Description: Many of us read, write and send emails every day, but when did it all start at the Smithsonian? In 1980 Smithsonian staff had typewriters and telephones on their desk, with one or two FAX machines per office. The Smithsonian operated a single general purpose computer, the Honeywell mainframe, for all Smithsonian data processing applications and which did not include an email
Description: [caption id="attachment_2093" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="R•I•T Big Shot No. 1, HIGHLAND HOSPITAL, Rochester, New York USA, produced by The Highland Hospital, The RIT Biomedical Photographic Communications Dept., Other Students, Faculty & Friends of RIT Photography, December 4, 1987."][/caption] In December of 1987, professors William DuBois and Michael Peres of
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="172" caption="The Steiner Ambrotype, June 18, 1857, by Unidentified photographer, Ambrotype, National Air and Space Museum, Image ID: 2001-5358. "] [/caption] [caption id="" align="alignright" width="190" caption="First Launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 24, 1950, by U.S. Air Force, Gelatin silver print, National Air and Space
Description: Here at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, we take pride in preserving the Institution’s history, including its sizable web presence. While various offices at the Smithsonian create and back up the contents of their websites, the Archives also crawls each website using Heritrix, an open-source tool created by the Internet Archive, to capture content in an archival format.
Description: In honor of Archives Month, it’s time for the Smithsonian’s annual Facebook Q&A where the public can ask questions about preserving and organizing their own collections!
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="422" caption="Mounted Cyanotypes, the Working Proofs for Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion, Plate 55, "Walking, Turning Around, Action of Aversion" (Miss Larrigan, July 28, 1885), by Eadweard Muybridge, Cyanotype, National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, Division of Information Technology and Communications,