Description: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives recently welcomed Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty as our inaugural director. Join us as we get to know the new leader of our organization!
Description: Among the many photos in the Archives' collections are images from the Panamanian island, Coiba, where former Smithsonian Secretary Alexander Wetmore, conducted ornithological research. We've featured some of these images on the blog before, and I always wondered about their captions, which mentioned that Coiba was a penal colony.
Description: Wired Science has great coverage of our recent “Field Book Lantern Slides” Flickr Commons set, complete with more information from the Smithsonian’s Thomas Jorstad, who works in the paleontology department at the National Museum of Natural History. Yeek! A Dust Archive (for real!) [via Marguerite Roby, SIA].
Description: Have a little fun with images from our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse millions of images as part of Smithsonian Open Access.
Description: A forerunner of today’s efforts to decolonize and Indigenize American museums, Tichkematse was one of the first Native American employees at the Smithsonian Institution. His work with natural history and anthropological collections continue to inspire Native and non-Native museum professionals nearly 150 years later.
Description: Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch tantalizing glimpses of our patrons’ manifold research topics.The reference team fields around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been researching recently, and you’ll get into some
Description: Although fun and easy to use, post-it notes are often harmful to archival records, as seen with the conservation of Cordelia Rose’s recently acquired scroll.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="331" caption="14th Street and Broadway, NYC (man with goggles), 1947, by Louis Faurer, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of anonymous donors, 2007.40.61 "][/caption] Earlier this month, Google introduced the Beta and Android-based version of the new and, for some, startling photo-based search feature they’ve calling Google Goggles.