Description: Since 2009, Janice Stagnitto Ellis has been the senior paper and book conservator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Between 1992 and 1999, Ellis worked as a senior book conservator at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. In her current role at the Museum, Ellis supervises the day-to-day operations of the Paper Conservation Lab. She is responsible for the
Description: Though small in stature, Elvira Clain-Stefanelli was a force to be reckoned with at the Smithsonian, where she earned the role of the first executive director of the National Museum of American History’s National Numismatic Collection.
Description: Opening on April 6, 2018, A box of ten photographs highlights the portfolio of Diane Arbus, an American photographer known for her black-and-white images of marginalized individuals, including the mentally ill, circus performers, and transgender people. The exhibition, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) until January 21, 2019, traces the history of Arbus's
Description: A couple of years ago, in the process of curating Now is Then, an exhibition for the Newark Museum, I spent some time researching and thinking about the content, meaning and sequential lives of snapshots. Since their introduction in the late 19th century, inestimable numbers of those small, but powerful pictures have been made, looked at and saved—at least for a while.
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: Artists are often among the researchers who comb through archives in search of inspiration and content. A few years back in 2008, an encyclopedic exhibition, Archive Fever, presented at the International Center of Photography in New York, presented works by leading contemporary artists who have made active use of archival images, documents, and methodology to explore the ways
Description: On New Years Day 2015, the 44,000 works of art in the Smithsonian’s Freer | Sackler collection will be available online. [via WAMU] Dumpster diving! The National Museum of American History added a copy of the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atari 2600 game found in a landfill to their collection. [via O Say Can You See, National Museum of American History]The grand re-opening of
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="301" caption="Photograph of the "Dynamics of Evolution," a major exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. The "People Tower" in the foreground is covered with more than 100 larger-than-life sized photos of faces that show genetic traits, such as blue or brown eyes, or black or blonde hair, May 1979, by Unidentified
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="442" caption="View of Canyon, 1873, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Black and white photoprint on cardboard mount, National Anthropological Archives, SPC Sw Gen NM 113605 01861700, Local Number: NAA INV 01861700."][/caption] I paid another visit to the Timothy O’Sullivan exhibition now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a