the value of those troopers and officers being equipped with the sword he designed, is described using his own words. He continued to advocate horse-mounted cavalry right up to the start of the Second World War. Though mechanized squadrons replaced the conventional cavalry, it was not quite the end of Patton's sword as some Model 1913 Cavalry Sabers were converted to fighting knives carried by GIs during the war. The book is fully illustrated with images from the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Museum of American History, the Library of Congress, the General George S. Patton Museum, the National Museum of the U.S. Army, the Connecticut Historical Society, and from private collections, most of which have never been published before.

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Artist-explorer John Mix Stanley (1814-1872), one of the most celebrated chroniclers of the American West in his time, was in a sense a victim of his own success. So highly regarded was his work that more than two hundred of his paintings were held at the Smithsonian Institution - where in 1865 a fire destroyed all but seven of them. This volume, featuring a comprehensive collection of Stanley's extant art, reproduced in full color, offers an opportunity - and ample reason - to rediscover the remarkable accomplishments of this outsize figure of nineteenth-century American culture. Originally from New York State, Stanley journeyed west in 1842 to paint Indian life. During the U.S.-Mexican War, he joined a frontier military expedition and traveled from Santa Fe to California, producing sketches and paintings of the campaign along the way - work that helped secure his fame in the following decades. He was also appointed chief artist for Isaac Stevens's survey of the 48th parallel for a proposed transcontinental railroad. The essays in this volume, by noted scholars of American art, document and reflect on Stanley's life and work from every angle. The authors consider the artist's experience on government expeditions; his solo tours among the Oregon settlers and western and Plains Indians; and his career in Washington and search for government patronage, as well as his individual works. With contributions by Emily C. Burns, Scott Manning Stevens, Lisa Strong, Melissa Speidel, Jacquelyn Sparks, and Emily C. Wilson, the essays in this volume convey the full scope of John Mix Stanley's artistic accomplishment and document the unfolding of that uniquely American vision throughout the artist's colorful life. Together they restore Stanley to his rightful place in the panorama of nineteenth-century American life and art.

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It was the American Dream by Mail Order --Smithsonian Americans have ordered from Sears, Roebuck just about everything they have needed for their homes for 100 years--but from 1908 to 1940, some 100,000 people also purchased their houses from this mail-order wizard. Sears ready-to-assemble houses were ordered by mail and shipped by rail wherever a boxcar or two could pull in to unload the meticulously precut lumber and all the materials needed to build an exceptionally sturdy and well-designed house. From Philadelphia, Pa., to Coldwater, Kans., and Cowley, Wyo., Sears put its guarantee on quality bungalows, colonials and Cape Cods, all with the latest modern conveniences--such as indoor plumbing. Houses by Mail tells the story of these precut houses and provides for the first time an incomparable guide to identifying Sears houses across the country. Arranged for easy identification in 15 sections by roof type, the book features nearly 450 house models with more than 800 illustrations, including drawings of the houses and floor plans. Because the Sears houses were built to last, thousands remain today to be discovered and restored. Houses by Mail shows how to return them to their original charm while it documents a highly successful business enterprise that embodied the spirit and domestic design of its time. "After decades of obscurity, Sears houses have become chic." --Wall Street Journal "These were . spacious, solidly built homes." --Parade "Don't be surprised if your own cozy bungalow turns up [in the book]."--Philadelphia Inquirer "A nostalgic and informative look at the tastes of Americans in the years before World War II."--Publishers Weekly "The bible to researchers of Sears' ready-cut homes."--Saturday Evening Post

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This book is the first deconstruction of the Wright brothers myth. They were not -- as we have all come to believe--two halves of the same apple. Each had a distinctive role in creating the first "flying machine." How could two misanthropic brothers who never left home, were high-school dropouts, and made a living as bicycle mechanics have figured out the secret of manned flight? This new history of the Wright brothers' monumental accomplishment focuses on their early years of trial and error at Kitty Hawk (1900-1903) and Orville Wright's epic fight with the Smithsonian Institute and Glenn Curtis. William Hazelgrove makes a convincing case that it was Wilbur Wright who designed the first successful airplane, not Orville. He shows that, while Orville's role was important, he generally followed his brother's lead and assisted with the mechanical details to make Wilbur's vision a reality. Combing through original archives and family letters, Hazelgrove reveals the differences in the brothers' personalities and abilities. He examines how the Wright brothers myth was born when Wilbur Wright died early and left his brother to write their history with personal friend John Kelly. The author notes the peculiar inwardness of their family life, business and family problems, bouts of depression, serious illnesses, and yet, rising above it all, was Wilbur's obsessive zeal to test out his flying ideas. When he found Kitty Hawk, this desolate location on North Carolina's Outer Banks became his laboratory. By carefully studying bird flight and the Rubik's Cube of control, Wilbur cracked the secret of aerodynamics and achieved liftoff on December 17, 1903. Hazelgrove's richly researched and well-told tale of the Wright brothers' landmark achievement, illustrated with rare historical photos, captures the excitement of the times at the start of the "American century."

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This beautiful and visually immersive book charts the fascinating story of the institution of the Museum, from its origins to the present. Visited by millions around the world every year, museums are one of mankind’s most essential creations. They tell stories, shape cultural identities and hold valuable insight about the past and about the future. This captivating works charts a path from the very first collection through to the latest developments in cultural curation, interweaving Using examples of the greatest cultural institutions to shape the narrative, historian and academic Owen Hopkins draws on his deep knowledge of the field to outline the history of the museum movement. Tracking the evolution from princely collections in Europe and the Enlightenment’s classically inspired temples of curiosities, via the public museums of the late nineteenth century, on to today’s global era oficonic buildings designed by the world’s leading architects, this book is a vital work for anyone seeking to understand the development of the museum into what it is today. Over the course of five chapters filled with stunning imagery that highlights the beauty of these venerated buildings, the origins of key institutions are revealed, including: Louvre Metropolitan Museum of Art British Museum Tate Modern The Hermitage Guggenheim Smithsonian Institute Acropolis Museum Also outlined are the motivations of the architects, curators and patrons who have shaped how we experience the modern museum, a cast that includes names such as King George II, Napoleon, Henry Clay Frick, Peggy Guggenheim, Andrew Carnegie, Alfred Barr, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers, Nicholas Serota and Zaha Hadid. By examining how these venues became intrinsic to our shared cultural experience, analysing the changing roles they play in society and questioning what the future holds in a digital age, this book is for anyone who has stood in awe at the spectacle of a museum.

