Description: [caption id="attachment_8083" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="The mysterious cabinet of curiosities with assorted film cameras perched on top, 2010, by Michael Barnes, SIA."][/caption] Last fall a piece of furniture showed up in the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) reception area. Aside from a few nicks, it is a large, handsome cabinet with drawers and double
Description: Very early "big data" tracking mortality rates in 17th-century London. [via Smithsonian Magazine]The Mellon Foundation has funded an $887,000 project to develop community-driven archives! [via Info Docket]See what questions archivists across the country answered yesterday for #AskAnArchivist. [via SAA]What album would you be....if you could preserve yourself in a vinyl record.
Description: As Summer 2021 winds down, we'll take a look at some examples of the breadth of work and collections that are represented at the Smithsonian Institution.
Description: A daily photo highlight from Smithsonian collections. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="366" caption="Alfred Duane Pell Collection of Ceramics and Furniture on display in the National Gallery of Art (NGA), now the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), at the United States National Museum (USNM) building, now known as the Natural History Building (NHB), c. 1930, by
Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="192" caption="A shot of Leafsnap, a free tree field guide app from the Smithsonian, University of Maryland, and Columbia University."][/caption] Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution have tapped their experts to help create the world’s first plant identification mobile app using visual search:
Description: [caption id="attachment_10960" align="aligncenter" width="376" caption="Peter Finkel, volunteer at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. "][/caption] Here at the Archives, we have 25 fulltime staff members, and half as many volunteers and interns at any given moment.
Description: [caption id="attachment_541" align="alignleft" width="144" caption="Inscription inside Lincoln's watch, by Hugh Talman, 2009, National Museum of American History"][/caption] Does photography always report on the past? Recently, as part of the Lincoln Bicentennial celebration, the Smithsonian took a closer look at a rare Lincoln object that possessed a secret message.
Description: The Smithsonian Institution Archives will be celebrating African American History Month throughout February with a series of related posts on THE BIGGER PICTURE. “I have engaged in almost Every Branch of work that is usual and unusual about S.I.”[edan-image:id=siris_sic_5597,size=150,left] These words, written by Solomon G. Brown to Secretary Spencer F. Baird on August 12,