CURRENT ISSUE
March 2024
Features
![OPENER - A diver prepares to enter the water of Malakal Harbor in Palau, where the plane flown by U.S. Navy pilot Jay Ross Manown Jr. was shot down in September 1944.](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/6cKpC8hso8TTpdxoJ4V6b69LODE=/400x300/filters:no_upscale():focal(1156x870:1157x871)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/8b/eb/8beb7df6-63c7-4bfb-9136-fa376126e23e/opener_-_mar2024_d09_projectrecover_copy.jpg)
Up From the Depths
Eighty years after Avenger 17018 was shot down over the Pacific, will its pilot finally come home?
![a close up a Sojourner Truth statue](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/SMXYnOQkAF2SNIvDiaCXnkD4HcY=/400x300/filters:no_upscale():focal(1834x2742:1835x2743)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/61/df/61df94a7-b7f8-4264-8541-8cb5445419fd/mar2024_f08_sojurnertruth.jpg)
The Gospel of Truth
Feminist. Preacher. Abolitionist. Civil rights pioneer. Now the full story of Sojourner Truth’s life and faith is finally coming to light
![Dugong](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/eBeW6GfjcMoOoKehdnbzOSud4fo=/400x300/filters:no_upscale():focal(2688x2022:2689x2023)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/a9/48/a9486d72-2527-43f1-8fe2-7eeef50bb800/mar2024_b01_heroesofthewilddugong.jpg)
Making an Impression
Keeping tabs on dugong populations is surprisingly hard. A new effort tracks the marks they leave behind
![a snow covered logging road in a forest](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/gTEK9izarbej9zljQsgD5Yu5iwU=/400x300/filters:no_upscale():focal(2826x1884:2827x1885)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/ed/e8/ede8c838-b9e7-40a7-8173-9f06b3fd1151/mar2024_h05_forestroaddeconstruction.jpg)
The Wilderness Cure
Can destroying old roads point the way to a more sustainable future?
![Artist and Shaman Between Two Worlds, Norval Morrisseau, 1980, shows the artist’s signature style: bold colors and a surreal sense of his subjects’ inner lives.](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/rQ5N_kxDY1SRIwQceG5SRE3BQng=/400x300/filters:no_upscale():focal(1800x1200:1801x1201)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/93/cc/93cc832f-09f2-461f-9b96-e621a8841c77/opener-mar2024_e13_artfraud.jpg)
The Art of the Scam
A decades-long forgery scheme ensnared Canada’s most famous Indigenous artist, a rock musician turned sleuth and several top museums. How investigators unraveled the biggest art fraud in history
Departments
Relive the Glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age With These Photos
The work of a pioneering celebrity photographer shines a spotlight on the iconic era
Discussion
Your feedback on John Coltrane, turtle conservation and George Washington's tent
Going for Broke
How a glitzy stretch of highway became the destination for America’s most sublime—and most sordid—aspirations
Founding Mother
In the history paintings of this great Neoclassical artist, women took center stage
The Butterfly Whisperer
Akito Kawahara has spent his life devoted to lepidoptera. Now he’s correcting the record on where they first evolved
Out of the Shadows
A chic lamp reveals how women designers remade the Tiffany brand—and went largely uncredited for nearly a century
Artistic Intelligence
A new show at the Whitney showcases the visionary who devised the art world’s first A.I.
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