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A revealing look at U.S. imperialism through the lens of visual culture and portraitureIn 1898, the United States seized territories overseas, ushering in an era of expansion that was at odds with the nation’s founding promise of freedom and democracy for all. This book draws on portraiture and visual culture to provide fresh perspectives on this crucial yet underappreciated period in history.Taína Caragol and Kate Clarke Lemay tell the story of 1898 by bringing together portraits of U.S. figures who favored overseas expansion, such as William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, with those of leading figures who resisted colonization, including Eugenio María de Hostos of Puerto Rico; José Martí of Cuba; Felipe Agoncillo of the Philippines; Padre Jose Bernardo Palomo of Guam; and Queen Lili‘uokalani of Hawai‘i. Throughout the book, Caragol and Lemay also look at landscapes, naval scenes, and ephemera. They consider works of art by important period artists Winslow Homer and Armando Menocal as well as contemporary artists such as Maia Cruz Palileo, Stephanie Syjuco, and Miguel Luciano. Paul A. Kramer’s essay addresses the role of the Smithsonian Institution in supporting imperialism, and texts by Jorge Duany, Theodore S. Gonzalves, Kristin L. Hoganson, Healoha Johnston, and Neil Weare offer critical perspectives by experts with close personal or scholarly relations to the island regions.Beautifully illustrated, 1898: Visual Culture and U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean and the Pacific challenges us to reconsider the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War, and the annexation of Hawai‘i while shedding needed light on the lasting impacts of U.S. imperialism.Published in association with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DCExhibition ScheduleNational Portrait Gallery, Washington, DCApril 28, 2023–February 25, 2024

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During the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration sent workers to interview over 2,200 former slaves about their experiences during slavery and the time immediately after the Civil War. The interviews conducted with the former Louisiana slaves often showed a different life from the slaves in neighboring states. Louisiana was unique among the slave-holding states because of French law and influence, as demonstrated in the standards set to govern slaves in Le Code Noir. Its history was also different from many Southern states because of the prevalence of large sugar cane as well as cotton plantations, which benefited from the frequent replenishment of rich river silt deposited by Mississippi River floods. At Frogmore Plantation, which is located in Louisiana across the Mississippi River from Natchez, co-owner Lynette Tanner has spent 16 years researching and interpreting the slave narratives in order to share these stories with visitors from around the globe. The plantation offers historical re-enactments, written by Tanner, that are performed by descendants of former Natchez District slaves. In this collection, Tanner gathered interviews conducted with former slaves who lived in Louisiana at the time of the interviews as well as narratives with those who had been enslaved in Louisiana but had moved to a different state by the 1930s. Their recollections of food, housing, clothing, weddings, and funerals, as well as treatment and relationships echo memories of an era, like no other, for which America still faces repercussions today. Lynette Tanner and her husband own Frogmore Plantation, a working cotton plantation and gin distillery, as well as Terre Noir, a second plantation in Concordia Parish. Tanner has received numerous awards for her preservation efforts and her promotion of Louisiana tourism. Tanner was the author and narrator of “The Delta: A Musical History” for the Smithsonian traveling exhibit which was on display in the La. Delta area.

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Artist-explorer John Mix Stanley (1814-1872), one of the most celebrated chroniclers of the American West in his time, was in a sense a victim of his own success. So highly regarded was his work that more than two hundred of his paintings were held at the Smithsonian Institution - where in 1865 a fire destroyed all but seven of them. This volume, featuring a comprehensive collection of Stanley's extant art, reproduced in full color, offers an opportunity - and ample reason - to rediscover the remarkable accomplishments of this outsize figure of nineteenth-century American culture. Originally from New York State, Stanley journeyed west in 1842 to paint Indian life. During the U.S.-Mexican War, he joined a frontier military expedition and traveled from Santa Fe to California, producing sketches and paintings of the campaign along the way - work that helped secure his fame in the following decades. He was also appointed chief artist for Isaac Stevens's survey of the 48th parallel for a proposed transcontinental railroad. The essays in this volume, by noted scholars of American art, document and reflect on Stanley's life and work from every angle. The authors consider the artist's experience on government expeditions; his solo tours among the Oregon settlers and western and Plains Indians; and his career in Washington and search for government patronage, as well as his individual works. With contributions by Emily C. Burns, Scott Manning Stevens, Lisa Strong, Melissa Speidel, Jacquelyn Sparks, and Emily C. Wilson, the essays in this volume convey the full scope of John Mix Stanley's artistic accomplishment and document the unfolding of that uniquely American vision throughout the artist's colorful life. Together they restore Stanley to his rightful place in the panorama of nineteenth-century American life and art.

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Objects: USA 2020 hails a new generation of artist-craftspeople by revisiting a groundbreaking event that redefined American art. In 1969, an exhibition opened at the Smithsonian Institution that redefined American art. Objects: USA united a cohort of artists inventing new approaches to art-making by way of craft media. Subsequently touring to twenty-two museums across the country, where it was viewed by over half a million Americans, and then to eleven cities in Europe, the exhibition canonized such artists as Anni Albers, Sheila Hicks, Wharton Esherick, Wendell Castle, and George Nakashima, and introduced others who would go on to achieve widespread art-world acclaim, including Dale Chihuly, Michele Oka Doner, J. B. Blunk, and Ron Nagle. Objects: USA 2020 revisits this revolutionary exhibition and its accompanying catalog - which has become a bible of sorts to curators, gallerists, dealers, craftspeople, and artists - by pairing fifty participants from the original exhibition with fifty contemporary artists representing the next generation of practitioners to use - and upend - the traditional methods and materials of craft to create new forms of art. Published to coincide with an exhibition of the same title at the renowned gallery R & Company, and featuring essays by some of the foremost authorities on craft at the intersection of art, including Glenn Adamson, curator and former director of the Museum of Arts & Design; James Zemaitis, curator and former head of twentieth-century design at Sotheby's; and Lena Vigna, curator of exhibitions at the Racine Art Musuem; an interview with Paul J. Smith, the cocurator of Objects: USA 2020 is an essential art historical reference that traces how craft was elevated to the status of museum-quality art, and sets its trajectory forward.

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In the lively, but desperate world of D.C.'s underbelly, a Black homeless man must quickly learn the ropes of being a detective after a wealthy ex-government official sets him up to take the fall for a brutal crime he didn’t commit. Christopher Chambers, author of A Prayer for Deliverance and Sympathy for the Devil (NAACP Image Award nominee) brings a 21st-century take on hardboiled noir tales in SCAVENGER, a gripping thriller underscored by themes of race, homelessness, hustling, and the savagery—and salvation—of the human psyche. The novel centers on Dickie Cornish, a Black streetwise survivor living in a homeless camp near D.C.’s Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Framed for the murder of two of his closest friends and facing life in prison, Dickie crosses paths with wealthy ex-Homeland Security Secretary, Jamie Bracht. Bracht offers him a chance at a new life if Dickie can navigate an underground world to uncover a prize Bracht will stop at nothing to acquire. As Dickie searches, SCAVENGER tracks its way through an underground population of Washington, D.C., where hustlers, drug addicts, homeless, and undocumented immigrants jostle for crumbs while trying to survive. Chambers paints a portrait of D.C. from the ground up, with back-alley streetscapes, gentrification clashes, and unexpected encounters between politicians and bottom-rung natives—all set against a soundscape of patois, street Spanish, and D.C. slang. A hopeless amateur detective at first, Dickie quickly learns the ropes of being a sleuth in a cat-and-mouse game of greed, deceit, double-crossing, and murder. As Washington City Paper notes: "Like Hammett with San Francisco or Chandler with Los Angeles, Chambers’ mystery is as much about Washington as it is about the amoral monsters who prey on ordinary people and the lone gumshoe who takes them on.”

