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Becky Hale

Online shoppers buy painted woolly bats, like this one at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, to display as wall decorations or even to wear as hair clips.

Stephanie Abraham holds Ace, one of nine Cavalier King Charles Spaniels she lives with in Connecticut. As many as eight out of 10 spaniels in the breed get mitral valve disease, so Abraham, a dog breeder and dog-show judge, readily enrolled Ace in drug trial.

Veterinarian Vicki Yang and technician Kim Majoy examine the heart of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Ace, who has mitral valve disease, at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Massachusetts. Ace is participating in a trial of a new gene therapy treatment that could rejuvenate his heart—and maybe someday human hearts as well.

Often identified only by lengthy inventory numbers—referenced on the Smithsonian’s website—the works in the American Art Museum’s Luce Center sometimes get “promoted” to the main exhibition floors for exhibits focusing on specific artists or periods.

Housed in the ornate former library of the United States Patent Office, the Luce Center of the American Art Museum provides hours of browsing for adventurous art lovers.

The tiniest, most humble insects—what Smithsonian collections manager Floyd Shockley calls “the small brown and black things”—exhibit the greatest levels of diversity.

Beetles—ranging from miniscule to the size of a human hand—make up the largest single group in the Smithsonian’s entomology collection.

Babe Ruth’s autograph tops the signatures on an early 1930s baseball, followed by Hall of Fame first baseman Bill Terry of the New York Giants, Yankee shortstop Eddie “Doc” Farrell, and longtime Cleveland pitcher George Uhle, who The Babe once credited as the toughest hurler he ever faced.

Row upon row of “extra” artwork lines the dimly lit Luce Center of the American Art Museum. The paintings and sculptures in this section are part of the museum’s “visible storage” made available to the public.

Just one percent of the Smithsonian’s vast collection, spread over 20 museums and galleries, is on display at one time, leaving millions of unseen treasures, like this classic movie prop, hidden in high-security storage facilities.