Description: On Monday, October 27th, four of our finest were available on the Smithsonian's Facebook page to answer questions about preserving your own archival collections. The four archivists at the Q&A have specialties in the preservation and organization of audio/visual material, photos, and digital records (email, digital video, etc.) This is our fourth year hosting this event and
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="Uncle Beazley being unloaded at the Smithsonian’s Office of Exhibits Central model shop, February 2011, Courtesy of Office of Exhibits Central blog."][/caption] Even dinosaurs need their baths… The Office of Exhibits Central gives a behind-the-scenes peek into the dino maintenance of Uncle Beazley—the Smithsonian’s
Description: Watch a recently-digitized video clip featuring Japanese Ceramics Today, an exhibition at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 1983.
Description: Eliza Scidmore was a lifelong photographer, writer, and world traveler. In addition to facilitating a gift of cherry blossom trees from Japan to the U.S. capital, Scidmore donated her time, photographs, and some artifacts to the Smithsonian’s collections. She also accessed the world through colonial channels that she reinforced with her writings.
Description: To celebrate the season, we have a series of posts looking at images of summer in the Smithsonian photo archives and collections. To start things off, Mary Savig, Archives Specialist at the Archives of American Art, describes how artists recharged in the summer months. Like eager vacationers everywhere, artists have long escaped to the beach on hot summer days. The shore
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: What better time to capture family memories and stories than when you and your relatives gather to celebrate Thanksgiving? For the past several years, several organizations have encouraged families to listen to one another and record family history over the Thanksgiving weekend. StoryCorps, for example, has launched The National Day of Listening. So put down that pumpkin pie
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="310" caption="Group of Young Women in Costume During Arrival Reception For Tourists Near Plane at Airport, by Gerald James Holton, 1968, National Museum of Natural History, National Anthropological Archives."][/caption] I came across these photos of tourists on Easter Island on our site and their presence has kind of baffled me.
Description: Ruth B. MacManus and Gertrude Brown bonded over their heavy workloads and shared experiences as working women in the Great Depression. Together, they helped improve a publication that does not bear their names: the Smithsonian Scientific Series.