Description: Curator of Music and Performing Arts, Dr. Dwandalyn R. Reece, National Museum of African American History and Culture, created their inaugural music exhibition, Musical Crossroads, and co-curated the grand opening music festival, Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration. #Groundbreaker
Description: It is the season of 90 degree days, the Folklife Festival, ice cream trucks, and the sound of the Smithsonian carousel playing its fun house music in the distance. As someone who has to commute to and from work by bicycle through the legions of tourist buses, crowds of umbrellas, and FBI paraphernalia, I try to replace my slight annoyance in being delayed by remembering that
Description: The Smithsonian's Folklife Festival is celebrating it's 50th year with 50 Years | 50 Objects. [via Hyperallergic]The collections of the 400 year-old Jewish Library, Ets Haim, are now freely available online. [via Info Docket]70,000 paybills, ephemera, and posters from the Brooklyn Academy of Music are now online. [via NY Times]The woman who signed the Declaration of
Description: Lend a hand to "Wiki Loves Monuments" to improve Wikipedia articles about U.S. historic sites. The Banned Book Handbook, 2016 edition. [via Info Docket]Didn't get tickets to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture Museum opening? You can still attend the surrounding festival featuring The Roots and Public Enemy! [via NY Times]The first
Description: Our National Museum of African American History & Culture is getting a forever stamp October 13th! [via WUSA 9]Save the date: the Freer Sackler reopens October 14th and the are celebrating with a festival, IlluminAsia featuring projections on the building. [via DCist] Need your baby animal fix? The National Zoo has three baby critically-endangered dama gazelles, the latest
Description: Anthropologist and Director Emeritus, Diana Parker (at podium), produced the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival for 25 years and worked in over 40 nations to bring the festival to D.C. #Groundbreaker
Description: An intimate look at the painting conservation studio at the National Gallery of Art. [via NPR]A newly discovered species of wasp was named in honor of David Bowie. [via Mashable]The Smithsonian is just one of the organizations banning drinking straws due to the environmental harm they cause. [via Washington Post]Can real coral reefs be saved by artificial ones? [via Fusion
Description: [caption id="attachment_7327" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="The Smithsonian Institution Building, "The Castle""][/caption] When I'm walking around the National Mall, I often hear people exclaim, "There's the Smithsonian!" as they point to the large red Smithsonian Castle near the Metro exit; something I also would have assumed before my first visit to the Mall.
Description: The American Foundation for the Blind launched the Helen Keller Archive, the world's first fully accessible digital archive comprised of more than 160,000 artifacts. [via PR Newswire]Ahead of his major retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, artist Trevor Paglen shares his views on the social and political implication of surveillance systems and artificial
Description: The University of North Carolina at Chapel wants to make archiving more accessible with Archivist in a Backpack. [via Hyperallergic]The Field Book Project wrapped up May 31 with a contribution of 517,000 pages of field books to the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Internet Archive! [via BHL Blog]Some lessons learned from archiving Lubalin's Radical 60's magazines. [via AIGA's
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="393" caption="Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial: The seven scientists asked to testify for the defense standing in front of the Defense Mansion, 1925, by Watson Davis, Black and white photograph, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Image # SIA2008-1146"][/caption] We are nearing the 2nd anniversary of the Smithsonian launching on the