Smithsonian Magazine January/February 2022

“Biblical archaeology builds upon slender threads of evidence.” TWITTER: @SmithsonianMag INSTAGRAM: @smithsonianmagazine FACEBOOK: smithsonianmagazine Helpful Heroes As an RN for 39 years, I found “The Caregiver” (December 2021) very interesting. I work in a very busy emergency department caring for Covid patients. For the first time in my career, I know what it is like to be truly weary. Clara Barton probably felt that way often, but plunged ahead to help others. Although we learned about her in college, I learned more about her today. Thanks for sharing the story of this inspirational lady. —Patti M. | Abingdon, Virginia Lay of the Land The Gwich’in people (“Keeping Faith in Caribou Country,” December 2021) speak from 10,000 years of experience living with the nature of the land, the caribou and the…

THE SMITHSONIAN Cultural Rescue Initiative, perhaps the world’s most significant ongoing collaboration to preserve irreplaceable artifacts, artworks, sites and heritage, really got its start with the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. When the magnitude 7 earthquake struck, hundreds of thousands were killed, injured and displaced from their homes. Already-fragile infrastructure was destroyed, including the country’s rich cultural heritage: historic buildings, museums, libraries, archives, galleries, churches, theaters and marketplaces. As Richard Kurin, then the Smithsonian under secretary for history, art, and culture, explained: “We cannot survive if we cannot draw on our history, heritage and community. Culture gives us the strength to move forward.” Working with the U.S. State Department and the Haitian government, Kurin and current SCRI director Corine Wegener brought together American, Haitian and international organizations for a cultural recovery…

WHEN COVID-19 FORCED people to stay home, many of us found solace in a snack: potato chips. The crispy treats enjoyed around a $350 million increase in sales from 2019 to 2020. When the chips are down, it seems, Americans gobble them up. Any search for the origins of this signature finger food must lead to George Crum (born George Speck), a 19th-century chef of Native and African American descent who made his name at Moon’s Lake House in the resort town of Saratoga Springs, New York. As the story goes, one day in 1853, the railroad and shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt was eating at Moon’s when he ordered his fried potatoes be returned to the kitchen because they were too thick. Furious with such a fussy eater, Crum sliced…

ALFRED CRALLE ICE CREAM SCOOP Working at a Pittsburgh hotel, Cralle saw that serving ice cream with spoons was a sticky task. In 1897, he patented a tool with a mouthful of a name: the Ice Cream Mold and Disher. FREDERICK MCKINLEY JONES REFRIGERATION UNIT His mobile fridge, designed for trucks and trains (1942), made the supermarket possible. It also saved lives during World War II, powering air conditioners for Allied field hospitals to keep blood packs and other supplies from expiring. NORBERT RILLIEUX REFINING SUGAR Granulating sugar cane on an industrial scale was difficult and dangerous. Then Rillieux—born in New Orleans, educated in Paris—patented a new method in 1846 that was much more efficient and saved laborers from being burned by boiling juice. Still used to make sugar and…

BORN IN KENTUCKY, in 1937, Bob Thompson moved to New York’s Greenwich Village after college, immersing himself in the neighborhood’s bohemian arts scene. Later, he traveled around Europe, where he haunted its great museums, riffing like a jazz soloist on themes from the old masters. “He talked about the physical aspect of painting, the way the work poured out of him,” says Diana Tuite, curator of the first retrospective of Thompson’s work this century, coming in February to Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art. “In some photographs, he’s holding the paintbrush like he’s playing the drums.” Thompson’s early death, at 28 from complications after surgery, along with his failure to fit into a particular artistic category, contributed to his being overlooked by the art world. More recent interest in 20th-century African…

BEFORE DAWN ON May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls stealthily took command of a Confederate steamer, the CSS Planter, and steered it out of Charleston Harbor. The 23-year-old, who had worked as a slave aboard the vessel, brought 15 other enslaved people with him, including his wife and their two young children. Smalls knew he might be killed by Confederate guards as he attempted to reach the Union’s fleet off the Atlantic coast. Word of Smalls’ daring escape quickly spread throughout the North. In a report that merged admiration with racial bigotry, the New York Tribune proclaimed, “This man, though Black, is a hero—one of the few History will delight to honor. He has done something for his race and for the world of mankind.” On May 30, Abraham Lincoln signed…