Stories from the Vaults

Host Tom Cavanagh takes us to the origins of Smithsonian's collections with Roosevelt's hunting trophies, Steinbeck's sea urchins, and Phyllis Diller's joke file.

Tom Cavanagh is on a mission: to discover what it means to be the best, the tiniest, the coldest, and the most misunderstood. Superlatives time!

Tom Cavanagh unravels the idea of "Home Sweet Home" at the National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, and even in some sand.

Three Smithsonian curators offer their perspectives on the meaning of true beauty as it applies to their work with advertising, orchids, and ants.

Enter the vaults of the National Museum of American History and the National Air and Space Museum and discover earth-shattering firsts.

The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of Natural History, and the National Postal Museum all hold clues to the afterlife.

Tom Cavanagh dives into the heart of the world's largest museum complex, amidst more than 136 million objects, to show us that breadth doesn't equal randomness.