Description: A brief biographical sketch of Roxie Laybourne, an Ornithologist who specialized in feather identification and pioneered the field of forensic ornithology.
Description: Elizabeth Macie née Elizabeth Hungerford Keate (1728–1800) was the mother of James Smithson. She is the central figure and the driving force behind the events recounted in the Hungerford Deed. Macie was a complex individual, keenly aware of her position in society and continually peering backward toward her paternal family’s heritage while hoping to leverage it for her own
Description: Born in 1829 to free black parents along the border between Maryland and the District of Columbia, Solomon Galleon Brown would become, at age 23, the first black employee of the Smithsonian. Starting out as a laborer in the Exchange Office, he ultimately became the personal assistant of Spencer Baird, the second secretary of the Smithsonian. By the time of his 1904 retirement,
Description: [caption id="attachment_7461" align="aligncenter" width="369" caption="Construction of the National Museum of the American Indian, July 2003, digital photograph, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 06-012, Box 24, Folder NMAI Construction-July 2003, Folder CD_1, # U.jpg."] [/caption] At the Archives, we’ve recently begun working with some digital files of architectural
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="305" caption="Cake, by Daniel Nelson, Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0."][/caption] It’s hard to believe, but it has been two years to the day that THE BIGGER PICTURE has been in existence (note: that rogue January post doesn’t count as it was backdated)! The blog was started by the Smithsonian Photography