Description: We thought our work was done when a social media follower helped us identify our popular “unidentified male model” as German naturalist Emil Bessels. Then we discovered he may have murdered his captain during the 1871–73 Polaris Expedition.
Description: Preservation intern discusses working with oversize materials in the Archives collection, including information on the creation of custom enclosures, surface cleaning of blueprints, and humidification.
Description: Having grown up in a major U.S. city with a family that considered spending a week in a grass hut camping, I committed to giving my daughter more exposure to the great outdoors with all the wonderful state and national parks near Washington D.C. However, lack of sleep and rehydrated food was not what I had in mind.Throughout history, Smithsonian researchers have conducted
Description: Homeopathy exhibit showing its history, methods, and remedies, installed in the Hall of Health in the United States National Museum, now known as the Arts and Industries Building, in 1929, SIA RU000095, USNM No. 27049.
Description: The DMZ ecology project reveals the Smithsonian’s commitment to ecological research programs as well as the complexity and contingency of an international collaboration.
Description: In 1864, Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth sparked people’s imagination, but have you heard that before the novel was published, the Smithsonian attempted a journey of its own.
Description: Mount of ground sloth skeleton in the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology lab during preparation for exhibition at the United States National Museum in the Natural History Building, 1946, SIA Acc. 11-007, MNH-37289.