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: People use postcards to correspond with each other, but the way they have used postcards to communicate has changed over time. The postcards in this gallery show how postcards began as a quick way to send short communications between individuals, but have since evolved to be used for longer communications and for requests between academics. While the typical use for a postcard