Description: An international community of researchers and practitioners are driving the professional practice of digital preservation towards greater maturity and opening doors to new levels of access.
Description: As a teenager, Robert Ridgway was tapped by the Smithsonian’s Assistant Secretary to be an expedition zoologist. In 1881, when the US National Museum opened its doors, he was the curator of Birds. Download and reuse some of bird illustrations today through Smithsonian Open Access.
Description: While only two years old, World Migratory Bird Day is just one of the latest evolutions in conservation awareness. Related celebrations go back more than twenty-six years and draw on over a century of research.
Description: With the help of digital volunteers, we will make over a century’s worth of Smithsonian Board of Regents Meeting Minutes searchable, via the Smithsonian Transcription Center.
Description: The 19th century was a transformative time for the natural sciences. New discoveries didn't just happen in an armchair. Scientists adventured into unfamiliar territory by land and sea on expeditions, and their new findings fed new theories. Groups like the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences formalized America's place
Description: They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s true, some of Dr. Waldo LaSalle Schmitts field books are worth tens of thousands of words.
Description: From the point in 1838 when the United States Congress accepted James Smithson’s bequest, it was recognized as a cultural resource, a public trust held by the federal government. Smithson had stipulated that the funds be used for an “establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Being a cultural resource set aside for public use, the government bore the