Description: Lonnie G. Bunch III was installed as the Fourteenth Secretary of the Smithsonian on November 1, 2019 in the historic Arts and Industries Building. To celebrate this new day in Smithsonian history, let’s take a look back at installations past!
Description: These photos just make you want to write solely in pencil. [story on one of America's last pencil factory via NY Times]It's hard to believe the Flickr Commons, a space in Flickr for archival photo collections, is 10 years old. [via Library of Congress]Scientists, including a fellow from our National Museum of Natural History, Ligiane Moras, have identified two new species of
Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="215" caption="Belle Grove, rear, White Castle vic., Iberville Parish, Louisiana, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1938, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print."][/caption] Oooo—a pretty resource I’ve not come across before. The Carnegie Survey of the Architecture
Description: On the evening of October 1, 1847, while using a small telescope on the roof of the family home, Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) spotted a comet where one had not been before. Word of this achievement spread quickly through the scientific community. The American Journal of Science declared her “the first American entitled to the honor of the original discovery of a comet.” Some
Description: 435 high resolution book plates of gorgeous illustrations from Audubon's The Birds of America are now available for free download! [via Hyperallergic]And after you're done with the plates, check out peacock feathers under a high magnification lens, by artist Waldo Nell. [via Wired]University students are working to save the remaining copies of a black-owned newspaper, 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: You asked. We answered. On October 7, 2020, six Archives staff members were excited and ready to answer questions on Twitter and Instagram for #AskAnArchivist Day.