The Smithsonian’s best stories of 2025 read like a thrilling scavenger hunt—except the real prize isn’t an artifact, it’s control of the American narrative.A Year-End List That Accidentally Became a Stress Test for MuseumsSmithsonian Magazine’s “Ten Top Smithsonian Stories of 2025” looks like a...
A bundle of 60 stone tools buried near a remote Australian waterhole 170 years ago reveals Aboriginal traders ran sophisticated supply networks across one of Earth's harshest landscapes—and something may have stopped them from ever collecting their merchandise.Trade Goods Left Behind in the DesertThe...