Peggy Bacon: Artist, mystery writer.

The exhibition "Six Degrees of Peggy Bacon" at the Smithsonian's Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture (on view until Nov. 4, but some materials are posted online) shows the artistic work and various connections of Bacon (1895–1987) with Diego Rivera, Alfred Stieglitz, Andrew Wyeth, and others, but also mentions that she was an Edgar nominee for The Inward Eye (1952, aka Lady Marked for Murder; adapted for Robert Montgomery Presents, 1952). Her illustration work includes The Nameless Cat (1954) by Richard and Frances Lockridge.

Forensic anthropology meets the comic strip.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of National History has posted "The Secret in the Cellar," a Webcomic that follows the clues provided by a recently unearthed, centuries-old skeleton.

About the image: Ana the intern from "The Secret in the Cellar, " Smithsonian Institution.

Colonial cold cases.

The Smithsonian magazine features an article on the ability of forensic anthropology to solve centuries-old cases, featuring Smithsonian anthropologist Doug Owsley and tying in with a Smithsonian exhibit on view until February 2011.

(Hat tip to PhiloBiblos.)