Description: There is a remarkable figure in the Smithsonian’s history that doesn’t get much of the spotlight; Thomas W. Smillie. He served as the Smithsonian’s first official photographer from 1870 until his death in 1917, and additionally became the Smithsonian’s first photography curator in 1896. Smillie amassed a collection of photographic equipment starting with the purchase of the
Description: In November, Smithsonian Institution Archives moved over 3 million photographic negatives to a new state of the art facility at the Smithsonian Institution Support Center (SISC) in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_10193,size=175,left]Fifty years ago the Smithsonian embarked on a new venture to bring the culture on display in the museum to life with the first Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Then called the Festival of American Folklife, it set out to show that the crafts shown inside museums are also still alive and well across the country.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="403" caption="Untitled, 2001, by Susan Watts, Digital photograph, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Division of Information Technology and Communications, Courtesy of Susan Watts/New York Daily News, Image No. watts012."][/caption] Given how quickly photographs are spread by the news and social media, we’ve come to
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: Take a listen to clips from The World Is Yours episode “Early Air Mail” and its short reign under the United States Postal Service from 1916 to 1926.
Description: 2022 will mark the Smithsonian's 175th Anniversary. In honor of that, we're taking a look at what some of the design work went into making the Smithsonian's 150th Anniversary celebration happen.
Description: Tracing the history of the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, created in 1966 to raise funds to support the Institution, especially its educational programs.
Description: Did you know that before the Smithsonian existed, there were two other institutions created for the promotion of science and diffusion of knowledge? Exploring the fate of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science.