Behind the seemingly objective certitude of a date lies an argument about what counts.

Frank Hamilton Cushing, ethnologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology, demonstrates horse riding technique of a Dakota warrior.

A keeper feeds Asian elephants Hitam and Kechil in the octagonal elephant barn at the National Zoological Park, 1918.

See new collection highlights posted to the Smithsonian Institution Archives website.

Cyanotype, Riker Electric Mail Wagon vehicle for exhibition by Post Office Department at Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, 1901.

Young museum visitors with horse and carriage outside the United States National Museum, now known as the Arts and Industries Building, Washington, D.C., circa 1910s.

Rotunda of the United States National Museum Natural History Building, now known as National Museum of Natural History, 1913.

While digitizing the collection of Smithsonian entomologist Doris Holmes Blake, I discovered a treasure trove of correspondence that sheds light about growing up as a young woman in the mid-20^th century and the story of an intimate mother-daughter relationship.

Construction of Freer Gallery of Art, November 1, 1916, with Smithsonian Institution Building, or Castle, in view.

Atlas launch vehicle on the west side of the Arts and Industries Building, 1960s.