Description: A daily photo highlight from Smithsonian collections. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="366" caption="Alfred Duane Pell Collection of Ceramics and Furniture on display in the National Gallery of Art (NGA), now the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), at the United States National Museum (USNM) building, now known as the Natural History Building (NHB), c. 1930, by
Description: Help transcribe wine labels for the University of California, Davis, to contribute to the understanding of the post-Prohibition wine industry. [via Hyperallergic]Getty hired its first semantic architect, Rob Sanderson, who will work on their open culture initiatives. [via Iris]A hidden Degas portrait revealed by a particle accelerator! [via NY Times]The California Academy of
Description: Division of Graphic Arts exhibit in Smithsonian Institution Building, or Castle, with the statue of George Washington, sculpted by Horatio Greenough, in the background, MAH-37158B.
Description: When you think of the National Museum of Natural History, what comes to mind are probably inanimate things—rocks and dinosaur bones, cultural objects, and stuffed animals. But did you know that the museum has a collection of live insects? Today is the 35th anniversary of the opening of the permanent installation of the Insect Zoo, though the Zoo actually began as a temporary
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_9592,size=200,left]Did you know the Smithsonian was an early adopter of the telephone? In June of 1878, a system of electronic bells and telephones was installed throughout the Smithsonian Castle. The system connected several workrooms and offices to provide instant communications within the building. At that time, there were only 187 telephone lines
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="424" caption="U.S. National Museum, May 3, 1917, seen from the National Mall, by Unknown photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 45, Box 79, Folder: 10, Neg. SIA2009-2203."][/caption] As part of my work as the historian for the history of the Smithsonian, I’ve been working for the past year on
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_arc_287602,size=250,left]As a child in England in the 1930s, Oliver Sacks enjoyed playing with his Uncle Abe’s spinthariscope. It was, he would later recall, “a beautifully simple instrument, consisting of a fluorescent screen and a magnifying eyepiece, and inside, an infinitesimal speck of radium.We take a look at the spinthariscope at the Smithsonian.
Description: To kick off Women's History month, a look at some of the women in humanities represented in the Smithsonian Institution Archives collections.
Description: Watch a recently-digitized video clip featuring Japanese Ceramics Today, an exhibition at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 1983.