Description: Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch tantalizing glimpses of our patrons’ manifold research topics.The reference team fields around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been researching recently, and you’ll get into some
Description: This summer Visiting Professional Laura Wahl had the chance to learn more about how to respond to the problem of mold residues found on archival materials. The Smithsonian Affiliations’ Visiting Professionals Program allowed her to spend time at the Smithsonian Institution Archives’ conservation lab researching this topic.
Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="210" caption="Portrait of a City Marshal by Barr & Wright, 1870-1880, National Museum of American History, Catalog number 77.43.1678."][/caption] Help the Smithsonian ID a Houston city marshal from the 1870s in the picture on the right. The extremely flammable nitrocellulose film used before 1951 led to an estimated 80 percent of silent