"Jackie Kennedy loved the arts. And America loved Jackie. The first lady knew she had the country's attention and she wanted to encourage Americans to appreciate art. This is the little-known story about how Jackie Kennedy brought the world's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, to the United States"--

An "exquisite" (The Washington Post) "hauntingly beautiful" (Associated Press) portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staff who spent a decade as a museum guard. Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They're the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping...

"The discovery of a hidden label on a famous gown unearths the story of a talented young seamstress in this glittering novel of family, love, ambition, and self discovery by the USA Today bestselling author of The Flight Girls. 2023, The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History: A costume conservator is preparing an exhibition featuring movie costumes from the 1920s to present day. As she gingerly places a gown once worn by Greta Garbo on...

Hugo Marston, head of security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris, puts his life in danger when he investigates the murder of a celebrated artist, all the while fending off an assassin looking to settle an old score against him. Hugo Marston accompanies his boss, US Ambassador J. Bradford Taylor, to the first night of an art exhibition in Montmartre, Paris. Hugo is less than happy about going until he finds out that the sculptures on display are made from...

Mean Mrs. Green says that everyone has to invent something for the school science fair. But everyone would rather invent a way to get out of it! Hubie can't decide on what he's going to do. He thinks all the good inventions have been done already. And all of his friends have figured out what they are going to do. He tries to decide between cloning himself or building a laugh machine. After a bad dream about cloning, he decides to build a laugh machine....

After winning the science fair with the giant robot she has built, a little girl realizes that there is a major problem.

"A surreal and satirical portrait of a pregnant woman adrift in a haunted, post-9/11 Manhattan"-- Percy is pregnant. She hasn't told a soul. Probably she should tell her husband--certainly she means to--but one night she wakes up to find she no longer recognizes him. Now, instead of sleeping, Percy is spending her nights taking walks through her neighborhood, all the while fretting over her marriage, her impending motherhood, and the sinister ways...

This book takes readers inside the public displays as well as private cabinets, storerooms, and vaults to learn the stories of its most fascinating and significant pieces. Curators from thirteen Smithsonian museums and archives crafted this immersive exploration to illuminate the full scope of the political, military, social, and cultural climate of the era. In 150 entries to honor the 150th anniversary of the war, each curator tells a truly unique...

"No one expected the automobile to last 100 years, so there was no reason to suspect the Chicago Auto Show would thrive and survive 100 edition over a 107-year span, either. But it has, and those 100 shows have introduced the horseless carriage and its numerous derivatives to the masses. Crank start to push button start. Gasoline, batteries and soon hydrogen. And always the cars have been the stars."--from cover, p. [4]

The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. In a series of narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the...