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
Description: Before Uncle Beazley, the popular life-size model of a triceratops, made its way to its final destination at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, he stopped at a couple other destinations around the Institution.
Description: [caption id="attachment_680" align="alignleft" width="159" caption="Flickr member, Penny L. Richards"][/caption] I work with people across the Smithsonian to add photos to the Smithsonian Flickr Commons photostream. Occasionally, something stands out in the daily summary of comments and tags I receive. Sometimes, it’s an exchange between Flickr members sparked by a single
Description: [view in Spanish][edan-image:id=siris_sic_9227,size=200,left]The foremost grass specialist of her time ended her formal education after grammar school. She began collecting and illustrating plants in her twenties, and was hired by Chicago's Field Museum in 1901 and later as a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientific illustration was a way for
Description: A recently discovered carved sealstone from a 3,500 year old tomb in Southwest Greece shows that highly skilled stone carving in Greek civilization occurred much earlier than thought. [via Colossal]Speaking of warriors, how to fight file format rot from the Library of Congress. [via Scientific American]A new program from our National Museum of the American Indian seeks to