In November, Charles Darwin’s history-changing “On the Origin of Species” turns 150. And after a century and a half of archaeological discoveries and biological advances lending credence to his evolutionary theories, even Darwin would have to be impressed with the sheer endurance of those who prefer the literal, biblical version of how we all got here. People like '80s sitcom star-turned-Christian action hero Kirk Cameron.

Celebrations and exhibitions commemorating “Origin’s" publication are gearing up across the world, but Cameron and his God squad are not going to sit around quietly while monkey ancestry gets peddled to America’s youth. On Nov. 21, they’re handing "the truth" straight to them -- in the form of 50,000 free copies of Darwin’s book, amended with a 50-page introduction refuting the whole megillah, at the top 50 college campuses across the country...

The Hope Diamond went back on display yesterday at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. It is the first time the rare gem has been displayed "naked" -- that is, by itself rather than in a jeweled setting...

... The Hope Diamond was originally much larger but has been cut down over the years. Detailed records of its history begin when it was sold to the king of France in 1668. After numerous owners through the years, it was donated to the Smithsonian in 1958. When he donated the gem, American jeweler Harry Winston mailed the diamond in a plain brown envelope via U.S. mail!

Completing its series of exhibitions exploring power and empire, the British Museum focuses on the last elected Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma II. Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler is the first exhibition to examine the semi-mythical status of Moctezuma and his legacy today. Loans of iconic material from Mexico and Europe will be displayed, most for the first time in this country. The exhibition anticipates the anniversaries in 2010 of the Independence of Mexico (1810) and of the Mexican Revolution (1910).

Moctezuma (reigned 1502-1520) inherited and then consolidated Aztec control over a politically complex empire that by the early 16th century stretched from the shores of Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. Moctezuma was regarded as a semi- divine figure by his subjects charged with the task of interceding with the gods. As a battle-hardened general he was appointed supreme military commander and headed the two most prestigious warriors orders: the eagle and jaguar warriors. He was elected as...

On Sunday afternoon, the Getty Research Institute held a memorial service for architectural photographer Julius Shulman, who died in July at the age of 98.

The Getty Center's Harold Williams Auditorium was packed with architects, photographers, curators, historians, family members and a small smattering of celebrities. The program mixed personal reminiscences from architect William Krisel and architectural historian Thomas Hines, among many others, with a short panel discussion and a number of filmed snippets of the photographer at work and in conversation at his house and studio above Laurel Canyon.

Assuredly paced, and for the most part funnier than sad, the memorial reflected something fundamental about Shulman’s relentlessly upbeat if occasionally irascible personality.

It also offered reassurance that the Shulman archive, which includes a staggering 260,000 photographs and other items, is so far being well tended. In particular, the GRI...

The battle-hardened, armour-clad soldiers stopped in their tracks and stared in amazement. Rising out of the waters of the vast lake before them was a majestic island-city of wide streets and white stucco-fronted houses.

Bathed in bright sunshine and against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains, palaces and temples towered into the clear blue sky.

'Glorious!' exclaimed the Catholic monk who accompanied the gold-seeking adventurers from Spain on their journey of exploration from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

They might have expected to find little more than a settlement of mud huts when they landed on this foreign shore more than 5,000 miles from home.

Instead, gleaming there in the winter sunlight of November 1519, was the magnificent capital of the rich and thriving Aztec civilisation.

It went by the name of Tenochtitlan and was larger than any place these Europeans had ever seen or even dreamed of.

With...

If you loathe modern art, but want to give it one more try, see the Guggenheim Museum’s current exhibition of Vasily Kandinsky’s paintings. (The exhibition opened this past Friday and runs through January 13.) The museum owns a gazillion Kandinskys, but only occasionally mounts a full-fledged exhibition like this one. Nearly a hundred of his paintings, including many from European museums, are currently hanging on the slowly spiraling walls of Frank Lloyd Wright’s great building.

Kandinsky, one of the founders of abstract painting (the two others are Mondrian and Malevich), didn’t so much invent abstraction as discover it. On his own account, he walked into his studio one day and saw a beautiful painting, leaning against a wall, that he’d never seen before. With a start, he realized it was his own landscape, haphazardly lying on its side. In a stunning epiphany, he knew he no longer needed references to the real world in order to make beautiful, meaningful paintings....

The woman is dressed in a powder-blue satin bonnet and dress, waiting beneath the entrance to the Roman baths. Top-hatted gentlemen swirl around her, accompanied by ladies in full-skirted dresses. She is clutching a parasol in her gloved left hand. In her right hand is a bright red mobile phone. "No, not up the steps, near the fountain .... THE FOUNTAIN!", she shouts into the mouthpiece, tossing her ringlets.

The fractious maiden has reason to be jittery. She was one of hundreds who gathered in Bath at 11am yesterday to break a world record. The Guinness world record in question – the largest gathering of people dressed in Regency costume – is not one that has been contested by many. In fact, there has been only one previous record, 200 people, set by "Someone in America" (naturally). But that did not calm the nerves of those waiting, who were keen that the promenade to the counting hall would be the pièce de résistance of the city's annual Jane Austen...

Perhaps it's the christening gown so carefully crafted by the young woman crossing the Atlantic Ocean a century and a half ago. She was anxious to rejoin her fiance, who had gone ahead to the Great Salt Lake Valley and homesteaded in Coalville. Once the two were reunited and married, the christening gown eventually was worn by not only the woman's children and grandchildren but her great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren as well — 86 descendants in all.

Or maybe it's the peg leg worn by the man who at age 6 lost his limb in a mining explosion in Wales. As an adult, he walked the Great Plains of North America with his wife, limping on a wooden leg that left his stump so painful and bloody that he couldn't sleep at night. Instead, he filled his journal with westward-trek worries of other physical toils — those suffered by his wife, who was pregnant with their first child.

They are among the narratives breathing life into the artifacts and exhibits of...

The Amon Carter Museum presents Views and Visions: Prints of the American West, 1820–1970. The exhibition, on view through January 10, 2010, showcases approximately 120 prints and illustrated books from the museum’s permanent collection. Admission is free.

American artists saw and experienced the western frontier in different ways and with varied perspectives. This exhibition features prints from the past two centuries, representing a myriad views and visions of the American West.

"While the works will be arranged by subjects familiar to the viewer—nature, wildlife, native peoples and non-native settlement—they will reflect broader aspects,"” says Rick Stewart, the Carter’s senior curator of western paintings and sculpture and curator of Views and Visions.

"One of the most interesting features in the exhibition will be the juxtaposition of particular works,"” Stewart continues, "sometimes made more than a century apart,...