Description: [caption id="attachment_1954" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Squirrel Kisses, by Flickr user (Alex)."][/caption] It’s summer, so time for a break from serious thoughts about photographs, their meaning and impact. Instead, let’s relax and have a laugh about the pictures that make us laugh. A recent article in the business section of Time magazine describes how Ben
Description: Browsing the Archives' collections leads to very interesting finds. Upon learning about the Smithsonian Institution’s first Secretary Joseph Henry, 1846-1878, I had the opportunity to read a letter written fourteen days from the start of the Civil War. In the letter, which is addressed to his brother-in-law, Stephen, he expresses uncertainty and dread of the unfolding events.
Description: Consider the courage it took for some of the earliest women in science at the Smithsonian to donate their personal papers to the Institution.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="301" caption="Photograph of the "Dynamics of Evolution," a major exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. The "People Tower" in the foreground is covered with more than 100 larger-than-life sized photos of faces that show genetic traits, such as blue or brown eyes, or black or blonde hair, May 1979, by Unidentified
Description: The Smithsonian Institution Archives will be celebrating African American History Month throughout February with a series of related posts on THE BIGGER PICTURE. When I interviewed Lonnie Bunch, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, as part of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative’s online project click! photography changes
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Newspapers, by Quinn Cowper, Creative Commons: BY-NC-ND 2.0."][/caption] On May 20th, a flurry of reports took note of Google’s decisions to halt its ambitious efforts to digitize the contents of newspaper archives and make them online and at no cost.