Posts tagged with: Flickr Commons
Top 10 Photos on the Smithsonian Flickr Commons
You are probably familiar with the plethora of no-known-copyright photos that many museums and research units from across the Smithsonian post on the Smithsonian Flickr Commons. The Smithsonian has now been on the Commons for over four years, and we’ve enthusiastically taken in all of your comments, identifications of images, and favorites of our photos.
Here at the Archives, we both manage the Smithsonian Flickr Commons, and enjoy contributing our own collections to the Commons as well. Because of this, we eagerly drop in from time to time into our statistics to see what photos you’re enjoying on the Commons and what you have to say about these images.
Now that we’ve been on the Commons for over four years, it’s very interesting to see our most popular images of all time. So, without further ado, here are the ten most popular images on the Smithsonian Flickr Commons:
1. Uniformed Letter Carrier with Child in Mailbag
It’s a baby! In a mailbag! It’s no surprise that this toddler in a cute pose tops our list—everyone knows that babies are meme-makers. However, you might not know the story behind this photo. Though this particular image was simply a humorous posed image made for fun, indeed, after parcel post service was introduced in 1913 at least two children were sent by mail. Read more about the debacle in our blog post, How Many Stamps Does it Take to Mail a Baby?
Our second most popular photo continues the cute kid trend: a young boy does struggles to put his letters into a Doremus-style mailbox amidst a wintry background. All of our commenters agree that this is truly a Hallmark moment, and would make a great holiday card. Need some more holiday craft inspiration (even though it’s the summer)?: check out our Winter Wonderland set on the Flickr Commons.
3. Portrait of Albert Einstein and Others (1879-1955), Physicist
It’s no surprise that Albert Einstein (pictured with other important scientists of his time) tops our list—Einstein is without a doubt one of the most photograped scientists in history. Read more about why he is so etched in our visual consciousness in our blog post, The Camera Loved Einstein.
4. US Troops Surrounded by Holiday Mail During WWII
And the mail theme continues . . . This photo of US soldiers lierally overwhelmed by a tower of mail during WWII has piqued a lot of interest, and has also amused many with its juxtaposition of items: a hockey stick; a spare tire; and crushed boxes clearly marked "Fragile," and "GLASS—With Care.” Read more in our blog post, Soldiers and the Mail.
5. Mary Blade, standing at blackboard
Mary Blade is an impressive figure in science. In 1946, when this photograph was taken, Mary Blade was the only woman on the Cooper Union engineering faculty and one of few women on any engineering faculty in the United States. Add to that the visual aspects of this image—Blade’s charming smile and neatly-drawn curve graph—and it’s no wonder that this is a favorite. Check out more luminaries of science in our Women in Science set on the Flickr Commons.
6. Carte-de-visite of Henry M. Stanley
Everyone knows the line, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” which was supposedly uttered by Henry Stanley upon finding fellow explorer David Livingstone, who was presumed lost or dead, in Africa. Stanley was a popular writer and explorer during his day. This photo, which pictures Stanley with his adopted servant, Kalulu, has provoked heated discussions and debate about colonialism during the 19th century. Read more about the complicated relationship between the two in our blog post, Photos, Guns, Africa, Stanley, & Kalulu.
7. First Ladies Gowns, Jacqueline Kennedy
Who can resist Jackie O—the First Lady beloved by many, and known as a fashion plate to the world even today. This photo pictures the gown and cape worn by Jacqueline Kennedy at the Inaugural Ball for her husband, President John F. Kennedy. The outfit is now featured in one of the Smithsonian’s most popular exhibits, “The First Ladies” at the National Museum of American History. You can visit The First Ladies online exhibit here.
8. Portrait of Felix Nadar (1820-1910), Photographer and Aeronautical Scientist
The photo actually features Felix Nadar—one of the most famous photographers of the 19th century, but history of photography, steampunk, and balloon enthusiasts have all embraced this image. That needs little explanation—it’s simply fun to look at a top-hatted man seemingly floating above the earth in a hot air balloon. Nevertheless, read more about the career of this photographer in our blog post, Felix Nadar.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope penetrates the dark columns of gas and dust to reveal how much star formation is happening there. The result is a gorgeous and almost-mystical looking image that also gives us a lot of scientific information: the Chandra data (red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays respectively) show very few X-ray sources in the so-called "Pillars of Creation" themselves. This indicates that star formation peaked in this region several million years ago. Check out more stunning images in the Chandra X-ray Observatory set on the Flickr Commons.
The Scopes “Monkey” Trial—known as the trial of the century—famously debated the teaching of evolution in school in the 1920s. In this trial, high school teacher John T. Scopes was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach evolution in any state-funded school. Here, scientists who asked to testify in support of Scopes gather together for a picture. Read a whole series of blog posts on the Scopes Trial and view the Archives’ snapshots from the trial.