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"The difference between Normski’s photograph of me and any other is that it captures my soul." — Goldie "He was a larger-than-life character, full of energy and totally motivating. He really was the hip hop photographer of the day in the UK." — Stereo MC’s "This book contains a striking catalogue of images, many of which have been exhibited by establishments such as Tate Britain, the V&A, Somerset House and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture." — Marcus Barnes "On the heels of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary, Man with the Golden Shutter is a celebratory record of hip-hop as much as it is a definitive collection of Normski’s incredible photographs." — GQ Middle East Normski was a vital witness to the period known as the Golden Age of Rap, when big US artists like Run DMC, LL Cool J and Public Enemy started to play in the UK. At the same time, a British music scene born of Black music and myriad multicultural influence was developing, giving birth to Jungle, Garage and Techno. The author, who describes himself as having been a “young Black British homeboy photographer”, was in the right place at the right time to document the emergent music, community and social movements of hip hop and rap in the UK. Normski: Man with the Golden Shutter presents Normski’s personal journey through that world from the mid-1980s to early 1990s. The book includes Normski’s often previously unseen photographs of Public Enemy, N.W.A., Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Goldie, Ice-T, Run DMC, Wu-Tang Clan and many others, alongside the photographer’s stories and anecdotes from the centre of what would become a hugely influential cultural movement.

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Physical Anthropology is the ninth volume in the Handbook of Middle American Indians, published in cooperation with the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University under the general editorship of Robert Wauchope (1909–1979). The volume editor is T. Dale Stewart (1901–1997), senior physical anthropologist of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, former director of its Museum of Natural History, and a past president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. The articles in this volume, together with illustrations, tabular data, bibliographies, and index, constitute an invaluable reference work on the human biology of Middle America and its relationships to human society and culture. Contents include the following articles: “History of Physical Anthropology,” by Juan Comas “Preceramic Human Remains,” by Arturo Romano “Anthropometry of Late Prehistoric Human Remains,” by Santiago Genovés T. “Dental Mutilation, Trephination, and Cranial Deformation,” by Javier Romero “Pre-Hispanic Osteopathology,” by Eusebio Dávalos Hurtado “Anthropometry of Living Indians,” by Johanna Faulhaber “Distribution of Blood Groups,” by G. Albin Matson “Physiological Studies,” by D. F. Roberts and Marshall T. Newman “Skin, Hair, and Eyes,” a series including “Introduction,” by T. D. Stewart; “Dermatoglyphics,” by Marshall T. Newman; “Hair,” by Mildred Trotter and Oliver H. Duggins; and “Color of Eyes and Skin,” by T. D. Stewart “Physical Plasticity and Adaptation,” by T. D. Stewart “Pathology of Living Indians as Seen in Guatemala,” by Nevin S. Scrimshaw and Carlos Tejada “Psychobiometry,” by Javier Romero The Handbook of Middle American Indians was assembled and edited at the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University with the assistance of grants from the National Science Foundation and under the sponsorship of the National Research Council Committee on Latin American Anthropology.

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George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882) was the first to reveal the menace of environmental misuse, to explain its causes, and to prescribe reforms. David Lowenthal here offers fresh insights, from new sources, into Marsh’s career and shows his relevance today, in a book which has its roots in but wholly supersedes Lowenthal’s earlier biography George Perkins Marsh: Versatile Vermonter (1958). Marsh’s devotion to the repair of nature, to the concerns of working people, to women’s rights, and to historical stewardship resonate more than ever. His Vermont birthplace is now a national park chronicling American conservation, and the crusade he launched is now global. Marsh’s seminal book Man and Nature is famed for its ecological acumen. The clue to its inception lies in Marsh’s many-sided engagement in the life of his time. The broadest scholar of his day, he was an acclaimed linguist, lawyer, congressman, and renowned diplomat who served 25 years as U.S. envoy to Turkey and to Italy. He helped found and guide the Smithsonian Institution, shaped the Washington Monument, penned potent tracts on fisheries and on irrigation, spearheaded public science, art, and architecture. He wrote on camels and corporate corruption, Icelandic grammar and Alpine glaciers. His pungent and provocative letters illuminate life on both sides of the Atlantic. Like Darwin’s Origin of Species, Marsh’s Man and Nature marked the inception of a truly modern way of looking at the world, of taking care lest we irreversibly degrade the fabric of humanized nature we are bound to manage. Marsh’s ominous warnings inspired reforestation, watershed management, soil conservation, and nature protection in his day and ours. George Perkins Marsh: Prophet of Conservation was awarded the Association for American Geographers' 2000 J. B. Jackson Prize. The book was also on the shortlist for the first British Academy Book Prize, awarded in December 2001.

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When the Smithsonian's Hall of Physical Anthropology opened in 1965 it featured 160 Andean skulls affixed to a wall to visualize how the world's human population had exploded since the birth of Christ. Through a history of Inca mummies, a pre-Hispanic surgery called trepanation, and Andean crania like these, Empires of the Dead explains how "ancient Peruvians" became the single largest population in the Smithsonian and many other museums in Peru, the Americas, and beyond. In 1532, when Spain invaded the Inca empire, Europeans learned that Inca and Andean peoples made their ancestors sacred by preserving them with the world's oldest practices of artificial mummification. To extinguish their power, the Spaniards collected these ancestors as specimens of conquest, science, nature, and race. Yet colonial Andean communities also found ways to keep the dead alive, making "Inca mummies" a symbol of resistance that Spanish American patriots used to introduce Peruvian Independence and science to the world. Inspired, nineteenth-century US anthropologists disinterred and collected Andean mummies and skulls to question the antiquity and civilization of the American "race" in publications, world's fairs, and US museums. Peruvian scholars then used those mummies and skulls to transform anthropology itself, curating these "scientific ancestors" as evidence of pre-Hispanic superiority in healing. Bringing together the history of science, race, and museums' possession of Indigenous remains, from the sixteenth century to the twentieth, Empires of the Dead illuminates how South American ancestors became coveted mummies, skulls, and specimens of knowledge and nationhood. In doing so it reveals how Peruvian and Andean peoples have learned from their dead, seeking the recovery of looted heritage in the centuries before North American museums began their own work of decolonization.

