Description: Whether you have a little downtime or you wish you remembered what downtime was like, the Archives is here for you with a few distance learning activities and organization tips.
Description: Each Smithsonian Institution Archives collection has a life story. That narrative, much like the biography of a person, can explain how a collection's photographs, letters, and documents relate to each other. Closer inspection may also reveal hidden connections to other archival materials and can help in identifying photographers and writers. This new blog series will turn a
Description: This post is written in honor of Preservation Week, April 24–30, 2011. In celebration of this week, preservation specialists around the world will bring attention to the preservation work going on in their institutions, and inspire action to preserve collections in libraries, archives, museums, and communities. [caption id="attachment_12654" align="aligncenter" width="432"
Description: In honor of Women’s History Month and the 50th anniversary of Smithsonian Libraries, let’s learn about Leila Gay Forbes Clark (1887-1964), the second woman to direct the Smithsonian’s library. She was beloved by the researchers she worked with (really loved in one case….) and began the restructuring of the many small libraries across the Smithsonian.
Description: If you are a regular reader, or someone who works for a museum, library, or archive, you intimately understand the difficulty in managing big collections. If you’re not in this world, you do understand how hard it is to manage family photographs, a collection of email love letters, or the folder tucked in the bottom of your closet with old college papers. When you multiply
Description: For Preservation Week, our team answered our burning, often ignorant questions about their biggest challenges, what they consider when treating objects, and beyond.
Description: [caption id="attachment_9678" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="View of the Archives Fair setup, October 22, 2010."][/caption] We are going to be live blogging from the Smithsonian Archives Fair this morning and profiling all of the activities that will be going on today. Stay tuned throughout the day to see what's going on. [caption id="attachment_9680"
Description: Long ago and far away, before gray hairs and creaky knees, before history became my passion, I was an undergraduate physics major. Physics seemed fascinating and beautiful, if difficult. Later, after career paths led into history and science policy, I learned that physics, however elegant, did not reside in a cultural vacuum. Its people and discoveries coexisted with
Description: This is post is part of our series on career advice for the aspiring archives professional. Each edition features information and career advice from a different member of the Smithsonian Institution Archives team, regarding what they do, how they got here, and how you can too. Don’t be afraid to let us know who you might like to hear from next!What is preservation? This is a