Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Fingers typing, by Simon Steiner, Creative Commons: Attribution 2.0."] [/caption] You know that sinking, then maddening feeling: you need to find something you’ve carefully put away, but can’t remember where you’ve stored it or how you characterized or labeled it. That common problem, when it’s blown up to institutional
Description: With the help of digital volunteers, we will make over a century’s worth of Smithsonian Board of Regents Meeting Minutes searchable, via the Smithsonian Transcription Center.
Description: [caption id="attachment_2239" align="aligncenter" width="324" caption="881. View of the cliff of Mount Burgess from the west slope of Mount Field, three (3) miles north of Field on the Canadian Pacific Railway (British Columbia, Canada). By C.D. Walcott, 1910. 4 x 5" kodak film. Digital image taken directly from nitrate negative.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_5844,size=250,left]A staff-favorite story in the Smithsonian’s history is that of the Megatherium Club — a revolving group of young naturalists who made the Castle their temporary home in between expeditions to the outer reaches of the United States. Who could not be intrigued by this photo of the Club where they look to be sharing a joke, or a plan?
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Window Necklace, by Hoong Wei Long, Creative Commons: Attribution 2.0."][/caption] For those who continue to believe that bigger is better—that you’re better off, for example, the more megapixels your digital camera delivers—a recent article by Jordan Ellenberg in WIRED magazine suggests the opposite may be true.
Description: N95 Day is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to promote the safe and proper use of N95 face respirators.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="405" caption="U.S. Troops Surrounded by Holiday Mail During WWII, by unidentified photographer, c. 1944, National Postal Museum"][/caption] It’s no wonder that this photo of soldiers sorting holiday mail is such a favorite on the Commons. It clearly tugs on the heart strings of those who know (or try to imagine) what it would be like
Description: Did you know that the first beaver came to the National Zoological Park in 1894? Or that the first animals on the official zoo grounds were two Indian Elephants, Dunk and Gold Dust? Surely, you knew that the Dusit Zoo in Bangkok donated an albino Asiatic turtle to the National Zoo in 1966? You didn’t know that? Well, thanks to the work of Sybil Hamlet in 1985, you can now
Description: [caption id="attachment_1641" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="why? dia doscientos catorce, by Flickr member, Andrea"][/caption] Last weekend, I was working, editing a short essay about the rise of “citizen journalism” by Fred Ritchin, author of the recently published After Photography, which we’ll be uploading soon on click! photography changes everything.