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A New Statesman Best Book of the Year 2023. A Waterstones Book of the Year 2023. An Economist Book of the Year. One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best History Books of 2023. A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year 2023. One of History Workshop's 'Radical Reads' for 2023. Winner of the Voltaire Medal. We have long been taught to presume that modern global history began when the 'Old World' encountered the 'New', when Christopher Columbus 'discovered' America in 1492. But, as Caroline Dodds Pennock conclusively shows in this groundbreaking book, for tens of thousands of Aztecs, Maya, Totonacs, Inuit and others - enslaved people, diplomats, explorers, servants, traders - the reverse was true: they discovered Europe. For them, Europe comprised savage shores, a land of riches and marvels, yet perplexing for its brutal disparities of wealth and quality of life, and its baffling beliefs. The story of these Indigenous Americans abroad is a story of abduction, loss, cultural appropriation, and, as they saw it, of apocalypse - a story that has largely been absent from our collective imagination of the times. From the Brazilian king who met Henry VIII to the Aztecs who mocked up human sacrifice at the court of Charles V; from the Inuk baby who was put on show in a London pub to the mestizo children of Spaniards who returned 'home' with their fathers; from the Inuit who harpooned ducks on the Avon river to the many servants employed by Europeans of every rank: here are a people who were rendered exotic, demeaned, and marginalised, but whose worldviews and cultures had a profound impact on European civilisation. Drawing on their surviving literature and poetry and subtly layering European eyewitness accounts against the grain, Pennock gives us a sweeping account of the Indigenous American presence in, and impact on, early modern Europe.

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Superb Yokai images from the world's leading museums and private collections!Japan's vast pantheon of supernatural creatures includes demons (yokai), monsters, ogres (oni), ghosts (yurei) and magicians—mythical beings from folklore and popular culture which continue to thrill readers of traditional stories and manga today.This richly illustrated book by Andreas Marks, the leading authority on Japanese woodblock prints, presents authentic illustrations and descriptions of 100 different creatures, including: Bakeneko: Monster cats in human form who lick lamp oil and prey on humans born in the year of the Rat Han'nya: Female demons with sharp and pointed horns, metallic eyes and a smirking smile Hihi: Large ape-like monsters who live in the mountains and have superhuman strength, enabling them to kidnap and kill humans Mikoshi-nyudo: Yokai with an enormously extended necks who appear only at night And many more! The striking visual examples in this book are drawn from the rich canon of early Japanese prints, books, and paintings—sourced from leading museums, libraries and private collections worldwide. They show the "original" forms and appearances of the creatures which form the basis for all subsequent depictions.Also included are two long handscrolls from the Minneapolis Institute of Art (A Collection of Monsters and Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) which are reproduced here for the very first time.Prints and Paintings sourced from the following list of museums, libraries and private collections:Art Institute of ChicagoChristie's, London & New YorkThe Cleveland Museum of ArtHarold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young UniversityKyoto University, Main LibraryLibrary of CongressLos Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of ArtMinneapolis Institute of ArtNational Museum of Japanese HistoryPrinceton University LibraryRijksmuseum, AmsterdamSmithsonian Libraries

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Botanica Magnifica features two hundred and fifty stunning photographs of rare and exotic plants and flowers by Hasselblad Laureate Award winner Jonathan Singer. Botanica Magnifica features two hundred and fifty stunning photographs by Hasselblad Laureate Award winner Jonathan Singer, representing—in the words of an ARTnews critic—rare or exotic plants and flowers “in large scale and exquisite detail, emerging from the shadows in a manner evocative of Old Master paintings.” The original edition of Botanica Magnifica, consisting of five lavishly hand-bound volumes, was limited to just ten copies, the first of which was recently donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The extra-large “double-elephant” format of that edition was chosen in homage to the famous double-elephant folio of The Birds of America, and indeed, Botanica Magnifica is one of the few works of natural history ever to rival Audubon’s magnum opus in its scope and artistry. In praise of the double-elephant folio of Botanica Magnifica, the Smithsonian’s Chairman of Botany attested, “Everyone who has seen the photographs . . . has been tremendously impressed with the power, scale, and depth of the work.” Now Singer’s remarkable images are available to the public for the first time in this baby-elephant folio of Botanica Magnifica. Like the larger edition, this volume is organized into five alphabetically arranged sections, each introduced by a gatefold page that displays one extraordinary plant at a luxurious size. Each pictured plant is accompanied by a clear and accessible description of its botany, geography, folklore, history, and conservation. With its marvelous reproductions and fascinating text, the baby-elephant folio of Botanica Magnifica is one of the most impressive volumes of natural history ever published. This volume is also available in a leatherbound, slipcased edition.

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This is the definitive story of one of the longest and most controversial conflicts in US history.Created in association with the Smithsonian Institution, this authoritative history of the Vietnam War examines the key figures and events of the conflict, and its lasting effects on the world. This history book for adults combines compelling text with maps and archive photography, A Short History of the Vietnam War is an all-encompassing showcase of every aspect of the fighting and the wider political landscape, from the struggle for civil rights to the treatment of prisoners.Inside the pages of this retelling of America's bloodiest conflict, you'll discover:- Vivid, moving, and informative details of the Vietnam war, including eyewitness accounts and iconic photographs - A clear and compelling account of the conflict, in short, self-contained events from the Battle of Ia Drang to the Tet Offensive and The Khmer Rouge - Biography spreads highlighting major military and political figures- Features on everyday life in the war offering additional context- Stunning image spreads displaying weapons, spy gear, and other equipment that defined the war- Maps and feature boxes provide additional information on major events during the conflictDetailed descriptions of events, from Operation Passage to Freedom to the evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon, are brought to life with eyewitness accounts and iconic photographs. Gallery pages present collections of infantry weapons, artillery, aircraft, and armoured vehicles, while diagrams and maps show exactly how battles and decisive moments unfolded, and biographical entries provide essential insight into the roles of significant individuals from Henry Kissinger to General Thieu.The perfect read for the military history enthusiast, A Short History of the Vietnam War is a stirring visual record of the suffering, sacrifice, and heroism that occurred in America's bloodiest ever conflicts.

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“When you first view Rose-Lynn Fisher’s photographs, you might think you’re looking down at the world from an airplane, at dunes, skyscrapers or shorelines. In fact, you’re looking at her tears. . . . [There’s] poetry in the idea that our emotional terrain bears visual resemblance to the physical world; that our tears can look like the vistas we see out an airplane window. Fisher’s images are the only remaining trace of these places, which exist during a moment of intense feeling—and then vanish.” —NPR“[A] delicate, intimate book. . . . In The Topography of Tears photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher shows us a place where language strains to express grief, longing, pride, frustration, joy, the confrontation with something beautiful, the confrontation with an onion.” —Boston GlobeDoes a tear shed while chopping onions look different from a tear of happiness? In this powerful collection of images, an award-winning photographer trains her optical microscope and camera on her own tears and those of men, women, and children, released in moments of grief, pain, gratitude, and joy, and captured upon glass slides. These duotone photographs reveal the beauty of recurring patterns in nature and present evocative, crystalline imagery for contemplation. Underscored by poetic captions, they translate the mysterious act of crying into an atlas mapping the structure and magnificence of our interior lives.Rose-Lynn Fisher is an artist and author of the International Photography Award-winning studies Bee and The Topography of Tears. Her photographs are exhibited in galleries, festivals, and museums across the world and have been featured by the Dr. Oz Show, NPR, Smithsonian, Harper’s, New Yorker, Time, Wired, Reader’s Digest, Discover, Brain Pickings, and elsewhere. She received her BFA from Otis Art Institute and lives in Los Angeles.

