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: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="303" caption="Photographer holding large folding camera, by unidentified photographer, c. 1935, National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, Archives Center."][/caption] Recently photography has said goodbye to two industry icons. Polaroid stopped production of its instant film, and Kodak announced that it is
Description: Tomorrow is the Smithsonian’s 172nd birthday! So, let’s celebrate with cake through the ages.[view:sia_slideshow==84135]Related ResourcesJames Smithson: Founder of the Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Institution Archives17 Objects for 170 Years (Happy Birthday to us!), The Bigger Picture, Smithsonian Institution ArchivesLooking Smithson’s Gift Horse in the Mouth, The
Description: [caption id="attachment_11359" align="aligncenter" width="368" caption="Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup Design for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Courtesy NMAAHC."][/caption] The Smithsonian Institution Archives will be celebrating African American History Month throughout February with a series of related posts on THE BIGGER
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Thornewood Estate in Takoma, Washington, by Asahel Curtis, August 1933, Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens."][/caption] Just the other day we received a comment on one of our photos in the new Flickr Commons set of lantern slides from the Archives of American Gardens. A visitor was interested to know whether or not
Description: Readers of The Bigger Picture will be familiar with the Hungerford Deed, a 1787 property contract dividing a lucrative land inheritance between the mother and aunt of the Smithsonian’s founding donor, James Smithson. Over the last three years I have been able to take a deep dive into the content of the Deed and strengthen our understanding of Smithson’s choice to leave his
Description: Even though the world is becoming increasingly more electronic, many of us still have an abundance of things not created or saved in digital format. Whether it's old letters, original architectural drawings from the house your grandfather built, books, photographs, or home movies on Super 8, figuring out how to store these things can be difficult. [caption id="attachment_7890"