Description: Born in 1829 to free black parents along the border between Maryland and the District of Columbia, Solomon Galleon Brown would become, at age 23, the first black employee of the Smithsonian. Starting out as a laborer in the Exchange Office, he ultimately became the personal assistant of Spencer Baird, the second secretary of the Smithsonian. By the time of his 1904 retirement,
Description: Olga F. Linares Smithsonian Institution Archives Oral History Collection, SIA009624Olga Francesca Linares (1936 -2014) was an anthropologist with a thirty-five-year tenure at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). Born in Panama, Linares moved to the United States to attend boarding school and then received a B.A. in anthropology from Vassar College in 1958 and a
Description: Exactly 165 years ago today, legislation establishing the Smithsonian Institution was passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President James K. Polk. From today’s perspective, it seems like a “no-brainer” to accept a generous bequest from a little-known Englishman named James Smithson and create an institution in his name. But from the perspective of that era, the