Description: A daily photo highlight from Smithsonian collections. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="294" caption="Secretary Samuel P. Langley studying and photographing birds in flight from a tower on the grounds of the National Zoological Park, 1901, by Unknown photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95 Box 15 Folder 10, Negative
Description: A twentieth century Renaissance man, Louis R. Purnell lived a remarkable life. His career began in the skies above Italy and Germany, where he flew 88 combat missions as an original member of the Tuskegee Airmen. After the war, while working at the National Museum of Natural History, he traveled the world’s oceans collecting marine specimens, taught himself geology and