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Explores the influences between Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo and the American art world at a time of unparalleled cross-cultural exchange. Mexican American artist Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) is best known for his boldly-coloured, semi-abstracted paintings portraying modern Mexican subjects and combining universal themes with a local sensibility. Tamayo: The New York Years looks in detail at Tamayo and his work in New York, where he lived from the late 1920s to 1949, as well as the response of other artists, like Barnett Newman, and critics such as Clement Greenberg. Tamayo was drawn to New York at a time when the art world was shifting from Europe to New York, and immediately engaged with the new ideas expressed in the modern art that he saw in museums and galleries. Deeply impressed by the art of Pablo Picasso, especially following the MOMA retrospective which opened in 1939, Tamayo became an important figure in the mid-century modern art movement as it shifted to New York and the Americas and away from Europe. Tamayo: The New York Years offers a unique opportunity to trace his artistic development through 60 works dating from 1925 to 1949 - from early woodcuts and bold canvasses, paintings depicting the modern sights of the city, to his dream-like works exploring celestial views of the constellations and heavens. AUTHOR: E. Carmen Ramos is the curator of Latino art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. SELLING POINTS: . Explores the influences between Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo and the American art world at a time of unparalleled cross-cultural exchange. . The first volume to focus on Tamyo's work and life during his time in New York City. . Will appeal to art students, historians, biographers, artists, those interested in politics and social history. 110 colour illustrations

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Winner, 2019 James Beard Award for Best Book of the Year in WritingFinalist, 2019 IACP Award, Literary Food WritingNamed a Best Food Book of the Year by the Boston Globe, Smithsonian, BookRiot, and more Semifinalist, Goodreads Choice Awards “Thoughtful, well researched, and truly moving. Shines a light on what it means to cook and eat American food, in all its infinitely nuanced and ever-evolving glory.” —Anthony Bourdain American food is the story of mash-ups. Immigrants arrive, cultures collide, and out of the push-pull come exciting new dishes and flavors. But for Edward Lee, who, like Anthony Bourdain or Gabrielle Hamilton, is as much a writer as he is a chef, that first surprising bite is just the beginning. What about the people behind the food? What about the traditions, the innovations, the memories? A natural-born storyteller, Lee decided to hit the road and spent two years uncovering fascinating narratives from every corner of the country. There’s a Cambodian couple in Lowell, Massachusetts, and their efforts to re-create the flavors of their lost country. A Uyghur café in New York’s Brighton Beach serves a noodle soup that seems so very familiar and yet so very exotic—one unexpected ingredient opens a window onto an entirely unique culture. A beignet from Café du Monde in New Orleans, as potent as Proust’s madeleine, inspires a narrative that tunnels through time, back to the first Creole cooks, then forward to a Korean rice-flour hoedduck and a beignet dusted with matcha. Sixteen adventures, sixteen vibrant new chapters in the great evolving story of American cuisine. And forty recipes, created by Lee, that bring these new dishes into our own kitchens.

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Los Angeles Times Book Prize FinalistWinner of the Willie Lee Rose PrizeWinner of the PROSE Award in United States HistoryHagley Prize in Business History FinalistA Smithsonian Best History Book of the Year“Vaping gets all the attention now, but Milov’s thorough study reminds us that smoking has always intersected with the government, for better or worse.”—New York Times Book ReviewFrom Jamestown to the Marlboro Man, tobacco has powered America’s economy and shaped some of its most enduring myths. The story of tobacco’s rise and fall may seem simple enough—a tale of science triumphing over corporate greed—but the truth is more complicated.After the Great Depression, government officials and tobacco farmers worked hand in hand to ensure that regulation was used to promote tobacco rather than protect consumers. As evidence of the connection between cigarettes and cancer grew, scientists struggled to secure federal regulation in the name of public health. What turned the tide, Sarah Milov reveals, was a new kind of politics: a movement for nonsmokers’ rights. Activists took to the courts, the streets, city councils, and boardrooms to argue for smoke-free workplaces and allied with scientists to lobby elected officials. The Cigarette puts politics back at the heart of tobacco’s rise and fall, dramatizing the battles over corporate influence, individual choice, government regulation, and science.“A nuanced and ultimately devastating indictment of government complicity with the worst excesses of American capitalism.”—New Republic“An impressive work of scholarship evincing years of spadework…A well-told story.”—Wall Street Journal“If you want to know what the smoke-filled rooms of midcentury America were really like, this is the book to read.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

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Perfect for planning and enjoying a stress-free family holiday, this easy-to-use guide book is packed with insider tips and information on the best family-friendly activities and attractions.Take a tour of the White House, admire the monuments and memorials of the National Mall or visit the National Air and Space Museum. From recommendations of child-friendly restaurants to suggestions for rainy-day activities, this guide book takes the work out of planning a family trip to Washington, DC.Inside Family Guide Washington, DC:- Each major listing includes details of the closest toilets, the nearest places to grab a snack or meal, what do if it rains, and where kids can play and let off steam- Contains cartoons, quizzes and games to keep young travellers happy all day long- Detailed coloured maps of all the major attractions and areas help you navigate with ease- Colour-coded area guides make it easy to find information - At-a-glance pages highlight all the best sights and activities in each area so you can plan your day quickly- Features expert suggestions for the best places for families to stay, eat and shop - Gives essential travel information, including transport, visa and health information- Covers National Air and Space Museum, National Gallery of Art, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, United States Capitol, the White House, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, Georgetown, George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Jamestown, Busch GardensTM and moreLooking for a comprehensive guide to Washington? Try our DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Washington, DC. On a shorter trip and want to see the highlights? Try our Top 10 Washington, DC travel guide.

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A fun and engaging STEM activity book for kids that combines creativity and calculations - perfect for budding mathematicians!This is the perfect maths exercise book for kids interested in STEM topics. Choose between 27 creative projects and experiments that will turn your child into a maths whizz! It's the perfect book for curious minds interested in taking the mystery out of maths. Explore the exciting world of numbers and maths problem-solving! In the pages of this maths book for kids you'll discover:- 27 hands-on creative projects to engage reluctant mathematicians between the ages of 9-12 - Easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions will show you how to make each project - All materials used can be easily found around your home with no specialist equipment needed - Every project includes an explanation of how maths is involved in creating the project or the results of the experiment - Real-world maths projects show that maths isn't just abstract - it has an impact in the real world too! Produced in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, Maths Lab is designed to appeal to maths geeks and those that prefer practical projects. To complete these engaging projects, kids don't need to be maths genius or even know how to use a calculator. Each task comes with easy-to-follow instructions, photographs and illustrations to help whip up super cool maths creations!Maths Lab features interesting activities that cover many aspects of the subject including measurement, geometry and trigonometry. Kids will combine art and maths by learning to draw impossible objects - creating beautiful patterns to make things like a timetable dream-catcher or perfect the ratio for making refreshing fruit drinks. Each project has an explanatory box that demonstrates how maths is applied to the activity to demystify and make maths fun!

