Smithsonian (magazine) Smithsonian (magazine) Smithsonian is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970. The history of "Smithsonian" began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of "Life" magazine, was asked by the then-Secretary of the Smithsonian, S. Dillon Ripley, to produce a magazine "about things in which the Smithsonian [Institution] is interested, might be interested or ought to be interested." Thompson would later recall that his philosophy for the new magazine was that it "would stir curiosity in already receptive minds. It would deal with history as it is relevant to
Smithsonian Institution C. Meigs of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It opened in 1881. The National Zoological Park opened in 1889 to accommodate the Smithsonian's Department of Living Animals. The park was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The National Museum of Natural History opened in June 1911 to similarly accommodate the Smithsonian's United States National Museum, which had previously been housed in the Castle and then the Arts and Industries Building. This structure was designed by the D.C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall. When Detroit philanthropist Charles Lang Freer donated his private collection to the Smithsonian and