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Smithsonian on the Flickr Commons
Flickr Commons: Summertime Set from the Field Book Project
Reminiscing of summers past always conjures sensations of sticky, ice-creamed fingers; sweet lemonade; tangled hair from wild somersaults; and scents of backyard barbeques and freshly-cut grass.
Continuing on that summery theme, the Field Book Project has contributed a set of images to the Flickr Commons, the André Goeldi Field Notes Collection. This set contains a variety of botanical specimens, primarily grasses, photographed by Brazilian botanist, André Goeldi.
More about these images can be read in the Field Book Project’s blog post, André Goeldi Flickr Set: The Journey from 1920 to 2012.
Although many of the featured specimens in this set are unidentified, several active members of the Flickr Commons’ community have already begun offering potential indentifications!
We’re currently working with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany to further identify these specimens. Please check back soon, as new information develops.
This summer, while tending to your gardens, before pulling those pesky grasses from the ground (like our Flickr friend Mark in NOVA), I encourage you to take a closer look. They’re really quite beautiful.
Link Love: 5/11/2012
- Smithsonian Magazine writes about how newfound negatives provide what are believed to be the only pictures of a living nestling of an ivory-billed woodpecker—America’s rarest bird.
- A digital archivist’s horror story. How the movie Toy Story 2 was accidentally deleted (and then restored). Moral of the story? Back up those files! [via Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig, SIA]
- A little late for May Day, but getting me in the Spring spirit nevertheless: maypoles across the Flickr Commons [via Susannah Wells, SIA].
- John Gray, former president of the Autry National Center of the American West, has been named director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
- “The Hemingway Papers” Digital Archive is now available, and features newspaper articles written by the famous author during his tenure as a columnist at the Toronto Star newspaper from 1920–1924 on subjects like fishing, sports and war [via INFOdocket].
- The National Portrait Gallery on the tricky science of conserving some Civil War era prints in their collections.
- Why do old books smell? [via swissmiss]
Link Love: 4/27/2012
- A Springtime slideshow—a selection of gorgeous photographs of flowers from across the Flickr Commons.
- Movie studios are forcing Hollywood to abandon 35mm film, but what are the consequences of going digital? [via Jennifer Wright, SIA].
- The Library of Congress is celebrating Preservation Week with public events and many resources to help you learn to care for you personal collections at home.
- From our sister blog The Field Book Project blog—the remarkable travels and field books of naturalist Edmund Heller, and how the Field Book Project is bringing together his field notes, scattered across many institutions, into one place on the web.
- Milton Friedman on the future of capitalism, Ronald Reagan campaign speeches, and debates on morality—Pepperdine University’s Historic Sound Recordings collections contain some fascinating sound clips.
- The State Library and North Carolina State Archives has an Inform U. project—a group of tutorials online to help you with your digital preservation issues, as well as a series of video tutorials including the following on how to save your Facebook data [via InfoDocket]:
Stellar Evolution: A Journey with Chandra
Three new images were recently added to the "Chandra X-ray Observatory" set on the Smithsonian Flickr Commons stream. Below, Kim Kowal Arcand, from the Education & Public Outreach group for the Chandra X-ray Observatory, explains the origins of these images. As noted on the Chandra site, the "flight operations, mission planning, data processing and user support for the Chandra mission are carried out by the Chandra X-ray Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts." The Chandra X-ray Center is part of a NASA initiative to make its space programs more efficient by encouraging expert teams located outside NASA centers to assume expanded responsibilities.
The three new images recently added to the "Chandra X-ray Observatory" set on the Smithsonian Flickr Commons.When the Universe came into existence about 14 billion years ago, the only elements were hydrogen, helium, and traces of lithium, beryllium, and boron. The heavier elements did not yet exist. Heavy elements are produced by nucleosynthesis--the fusion of nuclei deep within the cores of stars. At some point in time, the first stars were formed, and within their cores the fusion process created heavier and heavier elements; the most massive stars produced nuclei as heavy as iron. When the stars used up their nuclear fuel, they started to evolve.
The evolutionary processes of stars depend upon their initial mass. Mid-sized stars eject planetary nebulae, leaving a white dwarf core remnant. More massive stars explode as supernovae, leaving neutron stars or black holes at the centers of the supernovae remnants. The elements that were created within the cores of the first stars were ejected into space where they intermingled with the surrounding interstellar medium. This medium--the gas and dust between the stars--provides the raw material for the formation of new generations of stars. Eventually, these elements became incorporated into large clouds of gas and dust that condensed and formed protostars. And so the cycle of stellar formation (see 30 Doradus) and destruction (see RCW 86 and G350.1+0.3) continues--each new generation further enriching the interstellar medium with heavy elements that become incorporated into the next generation. We are just beginning to understand stellar formation and destruction--and how the Sun, Solar System and life on Earth are connected to this never-ending cycle.
For a more complete picture of this journey, visit the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Field Guide to X-ray Astronomy: Stellar Evolution.
Discover more Chandra X-ray Observatory images on the Smithsonian Flickr Commons.
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