Category: Behind the Scenes
Join us on Facebook Live: Dyar's Law Revisited at the National Museum of Natural History
Last May, the Archives joined the Smithsonian Libraries and the Biodiversity Heritage Library to #DigIntoDyar, a campaign to help transcribe the historic field books of Smithsonian entomologist Harrison Dyar. A man with a scandalous personal life and a habit of digging underground tunnels beneath his house, his work was just as (figuratively) groundbreaking. As Honorary Custodian of Lepiodptera at what is now the National Museum of Natural History for more than 30 years, he was responsible for both describing and discovering new species of moths, butterflies, and mosquitoes.
His work in this area, specifically measuring the size of insects’ exoskeletons during the molting process, became known as Dyar’s Law. Today, Dyar’s Law is being re-examined, thanks to the digitization of the scientist’s original notes, taken more than 100 years ago.
During the #DigIntoDyar campaign, Smithsonian Transcription Center volunteers transcribed more than 270 pages of Dyar’s field notes. Now, National Museum of Natural History entomologist Dr. Jorge Santiago-Blay is using the transcriptions of Dyar’s original notes to help shed new light on Dyar’s Law.
Join us on Facebook Live tomorrow at 12 p.m., as we meet Dr. Santiago-Blay for a behind-the-scenes look at the Department of Entomology. He’ll share a new look at the National Museum of Natural History’s insect collection, and explain how the digitized Dyar blue books are helping shape his research. Then, you can explore and help transcribe more of Dyar’s original notes!
Related Resources
- Facebook Live: Dyar's Law Revisited at NMNH, Smithsonian Institution Archives
- Understanding growth in insects: Dyar’s Law revisited, The Bigger Picture, Smithsonian Institution Archives
- The Impossible Case of Harrison G. Dyar, The Bigger Picture, Smithsonian Institution Archives
- H.G. Dyar, Bluebook 197-212, 1890-1895, Smithsonian Transcription Center
- H.G. Dyar, Bluebook 212-270, 1890-1896, Smithsonian Transcription Center
Hot Topics in Archival Research: Summer 2017
What does the Smithsonian Institution Archives collect? We say we hold records about the history of the Smithsonian and its people, programs, research, and activities. But this answer doesn’t quite do justice to the breadth and depth of our holdings.
The reference team fields around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been researching recently, and you'll get into some of the enlightening, weird, and fascinating details of SIA collections. Here is a sample of the diverse questions our researchers have been exploring for the past few months!
Over the past three months, researchers have delved into:
- Letters exchanged between Joseph Henry and Sir George Simpson on Robert Kennicott’s 1859 collecting expedition to the Pacific Northwest
- Portrait images of early climatologist Eunice Newton Foote
- The history of Heritage Preservation, a professional organization for conservation training
- Vocabularies of North American languages in George Gibbs’ field notebooks
- Early instruments for measuring human weight
- Vertebrate fossils collected by Edward L. Troxell
- The visitor policy for the former Children’s Room at the Castle
Permissions for upcoming publications using our photos or documents include:
- Natasha Peterson, images of Marshall Islands navigation charts for Kentaro Toyama’s Educate exhibit at EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology
- Eventias Chaudat, clips from “The Search for the Tunguska Meteorite” for a video on blast waves
- Phyllis May-Machunda, images from the 1974-1979 Festivals of American Folklife for a publication on Kate Rinzler, coordinator for children’s folklore programming
- Jordan Bimm and Patrick Kilian, image of Konrad Johannes Karl Buettner for an article on the meteorologist’s research on temperature extremes
Settling a familial dispute on penguins:
A patron emailed the reference team to resolve a longstanding family debate. Has the National Zoo ever had penguins as part of a permanent exhibit? The patron didn’t think so, but his mother-in-law was adamant.
To find the answer, we consulted RU 365, Records of the National Zoological Park Office of Public Affairs. Series 4 of the collection comprises animal information files: acquisition records, correspondence, press releases, and additional documentation on each species held at the Zoo.
The folder on penguins had just what we were looking for. It included lists and numbers of species, year by year, since the first rockhopper penguins arrived in 1926. According to the timeline, penguins had a steady presence at the Zoo between 1944 (three emperor, four jackass, and two Humboldt penguins) and 1962 (one Adélie and four king penguins). The Smithsonian began depositing its penguins at other zoos in 1963.
We hope Record Unit 365 helped to resolve this family conflict!
Play Our New Game! “The Mystery of the Megatherium Club: Mustaches & Mayhem”
What could possibly go wrong when a group of young scientists have free range of the Castle?
We are pleased to launch a new live-play mystery based on the Megatherium Club, an actual group of young naturalists who lived in dormitories in the Smithsonian's Castle. Geared toward teen visitors (you must be 13 years or older to play), “The Mystery of the Megatherium Club: Mustaches & Mayhem” runs July 8th-Aug. 27th, with limited timeslots daily. Spend an hour with your friends or family investigating the Castle, solving puzzles, and following clues hidden by these mischievous former inhabitants of the Castle. Sign up now!
About the Game Development
The Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) and the Office of Visitors Services (OVS), with generous funding from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, developed the idea for the game in a series of human-centered design workshops with teens from the Washington metropolitan area. In conjunction with the game, OVS is kicking off its teen docent program, in which teens will serve as game masters throughout the summer.
About the Megatherium Club
Many scientists lived in the Smithsonian’s Castle in its early years. With the permission of Smithsonian Under Secretary Spencer F. Baird, but to the dismay of Secretary Joseph Henry, young naturalists lived in the building between exploring expeditions to remote areas of the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. The two founders were zoologist, William Stimpson, and naturalist, Robert Kennicott.
Further Learning
- Listen to the Smithsonian’s Sidedoor Podcast, first episode of season two “If These Bones Could Talk,” on Robert Kennicott and the Megatherium Club.
