Description: In the spring of 1846, after years of debate, the legislative logjam over what the Smithsonian would be was finally broken with compromise legislation by New York Congressman, William Jervis Hough.
Description: Access the official records of the Smithsonian Institution and learn about its history, key events, people, and research, including a translated rebus letter.
Description: In a world drowning in images, where we swipe past photos of friends, relatives, and selves in mere seconds, a set of remarkable portraits taken in the 1910s and 1920s by Julian Papin Scott (1877-1961) deserve more considered attention. Sometimes, his subjects appear immersed in work, surrounded by microscopes, beakers, or stacks of books, as if unaware of the photographer.
Description: In 1925, seven George Washington University students volunteered to stay awake for sixty hours, and drove, danced, sang, and swam in an effort to remain alert.
Description: As a postdoctoral fellow at the National Museum of American History, I’ve spent months in the Smithsonian Institution Archives researching a book tentatively titled, Not Naturally a Grass Country: Environment, Plant Genetics, and the Quest for Agricultural Modernization in the Humid World. It’s largely a story about global attempts to replace one form of agriculture—the
Description: [caption id="attachment_2262" align="aligncenter" width="186" caption="Frankenstein by MARX!, by Flickr user TCM Hitchhiker."][/caption] For all the talk about creative seeing and the art of photography, the technical parameters of picture-taking and making have, for the most part, been defined by manufacturers of camera and photographic supplies. That wasn’t always the case;
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