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The familiar history of jazz music in the United States begins with its birth in New Orleans, moves upstream along the Mississippi River to Chicago, then by rail into New York before exploding across the globe. That telling of history, however, overlooks the pivotal role the nation's capital has played for jazz for a century. Some of the most important clubs in the jazz world have opened and closed their doors in Washington, DC, some of its greatest players and promoters were born there and continue to reside in the area, and some of the institutions so critical to national support of this uniquely American form of music, including Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., are rooted in the city. Closer to the ground, a network of local schools like the Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts, jazz programs at the University of the District of Columbia and Howard University, churches, informal associations, locally focused media, and clubs keeps the music alive to this day. Noted historians Maurice Jackson and Blair Ruble, editors of this book, present a collection of original and fascinating stories about the DC jazz scene throughout its history, including a portrait of the cultural hotbed of Seventh and U Streets, the role of jazz in desegregating the city, a portrait of the great Edward "Duke" Ellington’s time in DC, notable women in DC jazz, and the seminal contributions of the University of District of Columbia and Howard University to the scene. The book also includes three jazz poems by celebrated Washington, DC, poet E. Ethelbert Miller. Collectively, these stories and poems underscore the deep connection between creativity and place. A copublishing initiative with the Historical Society of Washington, DC, the book includes over thirty museum-quality photographs and a guide to resources for learning more about DC jazz.

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Messerschmitt Me 262: Arrow to the Future tells the dramatic story of the Me 262's combat career as a fascinating chain of events in which planning, luck, and even blind stupidity played important roles. Even by today's engineering standards, magnificent is the only word to describe the effort to bring the plane's jet engines, which eclipsed the performance of all contemporary aircraft, from the laboratory to production in an amazingly short time. Arrow to the Futrue also tells the story of the people who flew the Me262 in combat. Their complete accounts bring their missions to life and set the plane in the historical context of the war. The German narratives are complemented by the accounts of Americans who flew against the Me 262 - for instance, the team of crack USAAF pilots known as "Watsons's Whizzers," who literally stole a fleet of jet aircraft from German airfields at the end of the war. Also described are the postwar efforts to test and preserve the Me 262. Included is a description of the efforts to obtain one of these aircraft for display at the National Air and Space Museum, and the painstaking efforts by the team at the Smithsonian's Paul E. Garber Facility for Preservation, Restoration, and Storage to restore the Me 262 to its pristine condition. This new reprint edition is lavishly illustrated with more than 100 photographs, including operational photos from World War II, color views of the cockpit, and interior and exterior shots of the restored Me 262. In addition to the striking photographs, there are expert technical drawings, cutaway illustrations, and equipment and conversion tables. Walter J. Boyne is the author of many books including The Smithsonian Book of Flight, The Leading Edge, Boeing B-52: A Documentary History and Phantom in Combat, as well as the novels The Wild Blue, Trophy for Eagles and Air Force Eagles.

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Furbex: A Dog's Life of Urban Exploration is a dazzling photographic record of Claire's adventures among the abandoned spaces of Europe. It captures her ghostly presence in ruined hotels and grand houses; crumbling castles and palaces; broken down factories and prisons, forgotten theatres and cinemas. All have fallen into disrepair; most still display the faded trappings and trampled luxuries of their glorious or inglorious pasts; and many have been spectacularly reclaimed by nature. Fascinated by shadows and light, past and present, and the mysterious, dark worlds of abandoned places, Alice van Kempen uses thrift shop props and long exposures to create photographs with the air of Old Master paintings; while Claire's tragi-comic presence imbues every image with the pathos and comedy of a silent movie. In Furbex, they not only present the finest of their unique photographic portfolio, but also recount the tales and raise the ghosts of the lost worlds they have discovered. The result is a haunting and hilarious gift of unique photographs, which will appeal to urban explorers, dog lovers (most particularly the cult following of the bull terrier breed), and all lovers of the Gothic, the mysterious and the absurd. AUTHOR: Alice van Kempen is a self-taught photographer from the Netherlands, who has been photographing dogs around the world for over 25 years. Her passion is for 'furbex' photography (urbex photography with a canine twist), which she practices by exploring abandoned places with her beloved bull terrier Claire, who has 21,000 followers on Instagram. Their many awards include first prize in the pets category of the International Photography Awards; and the Reader's Choice Award in the Smithsonian Photo Contest for 'The Orient Express', an image of Claire in an abandoned train. SALES POINTS: . A haunting but humorous collection of photographs documenting Claire, the bull terrier and urban explorer (Urbex) . Author is an award-winning photographer and an Instagram star . A charming gift book with appeal to dog lovers, photographers, and urban explorers alike 100 colour photographs

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From animals to the internet, and from pandemics to global warming, this children's encyclopedia includes everything you need to know on just about everything!Have you ever wondered what the earliest photograph ever taken was? Or what the latest Rover on Mars looks like? How about the speed of which a red kangaroo can jump? If you find yourself seeking the answers to these quirky questions and so many more, then Our World in Pictures Encyclopedia may be the book for you! Explore galleries of intriguing objects on a range of topics, from plants to space, and from sports to ancient civilizations. This engaging encyclopedia for children aged 9-12 takes you on a fascinating journey from the past to present day - and into the future!Celebrate your child's curiosity as they explore:- Includes more than 1,200 images, including beautiful photographs and never-before-seen illustrations- Highly visual approach to learning - Ideal combination of colourful diagrams with infographic text boxesPrepare to build your knowledge on a wide range of topics, including: space, earth, nature, science, technology, history, culture and society, and entertainment. the striking illustrations, photographs and diagrams featured throughout provide an optimum visual learning experience for both children and adults alike, accompanied by an array of fun facts on just about everything!In association with DK Smithsonian, the text proves easily-accessible for readers aged 9-12, yet can be enjoyed by the entire family, making this enthralling children's encyclopedia a beautiful and educational gift that can be passed down generations.Learn all about the world one picture at a time!If you like Our World in Pictures Encyclopedia then why not complete the collection? Part of the highly-visual Our World In Pictures series, avid readers can dive into the world of dinosaurs with The Dinosaur Book, become a vehicle virtuoso with Cars, Trains, Ships and Planes and venture on a journey across the globe with Countries, Cultures, People & Places.

