Description: Let’s learn about the history of Smithsonian Gardens’ annual orchid exhibit with a little help from former director Barbara Faust through her 2011 oral history interview.
Description: Perfect fodder for animated gifs; zootropes. [via Unfunk]Send SFMOMA a text and it will respond with art! [via SFMOMA]Eerie plaster casts of people and animals in their final moments before being buried in Pompeii. [via Atlas Obscura]Weighing newborn babies wasn't "a thing" until the 20th century. [via O Say Can You See, National Museum of American History]Archives Unleashed
Description: Helena M. WeissSmithsonian Institution Archives Oral History Collection, SIA009587As Smithsonian’s registrar for more than twenty years, Helena M. Weiss (1909-2004) had the extraordinary responsibility of recording and facilitating everything that came into and out of the United States National Museum (USNM). From bug specimens to the Hope Diamond, Weiss was in charge of
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
Description: Chief curator of the National Postal Museum’s history department, Nancy Pope has been a prolific writer popularizing postal history with fascinating stories and exhibits on zip codes, postal transportation, and postal mascots & workers! #Groundbreaker