The Smithsonian Network

We go behind the scenes and into the minds of artists as they capture, commemorate, and, at times, condemn our presidents.

Herman Melville's epic ocean adventure "Moby Dick" is an American masterpiece. But was this stirring tale of violence and revenge simply an allegory, or were there real giants of the deep deliberately attacking whaling ships? With the help of centuries old witness accounts and modern day science, we explain how the legend of the great white whale came to be. Then we determine if the multiple sperm whale assaults on ships in the 19th century were indeed premeditated and coordinated.

A documentary which follows two lion brothers as they become rulers of a pride in Botswana after a battle for dominance.

Documentary which follows crocodile expert Brad Bestelink on a quest to dive with crocodiles without a cage or any other protection.

This is the story of a cheetah born into the Linyanti cheetah coalition. He is the runt of the litter and will have to fight hard for every scrap of food and attention to survive.

Even 2,000 years after his death, General Hannibal's battle strategies are still studied today. But of all his military feats, perhaps his greatest was leading his massive Carthaginian army of men and three-dozen elephants across the Alps and into the heartland of Rome in 218 B.C. Until now, the route they took has been a matter of dispute, but thanks to modern-day technology, geomorphologist Bill Mahaney and microbiologist Chris Allen believe they've accurately traced this ancient journey.

20 years after the TV Mini-Series "Tales of the Serengeti", our crew reunites to truly explore the Serengeti, with no fiction. We almost didn't survive it.

Spend three years in China's remote and inhospitable Tibetan Plateau, home to nearly all the world's snow leopards.

In the far reaches of the North, wolf and bear come head to head. Winter has been long. The melting ice reveal scattered carcasses in the Swamp: a feast worth fighting for. The bears must fatten up before Winter comes again, the wolves must strengthen their pack. The Swamp has been their battleground for decades, who will rule the North?

Honeybees are in crisis – but there is hope. Biologists are studying the estimated 20.000 bee species in the world to look for viable pollinators of our crops. In their quest they discover the marvellous world of bees: bees that live in flowers, invade other hives, produce perfumes – and pollinate our crops without us even realizing.

Smithsonian Institution scientists race against time to save endangered frogs from a deadly fungus that is ravaging amphibians worldwide.

In Austria, he was known as an art collector and idealist. In Mexico, he was a colonialist aggressor responsible for thousands of deaths. And in France, he lost an empire. But who was the real Archduke Maximilian? Join us as we examine the brief and contentious reign of the last emperor of Mexico, a complex and conflicted member of the powerful Habsburg family, from his royal childhood in Vienna to his alliance with Napoleon III, who wanted to expand his empire to the Western Hemisphere.

In 1960, a lone assassin planned a deadly attempt on the life of President-Elect John F Kennedy. With a Buick packed with dynamite, nothing was going to stop Kennedy's Suicide Bomber.

The drama documentary tells the real life story of Samurai woman Takeko Nakano who in 1868 fights for her clans' independence in a final battle that marks the end of the Samurai era.

A high-tech autopsy on a Nile crocodile unlocks secrets behind its hunting prowess.

Before he wrote the book that revolutionized the way people understood evolution, a young Charles Darwin found himself, by chance, on a strange sea voyage. This is the story of the HMS Beagle, which traveled from Great Britain to survey South America's coastline, but also became part of its Captain Fitzroy's flawed social experiment. It's a tale of bold exploration, tragic miscalculation, the death of a civilization, and the birth of Darwinism.

Enter the harsh and unforgiving Kalahari and follow a lion pride attempt to save their threatened bloodline.

In China's Valley of the Kings, there stands a tall, carved stone. It honors the resting place of a woman named Wu Zetian, who rose from concubine to become China's only female emperor. For more than a millennia, history claimed she killed her own children, held power through a ruthless rule of terror, and brought China to the edge of ruin. But are any of these claims true? Join the investigation as we revisit old evidence and reveal new truths, using artifacts and forensic tools to tell the true story of China's Emperor of Evil.

It lasted only one day on a small piece of land, but the impact the Battle of Waterloo had on history is massive and far-reaching. This is the definitive account of the fight that ended Napoleon's rule as emperor and altered the destinies of France, Europe, and the world. Based on testimonies of those involved, we reveal the tactical decisions and human dramas that transpired on both sides of the battle to give you an unprecedented look of one of history's most epic conflicts.