Link Love: 7/29/2011

• An important part of the museum story that we often forget: how the objects got there in the first place. Donors’ stories often reveal the fascinating and complicated path that object take before they come into the Smithsonian’s collections. Here’s a great read on a family who collected celluloid (plastic) souvenirs, jewelry, products, and knick-knacks, that now reside at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

• After three years of preparation and development, the European Film Gateway (EFG)—which offers free access to currently about 400,000 digital videos, photos, film posters, and text materials from European film archives—is now online [via Museum Media].

• Pam Henson, the Smithsonian Historian here at the Archives, has curated More Than Meets the Eye—an exhibit on how scientists at the National Museum of Natural History are using advanced imaging techniques to add value to their research.

• The Museum of the City of New York now offers more than 62,000 photographs of New York City from their photo archives, arranged in a beautiful array by borough, on their online collections portal. I definitely just whiled away some time browsing through this… [via British Photo History].

• We love it when you share what you're up to in the Archives with us! A big thanks to Clarissa Ceglio for all of her Twitter updates this week on her research at Smithsonian Institution Archives.

• The Smithsonian Collections Search Center (where the majority of the digitized collections from across the Smithsonian can be searched) has introduced visitor tagging! So come over to browse and help us tag. We’re excited to see how this feature makes searches easier for you (and for us).

• The National Archives talks about conserving the Magna Carta, stabilizing the document and using ultraviolet light to reveal obliterated text in damaged areas, in a blog post and in the video below:

“Magna Carta Conservation Treatment,” Courtesy of the National Archives YouTube channel.