Description: As a laborer at the Smithsonian from 1882 until his death in 1918, Harrison Lomax served the Institution’s top leaders. A letter in our collections that he wrote to Secretary Samuel P. Langley is an example of the ways in which African American employees advocated for themselves in order to earn promotions and raises.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="436" caption="Clerks of the Bureau of War Risk Insurance occupying the Natural History Building, now the National Museum of Natural History. On the request of President Wilson, the Board of Regents closed the museum to the public on July 16, 1918, making available to the government the ground and two exhibition floors (138,600 sq.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_10581,size=200,left]Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch tantalizing glimpses of our patrons’ manifold research topics.The reference team fields around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been