Smithsonian Snapshot

From concubine to empress: Cixi effectively ruled China for nearly 50 years.

Rubin is best known for finding evidence of dark matter.

Peinetas, such as the 19th-century peineta pictured here, came to symbolize a woman’s individuality and entrance into society.

Pepón Osorio created “El Chandelier” for a performance that explored the life of a Puerto Rican woman living in New York.

The Smithsonian collections contain bird specimens that the real James Bond collected in the Caribbean.

Building a better frying pan—a complete one-pan breakfast.

Graphic designer Paul Rand plays with the iconography of eye charts to create a clever advertisement for Yale University.

The dwarf lantern shark (Etmopterus perryi) is the smallest shark, and it can fit in a human hand.

The ocean is home to some of the most incredible creatures on Earth: Learn why the mantis shrimp is one of them.

This stamp was released by the U.S. Postal Service in 2000 as part of a souvenir sheet “Celebrate The Century: 1990s.”

James Joyce’s novel Ulysses follows the exploits of Dubliner Leopold Bloom during the course of a single day, June 16, 1904.

These two large, wooden guardian figures once kept watch over the Buddha and his followers outside Ebaradera temple in Sakai, Japan.

This poster (detail), depicting a zoomed-in view of a watermelon, was designed by Stephen Frykholm for the Herman Miller Furniture Company.

Equipped with a shield composed primarily of vibranium from the African nation Wakanda, Captain America fought the forces of evil.

Korean artist Do Ho Suh captures the objects of everyday life as dream-like sculptures.

This 1947 photograph by Harry Warnecke pictures Robinson at Ebbets Field during his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Smock was a critical figure in the development of the Los Angeles jazz scene.

A life spent advocating for workers and women’s rights.

In January 1917, Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party (NWP) became the first people to ever picket the White House.

“There’s no person in the world like you, and I like you just the way you are.”—Fred Rogers

In her 80s, she was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Chauncey Spencer after a successful parachute jump at a Chicago air show. Spencer became one of Chicago’s most well-known barnstorming pilots.

The bracelet is believed to have been made by the eminent French jeweler, Honoré-Séverin Bourdoncle.

Coleman received the first pilot’s license issued to an African American woman from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.