Description: Annette A. Aiello Smithsonian Institution Archives Oral History Collection, SIA009624When she was twenty-eight years old, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) staff scientist Annette Aiello (1941-) picked up a copy of Gray’s Manual of Botany to identify plants she photographed; that book changed her life. And the rest is history.As a young girl, Aiello felt
Description: Have you ever wondered why museums choose the exhibition topics they do? These are the kinds of questions that the Smithsonian Institution Archives’ historic records of exhibitions can sometimes help us answer. An idea could stem from the personal interest of a curator, reflect an institution’s holdings, be inspired by comments from a visitor, or be designed around a specific
Description: Learn some of the surprising facts about people and places from the Smithsonian Institution Archives that we have came across while writing Wikipedia articles using SIA materials.