Description: The Freer Sackler Gallery’s efforts to make their large collection of squeezes (paper molds that capture the inscriptions of ancient monuments) into an easy-to-use Web resource received a nice write-up on The Atlantic’s Tech blog [originally posted on the Smithsonian Collections Blog]. David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, talks about “balancing access and
Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="168" caption="Canna indica L., identified by P.J.M. Maas & H. Maas, Cusco, Peru, National Museum of Natural History, Botany Department, Catalog Number: 1998001."][/caption] The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Botany Department just added over 1,300 images to the Smithsonian Collection Search Center! Some gorgeous
Description: It turns out that a series of mysterious tunnels discovered in the early 1900s underneath Washington, DC’s Dupont Circle, were the makings of former Smithsonian employee and entomologist, Harrison G. Dyar (whose papers happen to be in our collections). Read more about this fascinating story and character at "the location" blog [via The e-Torch]. The Internet Archive explains
Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="179" caption="Portrait photograph of Harrison Gray Dyar (1866-1929), entomologist at the United States National Museum at the Smithsonian from 1897 until his death in 1929, c. 1920s, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic print, Negative Number: SIA2009-0002."][/caption] It turns out that a series of mysterious tunnels discovered in
Description: In the past week, a series of six more images from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray team were uploaded to the Flickr Commons. Incidentally, they are all images of supernovas and black holes. Visualizing black holes is a challenge (at least for me) as the term conjures up images in my own head of silent, black infinity. But luckily for us (and as you