Description: June the 9th is AskArchivists Day: a day organized by the International Council on Archives to encourage you to ask professional archivists all over the world all of those burning questions about about their profession and about the collections in archives you've always wanted answered.[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="384" caption="The Smithsonian Institution
Description: Link Love: a weekly post with links to interesting videos and stories about archival issues, technology and culture, and Washington D.C. and American history.
Description: Archives are often used by genealogists to create their family histories. Often it's a tedious process that can involve many repositories throughout the country or even the world, but the final product can be fascinating. Take, for instance, Melbourne ("Mel") Romaine Carriker's Vista Nieve: The Remarkable True Adventures of an Early Twentieth Century Naturalist and His Family
Description: In honor of the Heritage Preservation organization’s annual MayDay initiative to protect cultural heritage from disasters, the Archives will be highlighting how we deal with emergencies and how you can prepare yourself in a series of blog posts. Throughout the year, the Smithsonian Institution Archives reviews our plans for how we will deal with emergencies in Smithsonian
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: The Smithsonian’s Field Book Project is a continuous fount of work for both our digitization crew here at the Archives and for me as the conservator in charge of the project’s physical needs. Over the past several weeks I have worked on a variety of field books with different structures and treatment requirements, and will share a few of the most common features I’ve seen in
Description: Smithsonian Online (SOL) was an online platform through AOL that included Smithsonian images, chats, message boards and other features during the 1990s.
Description: In celebration of Preservation Week 2016, here’s a brief overview of surveys and their role in preservation, as well as a look into an audiovisual survey currently taking place right here at the Smithsonian.