Robert Kennicott stares at skulls in this Halloween mashup. Original image no: SIA2011-0145, NHB-24048, Smithsonian Institution Archives.

A Monster Mash of Smithsonian History

We got on Photoshop and we did the monster mash. It was definitely a graveyard smash. 
October 31, 2018, by Deborah Shapiro

We got on Photoshop and we did the monster mash[-up of spooky images from our collections]. It was definitely a graveyard smash. Enjoy your safe yet spooky Halloween!

(Psst--you can learn more about the original images we used by entering their ID numbers in our collections search.)

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Image of a man with glasses photoshopped into a grimy room. The floor is covered by an overgrown tre

Creepy! Crawly! Longitudinal study! Zoologist Enrique Lynch Arribálzaga haunts (or maybe monitors) a 1990 experiment on spider webs at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). A mere seventy years earlier, Arribálzaga met Alexander Wetmore, future Smithsonian secretary, in Argentina. (Original Images: SIA2012-0847, 92-5214)

Two men holding archival boxes pop out of boxes in a storage space. A rack with hangers is also visi

Join this odd “pop-up session” at the Arts & Industries Building to learn about physical anthropology from paleontologist Robert Broom and U.S. consul William Henry Bishop. One skull is James Smithson's, and two are casts from early hominids. Spot which is which, or YOU COULD BE NEXT! (Original Images: SIA2007-0399, SIA2010-1300)

Images of a storage space. A head is popping out of various boxes in the space.

Someone has been trapped in a porthole for 90 years at Smithsonian's Silver Hill facility—is that you, Edward William Nelson? Or is that you...or is that you...or is that you? (Original Images:71-1151B, MAH-6354)

A man holds up a skull next to a chalk board. Bricks are laying on the ground in the room.

Physical anthropologist T. Dale Stewart...in a deconstructed classroom exhibit...with a skull!? (Original images: 85-8066, SIA2010-1302)

A woman stands in the doorway of an archival storage space. Labeled storage cabinets are in the room

Maybe she’s looking for paleontological specimens, or maybe she’s just haunting the lab. Either way, Ova Corvin "Precious" Rappleyea will always be reliving her Scopes Trial glory days. (Original images: SIA2008-1129, MAH-24046)

A man sits staring at groups of skulls in a storage area.

Many years after his mysterious demise along the Yukon River, the halcyon days of his Megatherium Club exploits long gone, naturalist Robert Kennicott ponders rows of human skulls. But your own skull isn't in this room, Robert—you'll need to visit the second floor of Natural History to find it. (Original images: SIA2011-0145, NHB-24048)

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