Description: It happened. "President" Francis J. Underwood's portrait hangs at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and NPG's Director, Kim Sajet, appears on an upcoming episode of House of Cards. [via Variety]DC Public Library's Memory Lab has your digital back and can help you digitize your 3.5" floppies and MiniDV's. [via dcist]Everyone's up in arms over the Metropolitan Museum
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: 435 high resolution book plates of gorgeous illustrations from Audubon's The Birds of America are now available for free download! [via Hyperallergic]And after you're done with the plates, check out peacock feathers under a high magnification lens, by artist Waldo Nell. [via Wired]University students are working to save the remaining copies of a black-owned newspaper, The
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: The story of the first emoji which can be found in the Museum of Modern Art's collection. [via AIGA Eye on Design]U.S. National Archives is celebrating former first Lady and women’s rights advocate, Betty Ford, with new resources and citizen archivist activities where you can learn more about her life! [via NARA]Use this app, Native Land, to learn about the indigenous history
Description: [caption id="attachment_4178" align="alignleft" width="206" caption="Levi Hill often photographed color lithographic prints, mostly European images, when attempting to perfect his Hillotype color process. This print of a girl and small animal shows his achievement in capturing natural colors on a daguerreotype plate, circa 1851-56."][/caption] Excepting the 8% of males and
Description: [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="181" caption="Edmonia Lewis, National Portrait Gallery"][/caption] In Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia (2000), Nancy Martha West describes how the company—marketing the first box cameras in the 1890s—aggressively targeted female consumers, hoping they’d “see photography not only as a necessary component of domestic life but as an integral
Description: The Buddhist Shrine Room is coming back better than ever with the re-opening of the Freer Sackler. [via Smithsonian Magazine]Your last chance to catch the major David Bowie retrospective is at the Brooklyn Museum March 2nd-July 15th, 2018. [via Art Newspaper]Get your gif on this month with DPLA's annual contest, GIF IT UP!Five previously-unpublished Kurt Vonnegut stories
Description: John Waters’s 1998 movie Pecker is the coming-of-age story about a young man who can’t stop himself from taking pictures. “Man, everything always looks good through here!” Pecker exclaims, squinting through his viewfinder and throughout most of the film, it does. Photography is all about looking, and when it was time to invite someone to address the subject of voyeurism for