CURRENT ISSUE

September/October 2024

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Features

A tattered sign on an abandoned railway stop

MacArthur Down Under

From the Outback to the Queensland coast, tracking the general’s far-flung travels as he plotted his dramatic World War II comeback

Bridge Over the Water Lily Pond, 1905.

Lasting Impressions

Claude Monet’s late-in-life obsession with water lilies caused him mental anguish—but produced some of his greatest masterpieces

José Santiago of Palenque Don Lencho, in San Pablo Guilá village, with wooden vats of fermenting agave prior to distillation

The Spirit of Oaxaca

Climate change, corporate money, soaring demand—can Mexico’s mezcal distillers find a viable path for a beloved beverage?

Dotty, a female Bengal tiger, roams her territory in India’s Bandhavgarh National Park, where tigers are one of the biggest tourist attractions.

Seeing Eye to Eye

Learning to live beside endangered tigers may be the key to saving them

SEPOCT2024_I01_ThoseThatStayed.jpg

Hometown Heroes

The Great Migration of African Americans from the South transformed the nation—but millions never left. Their unlikely success in the era of Jim Crow makes their stories all the more remarkable

Kids cool down

Hot Days, Cool Heads

In Miami, the nation’s first chief heat officer charts a course for surviving on a warming planet

OPENER - Stella Stimson

Takedown in Terre Haute

How a crusading suffragist helped expose a citywide conspiracy in 1914—and set a new precedent for fair elections

Departments

Discussion

Your feedback on escaped hippos, coastal defenses and ancient cultures

How the Civil War Spawned the Mail-In Ballot

At the National Postal Museum, a new exhibition traces the long history of a newly popular way of voting

Freedom’s First Draft

A bold meeting 250 years ago began to knit the Colonies into a country

Keep Your Wigs On

When the Colonies got too brassy, the English Parliament went ballistic—despite some wise voices of reason

Bursting With Life

Colorful, intricate drawings challenge our notions of Shaker design

How England Became England

New research is revealing how the Sceptered Isle transformed from a Roman backwater to a mighty country of its own

A Record of Liberty

A remarkable set of documents, newly digitized, reveals the plight and bravery of enslaved people in the North

String Theory

The plucky design behind the most legendary guitar in all of rock

Carving Out the Future

Celebrating 50 years of the modernist masterpiece that shocked critics—and helped turn D.C. into an arts capital

Maestro of Design

Tyrus Wong spent 106 years making the world more beautiful. A new biography takes us inside his extraordinary life

Blessings in Disguise

The spine-tingling roots of a mischievous Halloween tradition

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