Description: While responding to a digitization request, I uncovered the story of how the Smithsonian International Exchange Service (1849-1992) helped rebuild the library collections of Chinese cultural heritage institutions during the Second World War.
Description: Long ago and far away, before gray hairs and creaky knees, before history became my passion, I was an undergraduate physics major. Physics seemed fascinating and beautiful, if difficult. Later, after career paths led into history and science policy, I learned that physics, however elegant, did not reside in a cultural vacuum. Its people and discoveries coexisted with
Description: [caption id="attachment_1679" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Untitled (Drive-In: Circle Theatre), Steve Fitch, 1976, Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection"][/caption] Media and transportation seem forever linked. As I wrote in a previous post, the portable camera and the bicycle made a very nice pairing in their early years at the turn of the 20th century.
Description: The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (NPG) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018. Ahead of next year’s festivities, NPG unveiled an exhibition commemorating its May 1968 opening. The Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) provided several pieces for this gallery, including a photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s dedication speech on May 3rd. Check out the full
Description: Take a listen to clips from The World Is Yours episode “Early Air Mail” and its short reign under the United States Postal Service from 1916 to 1926.