Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Beauty is forever, by Just Warr, Creative Commons: Attribution 2.0 Generic."][/caption] At THE BIGGER PICTURE, we often write about the challenges of maintaining the data in digital archives. But a recent article bundled in the informative daily arts newsletter compiled by Jeff Weiss—you can subscribe by sending a request
Description: To celebrate Black History Month, we’re sharing two recently-digitized video clips featuring exhibitions from the Anacostia Community Museum in the 1980s.
Description: In honor of the Heritage Preservation organization’s annual MayDay initiative to protect cultural heritage from disasters, the Archives will be highlighting how we deal with emergencies and how you can prepare yourself in a series of blog posts. Throughout the year, the Smithsonian Institution Archives reviews our plans for how we will deal with emergencies in Smithsonian
Description: A few days ago, I went to an IMAX 3D showing of Avatar to see for myself if the movie is a “game-changer,” as many have suggested. And, it is, but in a way no one seems to be focusing on—the way it acknowledges and exploits photography’s power to shape both everyday and alternate realities. What struck me, as soon as the movie started, was how sophisticated the film’s
Description: It's time again to celebrate all the wonderful things archives have and do! The Society of American Archivists declares each October American Archives Month and the Smithsonian theme for this year is "Discover and Connect." At the Smithsonian Institution Archives, we handle over 6000 reference requests per year and have an ambitious digitization plan to serve people worldwide
Description: Cue the music! We invite you to our third "She Blinded Me with Science" Women in Science Wikipdia Edit-a-thon III. An invitation to the Archive's 3rd Wikipedia edit-a-thon on Women in Science, March 27, 2015.
Description: As Smithsonian Transcription Center volunteers unlock the stories from the Archives’ collections, we find ways to share the work of women in science hidden in the digitized pages.
Description: This post is the second in a series this month that honors the anniversary of the famous Scopes Trial, held in Tennessee from July 10–21, 1925, and highlights a set of rare and newly digitized photographs, from the Smithsonian Institution Archives, of witnesses at the trial collections, which have been added to the Smithsonian Flickr Commons. In tone, composition, and setting,
Description: The Arts and Industries Buildings reopens this weekend with FUTURES, the first building-wide exploration of the future on the National Mall. Though we've written plenty about the building's past on our blog, today, we're diving into its more recent history in the 21st century.
Description: Today is the first day of winter. Not ready for the cold weather? It could always be worse. Ornithologist (and future tropical biologist) Neal Griffith Smith once wrote in his journal:"Still pensil [sic]. Well, I've got time and temperature to write. Just sharpened the pensil with a snow knife. We are parked smack in the middle of Southampton [Island] in a bloody windstorm. It
Description: During this Women’s History Month, the Smithsonian Transcription Center has been highlighting projects from women around the Smithsonian. Among these women is Margaret Collins, a pioneering scientist and civil rights activist. While her fieldwork has been written about previously, that is clearly just one part of a full and distinguished career.Collins’ interest in science