Description: As we mentioned earlier this week, today is AskArchivists Day on Twitter. Starting at 9 am EST, and until 5 pm EST today, Smithsonian expert archivists, will be answering all of your questions about archivists, archiving, and archival collections.Come on over to the Smithsonian Twitter feed, and ask a question by adding @Smithsonian and the hashtag #AskArchivists to your
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_arc_383399,size=180,right]Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch tantalizing glimpses of our patrons’ manifold research topics.The reference team fields around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been
Description: On the evening of October 1, 1847, while using a small telescope on the roof of the family home, Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) spotted a comet where one had not been before. Word of this achievement spread quickly through the scientific community. The American Journal of Science declared her “the first American entitled to the honor of the original discovery of a comet.” Some
Description: In 2019, the Smithsonian faced the repercussions of the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown, but the institution is no stranger to the dreaded furlough.
Description: It would be hard to imagine stepping into a Smithsonian museum today and not seeing a single camera. Digital cameras and smart phones with cameras are so completely a part of today’s museum-going experience that - unless a flash goes off in your face – you probably wouldn’t notice the camera next to you. However, in 1938, you would have seen a very different sight. On August
Description: Alphonso Lorenzo Jones joined the Smithsonian in 1924 as a mechanic. He retired 41 years later as the chief of the Institution’s duplicating office.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_arc_391843,size=300,center]By the 1960s, Science Service had been acquiring photographs of scientists, obscure as well as famous, for over four decades. Portraits of Edison or Einstein were always in demand, but experience had also shown that bright, accomplished young people might someday be awarded a major prize or make a discovery deemed