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An A to Z compendium for our paranoid times that explores the most popular conspiracy theories, from Area 51 and vaccines to Chemtrails and JFK.Whether you’re a die-hard net-warrior or a freshly initiated paranormal explorer, I is for Illuminati is a mind-blowing trip through the most fascinating—and enduring—conspiracy theories that live on web and circulate the globe.With the ubiquity of the internet, conspiracy theories have infiltrated nearly every aspect of society, from politics to business, sports, healthcare, history, geology, meteorology, the military-industrial complex, and of course, outer space. Whether you want to learn about the world of the Freemasons or are curious about what’s really hidden in the restricted areas of the Great Pyramid, Chris Vola has the answers.In this fully illustrated, darkly funny guide that plays on the classic ABC primer, he examines the biggest conspiracies of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, including: A is for Aliens B is for Bermuda Triangle C is for Chemtrails D is for Denver Airport E is for Earth (Flat, Hollow) F is for Fluoride G is for Giants H is for HAARP I is for Illuminati J is for J. Edgar Hoover K is for Kennedy L is for Lizard People M is for Moon Landing N is for Nazi’s in South America O is for Opioids P is for Pyramids Q is for QAnon R is for Roswell S is for Smithsonian Institution T is for Time Travel U is for United Nations V is for Vaccinations W is for Walt Disney X is for Planet X Y is for Yeti Z is for Zeitgeist With history (and rhymes!) about twenty-six of the most baffling global conspiracies, illustrated with original full-color drawings created by Keni Thomas and specially designed for the book, this is the ultimate gift for X-files fans, Alexa-muters, and all who want to believe (or already do).

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LA SORPRENDENTE HISTORIA DEL CHE GUEVARA, FIDEL CASTRO Y EL AGUERRIDO GRUPO DE REBELDES Y MUJERES AVENTURERAS QUE LOS SIGUIERON. La mayoría de la gente está familiarizada con los elementos básicos de la Revolución cubana de 1956 a 1958. Sin embargo, poco se conoce sobre la naturaleza improvisada del boyante movimiento, ni de las vidas de sus protagonistas. En esta entretenida y meticulosa investigación, el historiador y escritor de viajes Tony Perrottet desentraña la odisea detrás de la más increíble revolución del mundo: la historia de como un puñado de jóvenes desaliñados y revolucionarios autodidactas vencieron a cuarenta mil soldados veteranos para derrocar al régimen del dictador Fulgencio Batista. ¡CUBA LIBRE! se sumerge en las profundidades de la Revolución, revela detalles fascinantes y descubre al movimiento que capturó la imaginación del mundo gracias a su naturaleza dramática, su temeraria valentía, su carácter trágico y, en ocasiones, su alta comicidad. «Tony Perrottet sabe cómo contar una historia ¡y qué historia es esta! En ¡CUBA LIBRE! [...] ha escrito un relato fabuloso de uno de los sucesos mas improbables, románticos y asombrosos del siglo xx». —Chris Ryan, autor del bestseller Sex at Dawn y Civilized del New York Times «¡Una lectura atractiva, divertida y rápida, y profundamente documental! ¡CUBA LIBRE! trastoca la mitología de la Revolución cubana y descubre dimensiones genuinamente épicas de la isla y su historia». —Patrick Symmes, autor de Chasing Che y The Boys from DoloresTONY PERROTTET es autor de cinco libros: Off the Deep End, Pagan Holiday, The Naked Olympics: 2500 años de historia al desnudo y The Sinners Grand Tour. Sus relatos de viajes se han traducido a una docena de idiomas y han aparecido en diversas antologías, además de haber sido seleccionados en siete o más ocasiones para el premio Best American Travel Writing. Aparece con regularidad como invitado en programas de televisión de The History Channel y colabora en la revista Smithsonian. Vive en Nueva York.

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One of Smithsonian Magazine's Favorite Books of 2022With wildlife thriving in cities, we have the opportunity to create vibrant urban ecosystems that serve both people and animals.The Accidental Ecosystem tells the story of how cities across the United States went from having little wildlife to filling, dramatically and unexpectedly, with wild creatures. Today, many of these cities have more large and charismatic wild animals living in them than at any time in at least the past 150 years. Why have so many cities—the most artificial and human-dominated of all Earth’s ecosystems—grown rich with wildlife, even as wildlife has declined in most of the rest of the world? And what does this paradox mean for people, wildlife, and nature on our increasingly urban planet? The Accidental Ecosystem is the first book to explain this phenomenon from a deep historical perspective, and its focus includes a broad range of species and cities. Cities covered include New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Austin, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Digging into the natural history of cities and unpacking our conception of what it means to be wild, this book provides fascinating context for why animals are thriving more in cities than outside of them. Author Peter S. Alagona argues that the proliferation of animals in cities is largely the unintended result of human decisions that were made for reasons having little to do with the wild creatures themselves. Considering what it means to live in diverse, multispecies communities and exploring how human and nonhuman members of communities might thrive together, Alagona goes beyond the tension between those who embrace the surge in urban wildlife and those who think of animals as invasive or as public safety hazards. The Accidental Ecosystem calls on readers to reimagine interspecies coexistence in shared habitats, as well as policies that are based on just, humane, and sustainable approaches.

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How West African gold and trade across the Sahara were central to the medieval worldThe Sahara Desert was a thriving crossroads of exchange for West Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe in the medieval period. Fueling this exchange was West African gold, prized for its purity and used for minting currencies and adorning luxury objects such as jewelry, textiles, and religious objects. Caravans made the arduous journey by camel southward across the Sahara carrying goods for trade—glass vessels and beads, glazed ceramics, copper, books, and foodstuffs, including salt, which was obtained in the middle of the desert. Northward, the journey brought not only gold but also ivory, animal hides and leatherwork, spices, and captives from West Africa forced into slavery.Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time draws on the latest archaeological discoveries and art historical research to construct a compelling look at medieval trans-Saharan exchange and its legacy. Contributors from diverse disciplines present case studies that form a rich portrayal of a distant time. Topics include descriptions of key medieval cities around the Sahara; networks of exchange that contributed to the circulation of gold, copper, and ivory and their associated art forms; and medieval glass bead production in West Africa’s forest region. The volume also reflects on Morocco’s Gnawa material culture, associated with descendants of West African slaves, and movements of people across the Sahara today.Featuring a wealth of color images, this fascinating book demonstrates how the rootedness of place, culture, and tradition is closely tied to the circulation of people, objects, and ideas. These “fragments in time” offer irrefutable evidence of the key role that Africa played in medieval history and promote a new understanding of the past and the present.Published in association with the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern UniversityExhibition ScheduleBlock Museum of Art, Northwestern UniversityJanuary 26–July 21, 2019Aga Khan Museum, TorontoSeptember 21, 2019–February 23, 2020Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DCApril 8–November 29, 2020

