Description: 1903 Oldsmobile gasoline automobile in front of the Army Medical Museum and Library at Independence Avenue and 7th Street, SW, Washington, D.C., 1940s, SIA Acc. 11-006, MAH-44002A.
Description: Dr. Richard L. Zusi, associate curator in the Division of Birds, Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the Museum of Natural History, examines bird skulls, August 31, 1964, by Jack Scott, SIA Acc. 16-126, MNH-154.
Description: What Not to Wear: The National Portrait Gallery has a dramatic before/after makeover of James Monroe. Check out this great profile of our photograph archivist, Marguerite Roby. The NY Times Opinionator weighs in on in what exactly constitutes an “heirloom,” what this means in a throw-away culture, and the reasons why we save (or try and get rid of) so many dusty old things
Description: Zora Martin Felton was founding Director of the Education Department at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum for over thirty years. She served as Acting Director of the museum in 1989. #Groundbreaker
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: Did you know that the first beaver came to the National Zoological Park in 1894? Or that the first animals on the official zoo grounds were two Indian Elephants, Dunk and Gold Dust? Surely, you knew that the Dusit Zoo in Bangkok donated an albino Asiatic turtle to the National Zoo in 1966? You didn’t know that? Well, thanks to the work of Sybil Hamlet in 1985, you can now
Description: Some of you may recall the symbol of the United States Forest Service fire prevention program, Smokey Bear. Perhaps I am dating myself, however I distinctly recall posters and television commercials between Saturday morning cartoons depicting the almost human looking bear wearing his park ranger hat and blue jeans, with shovel in one hand and stern finger pointed with the