- On this day in 1903 the Wright Brothers took their first flight, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with Orville Wright at the controls of the Wright Flyer. Check out our famous photograph of the historic, 12 second, 120 foot flight above and right here.
- The snowflake crafting continues! Inspired by the “Snowflake Bentley” photographs in our new Winter Wonderland set on the Flickr Commons, fan Liz West posted some wonderful snowflake brushes for you to download and use! Please do email us with any photos or stories of how you’ve used Liz’s brushes or our craft templates from this set!
- The main Smithsonian website has undergone a complete transformation, so go and check it out! I’m especially appreciating the social media and Flickr integration and the much improved navigation of the site.
- Whoa! I’d love to smell this: the New York’s Museum of Arts and Design is opening The Center of Olfactory Art. The NY Times’ former perfume critic is joining the center and notes that the Center will include machines with buttons that allow visitors to disperse fragrances in the air.
- The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum presents what they think is one of the first pieces of mail ever addressed to one Santa Claus by W. Reginald Bray (who incidentally, also claimed to be the first person to be sent through the British Postal System).
- Talk about a big project: the Vatican is starting a project to digitize and restore more than 8 million images from their archives.
- Over on NPR Harvard professor Ann Blair argues in a (long) segment that information overload is not unique to the digital age, and has been part of the human experience for centuries [via Resource Shelf].
- How did the Detroit Institute of Art’s Conservation team discover a Lewis Hine photography forgery? Check it out below!
Produced by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. For copyright questions, please see the Terms of Use.
Leave a Comment