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This unprecedented exhibition reintroduces three trailblazing Japanese American artists of the pre–World War II generations. Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo brings together over ninety works by three pioneering Japanese American artists from the pre–World War II era. Despite long careers and critical acclaim, Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo have largely been overlooked in traditional American art history. This groundbreaking exhibition reintroduces their work and explores their deep connections with each other for the first time. Through three chronological sections, the exhibition traces the careers of these artists from the 1920s to the 1990s. "Faces & Communities" presents pre–World War II portraiture and figurative works, while "Belongings & (dis)Locations" showcases landscapes and still lifes from the prewar and wartime periods. The final section, "Explorations & Rediscoveries," features postwar abstractions. Pictures of Belonging foregrounds the rich and heterogeneous oeuvres of Hayakawa, Hibi, and Okubo, which spanned eight decades and four states, highlighting the diverse communities in which these trailblazing artists flourished before, during, and after World War II. Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name, this book shifts the spotlight from the injustice and tragedy of Japanese American incarceration toward a broader picture of the so-called American experience through the compelling, divergent lives and artworks of these women of Japanese descent. Published by the Japanese American National Museum in association with University of California Press and with support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the National Endowment for the Arts. Exhibition dates: February 24 to June 30, 2024, at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah November 15, 2024, to August 17, 2025, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, District of Columbia October 2, 2025, to January 4, 2026, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania February 5, 2026, to April 19, 2026, at the Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, California Fall 2026 at the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California

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Previously unpublished interviews with some of America’s leading postwar artists—including Frankenthaler, Johns, Oldenburg, Rauschenberg, Stella and Warhol—originally made for TV in the mid-’60s by famed curator Alan Solomon This substantial volume publishes for the first time a series of interviews conducted with seminal East Coast artists and their associates, including Kenneth Noland, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Marcella Brenner, Helen Jacobson, Clement Greenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Poons, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Barnett Newman, Leo Castelli, Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga and Edie Sedgwick. These were produced in late 1965 and early 1966 for the documentary television series USA: Artists by famed curator Alan Solomon, who was a regular fixture in the New York art world of the time. This was a logical extension of Solomon's recent curatorial involvements, including most importantly his organization of the United States exhibition at the 1964 Venice Biennale. The half-hour format of the episodes meant that a vast amount of Solomon’s original interviews, some of which lasted an hour or more, wound up on the cutting-room floor. At some point after the series was completed the original filmed and tape-recorded interviews were lost. A single set of typed transcripts, preserved in the Alan R. Solomon papers at the Archives of American Art, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution (copublisher of this volume), is the sole complete record of the original interviews. The New York Tapes gathers these interview transcripts and publishes them as a group for the first time, extensively illustrated with numerous stills from the television programs and related documentation. The transcripts make available material that was not included in the final programs, while also revealing how what was included became subtly manipulated to fit the format of documentary television. An informative introduction by editor Matthew Simms sets the project in context and highlights the differences between the interviews and the films, shedding new light on a germinal moment in postwar American art and how it was presented to the public.

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A stunning visual celebration of the world's aircraft and the pioneers who made a dream become reality.Introducing Flight - a historical and visual exploration of awe-inspiring aviation over a period of one hundred years, from the earliest aeroplane prototypes to today's supersonic jets, this all-encompassing book about aeroplanes takes you on an action-packed flight to explore some of the greatest commercial and military aircraft ever made.So fasten your seatbelt and prepare for takeoff as DK takes you on a journey to explore:-Spectacular photographs and evocative archive images from the Smithsonian collection capture the most memorable events in the history of flight-300 profiles showcase iconic aircrafts, providing key facts-Offers a clear and compelling account of aviation history in short, self-contained episodesExplore stunning photographic galleries of planes, helicopters, and airships, each accompanied by its vital statistics. From the Wright brothers' first powered flight to Concorde's final voyage, Flight takes you sky-high, swooping you through world aviation history. Featuring spectacular photography of iconic aircraft, this book also recounts the feats of pioneers, trailblazers, and jet test pilots, and traces the technological developments so important to aviation's progress.Memorable moments of aerial warfare and record-breaking flights are recalled alongside more than 250 profiles of innovative aircraft in this book packed with flight facts for the aviation enthusiast. The human experience of flying is documented too, and historical quotes give a glimpse into the thoughts and ambitions of key figures in flight history.A must-have volume for anyone interested in aircraft, whether a gift or a self-purchase, Flight is an all-encompassing airplane book that has something for everyone to love and enjoy. Aviation enthusiasts of all stripes and ages will be captivated by DK's Flight- a comprehensive and beautifully presented guide to the story of flight.Explore speed, power and style as you jet across the world with your new-found knowledge on all things aviation!

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Discover over 500 species of sea shell from around the world with this pocket visual guide! This comprehensive handbook combines authoritative text and crystal-clear photography, bringing to light the planet's most spectacular shells. Packed with more than 600 full-color photographs, this handy reference book cuts through the complexities of identification, helping you to recognise more than 500 species of sea shell.Learn about the distinguishing characteristics of different shell species, where they came from, and how they came to look the way they do. For shell collecting beginners and conchology enthusiasts alike, this concise and portable guide will turn your next beach walk into an eye-opening journey of discovery! Handbook of Shells is filled with all you need to know about shell collecting and identification! Inside you'll find: -Jargon-free profiles of each shell, supported by stunning photographs -A shell identification key of every major group, making recognition easier than ever-Practical instructions explaining how to start, clean, identify and display a shell collection-Distribution maps illustrating the geographical range of each species At-a-glance key facts to impress your friends! Practical oceanology for all ages! Have you ever wondered how such delicate shells are churned out of the world's raging oceans? Now you can not only learn about our planet's most stunning sea shells, but also collect your own!Handbook of Shells is expertly written and authenticated by the Smithsonian Institution, providing the most up to date scientific information on shell classification. The perfect gift for a budding marine biologist, or anyone wanting to try their hand at beachcombing, this DK book is the clearest and sharpest sea shell guide out there! Even more handbooks to get you out into nature! The DK Handbook series is an incredible collection of titles that fascinate curious minds. Learn how rocks are formed and how to recognize them with the Handbook of Rocks and Minerals, or enter the fascinating world of astronomy with the Handbook of Stars and Planets.

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Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, the long-awaited follow-up to Mom's Cancer, is a unique graphic novel that tells the story of a young boy and his relationship with his father. Spanning the period from the 1939 New York World's Fair to the last Apollo space mission in 1975, it is told through the eyes of a boy as he grows up in an era that was optimistic and ambitious, fueled by industry, engines, electricity, rockets, and the atom bomb. An insightful look at relationships and the promise of the future, award-winning author Brian Fies presents his story in a way that only comics and graphic novels can. Interspersed with the comic book adventures of Commander Cap Crater (created by Fies to mirror the styles of the comics and the time periods he is depicting), and mixing art and historical photographs, this groundbreaking graphic novel is a lively trip through a half century of technological evolution. It is also a perceptive look at the changing moods of our nation-and the enduring promise of the future. Praise for Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? “A graphic novel that looks like TV’s “Futurama” bred with The Golden Age of Comic Books, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? is at times charming, at times sad and foreboding, and always thought provoking.” —Air & Space Smithsonian "A hopelessly optimistic moon-age daydream"—The Village Voice “An exceptional and highly engaging experience.” —The Miami Herald "Whatever Happened To The World Of Tomorrow is a very special book that will speak to you on so many levels. And at the end of it, when you sit there and think on what you’ve just read, it may even make you, like it did me, realise that Fies’ vision of our past and his hope for the future is something we can all share in. Quite brilliant."—Richard Bruton, forbiddenplanet.co.ukF&P level: Y

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