- Learn what the Smithsonian’s forensic anthropologists discovered when examining the bones of Robert Kennicott, a key member of the Megatherium Club, who was thought to have died by suicide while on expedition in the Yukon (courtesy of The Washington Post.
- Visit Robert Kennicott’s bones, as well as specimens he collected, at Objects of Wonder, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History!
- "Connecting Teens and the Castle," Bigger PIcture Blog
An Undersea Invertebrates Update: Treatment Progress on Bartsch’s Nudibranchs Field Book
When last we left Paul Bartsch’s field book of marine invertebrates—nudibranchs—from the oceans surrounding the Philippines, initial stabilization had been completed so that the volume could be digitized. Stabilizing the volume included removing the original interleaving tissue, which had begun to deteriorate and discolor adjacent pages, and replacing it with archival interleaving; fully disbinding the field book by removing remnants of sewing thread and spine linings; and making an inventory of the specimen illustrations to ensure all drawings remained accounted for throughout treatment. For ease of handling, folders made from archival paper were prepared for each gathering of pages.
Since our first post, digitization has been completed, and I have turned my attention to the volume’s continuing treatment.
As noted above, the original interleaving had been removed, and while new archival interleaving tissue was cut to size and prepared, it had not been adhered in place to facilitate clear imaging of the specimen illustrations. Thus, the first step in the continued treatment was to attach these using cast-out films of an acrylic adhesive, Lascaux 498HV. Attaching these first allowed the interleaving to perform its protective function throughout the duration of the treatment. Small pieces of the films were cut to size, mimicking the size and shape of the original spots of adhesive used to attach the original interleaving, placed, and reactivated with a heated spatula applied through silicon release paper. Any spots where the illustrations had become detached from the book’s pages were treated in the same manner.
A handful of illustrations, with one in particular, had become damaged over time. Due to the delicate nature of the paper on which these drawings were executed, treatment options were carefully weighed. Too much moisture could distort the paper, and many heat-set tissues would diminish its transparency. I ultimately selected a solvent-set tissue, one which has been coated with an adhesive that is reactivated when wetted with a solvent; since this will evaporate more quickly than water, there is less chance for distortion. I carried out the treatment atop a light box, to better align the torn edges of the paper. I chose a very thin tissue, which allowed me to shape and place the repair paper in situ, coated side facing down, then apply the solvent from the uncoated side of the solvent-set tissue. The solvent wicked into the paper and began the adhesion process, and then I allowed it to dry under weight.
The next step was to mend broken pages throughout the volume. This was carried out using medium-weight Japanese tissue in a matching tone, with wheat starch paste as the primary adhesive. The majority of the broken pages were split along the spine folds of the gatherings; these were “guarded,” meaning they were mended or reinforced along this fold, in order to be both intact and strong enough to support new sewing when the book is reassembled. Edge tears and cracks were also mended or reinforced as necessary.
With these tasks completed, the next step is to resew the book and recreate a functional volume. Stay tuned for another post with a final update!
Related Resources
- Coming Soon to the Transcription Center: Department of Invertebrate Zoology, The Bigger Picture, Smithsonian Institution Archives
- Conservation, Smithsonian Institution Archives
Connecting Teens and the Castle
This semester, I’ve had the opportunity to intern with the Smithsonian Institution Archives to help develop a program to connect teens with history when they visit the Castle.
We chose to create two dimensions of the program. One part will consist of having twenty local teens who will be volunteering this summer. The second part will be developing an interactive game or experience to involve and excite younger visitors about history overall, as well as the history of the Smithsonian.
From the beginning of this project, we knew that we were going to have to make sure that whatever we came up with connected with our targeted age-group. So, our team decided that before we made any specific decisions about what this experience was going to be, we would want to get input from teens about what they would actually want to participate in.
Our first step was to do some background research, observations, and informal surveys about the types of young people visiting the Castle and to see what teens thought about the space. We learned that most of the younger visitors were there either with their parents or on a school trip. Everyone was curious about the architecture and why there was a castle on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Very few people knew the history of the building or anything about the origins of the Smithsonian.
Next, we decided to hold a workshop for local teens to help us get an idea of what they would actually be interested in. We used a Human-Centered Design Workshop format, which emphasizes a creative approach to problem solving. The process really focuses on the people you’re designing for, and ends with solutions that should be customized to those people.
We had a great turnout of eighteen teens and spent the day teaching them about Human-Centered Design, introducing them to the Castle and the history of the Smithsonian, and getting a closer look at what they would be interested in. The workshop went really well and the different groups overwhelmingly came up with scavenger-hunt and escape room type experiences.
Our research continued by reaching out to other local institutions who have similar teen programs or who have successfully run interactive game experiences, like scavenger hunts or escape rooms. We found a great partner in Carl Rauscher, who works as a game-developer at the U.S. National Archives. He’s run two successful escape room events and is a master storyteller. We learned that having a great storyline is one of the keys to success in creating an experience that really connects with your audience.
We decided to hold a second workshop where we had teens develop possible storylines and Carl proved to be even more helpful. With his instructions and questioning, the teens came up with two different scenarios that could play out in an escape room type setting. The teens developed the storylines and even crafted a number of clues that could eventually go into the game.
Today, we are working on developing the details of the storyline and game mechanics. Then we will begin piloting the game in early July. The teen volunteers will help facilitate the game as we test it through the end of summer. Stay tuned to learn more as we continue this exciting process!
Related Resources
- Smithsonian History, Smithsonian Institution Archives
- Smithsonian Institution Building, The Castle, Smithsonian Institution Archives
- New History App: "Castle of Curiosities," The Bigger Picture, Smithsonian Institution Archives
- What is Human-Centered Design?, IDEO
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