Description: The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has undergone many name changes over the years. One of these – the National Collection of Fine Arts (NCFA) – was in use from 1937 to 1980. During this time, the NCFA underwent several exciting changes. After years of being housed in multiple locations and several failed attempts to build a permanent building, the collection moved to
Description: Before becoming the Director of the Diné College Museum in Arizona, Harry Walters spent three months at the Smithsonian learning techniques for the care and handling of artifacts, including their identification, description, conservation, storage, and exhibition.
Description: 100 years ago in August of 1914, the Panama Canal opened to commercial shipping. Smithsonian scientists knew the canal would create major environmental changes and have spent the last 100 years documenting them.
Description: Happy National Trivia Day! January 4th is the perfect day to break out all those endless bits of knowledge stored in your noggin and share them with others. As for the history of National Trivia Day, it's thought that the creation of the game Trivial Pursuit in 1979 sparked the beginning of our fascination with trivia, and everythinge else is history, as they say. To feed our
Description: [caption id="attachment_4168" align="aligncenter" width="261" caption="Albumen portrait of the Reverend Levi L. Hill, Baptist minister and early daguerreotypist, West Kill, New York and New York City, b. 1816-d. February 9, 1865. Inscription on reverse, “Levi L. Hill, Died February 9, 1865, He is Asleep in Heaven.”"][/caption] Just when we think that we must have at last
Description: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives recently welcomed Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty as our inaugural director. Join us as we get to know the new leader of our organization!