Description: Although initially skeptical about the effectiveness of the hypsometer, Secretary Joseph Henry soon recognized the value of the instrument, which he discovered from his colleagues in the scientific field.
Description: Twenty-nine years ago yesterday the National Museum of the American Indian Act was signed and the Museum of the American Indian became part of the Smithsonian family.
Description: Known lovingly by the public as the “Panda Lady,” Lisa Stevens cultivated a rich thirty-year career at the National Zoological Park as the senior curator of mammals.
Description: When did women begin to manage Smithsonian museums? Meet Grace Dunham Guest who was a key staff member in opening the Freer Gallery of Art in 1923.
Description: Though photographs are accepted as subjective but ultimately faithful visual reproductions of reality, in many instances they don’t correspond to our experience. Pupils don’t regularly glint red, and people don’t transform into the streaked, evanescent smears we so often witness in photos. Yet we have no trouble accepting these inconsistencies, knowing that taking a picture of
Description: An overview of the history of Martha the passenger pigeon, the last of her species, who was donated to the National Museum of Natural History 100 years ago.
Description: As part of the Smithsonian Year of Music 2019, the Smithsonian Castle Collection curator chronicles music in the Castle during its early years.
Description: It is too hard to know everything that lives inside an archival collection. Join us in opening up some of our miscellaneous folders and discover what is inside!