Description: Look at enough photographs and it’s inevitable that, at some point, you’ll find yourself pondering mortality and photography’s relationship to death. Because the medium so effectively captures fragments of lives, events, and data that have come and gone, you’re always looking at and trying to make sense of something that’s over, finished, part of the past. Writers—particularly
Description: As the Smithsonian geared up to celebrate its 175th anniversary, the Libraries and Archives decided to revisit the online exhibition From Smithsonian to Smithsonian, created a quarter of a century ago. Today, on the Smithsonian’s birthday, we are pleased to celebrate the launch of a new, refreshed and greatly expanded web exhibition, Smithson to Smithsonian.
Description: 100 years ago in August of 1914, the Panama Canal opened to commercial shipping. Smithsonian scientists knew the canal would create major environmental changes and have spent the last 100 years documenting them.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_12123,size=250,left]It is a simple answer really: We counted. From 1978 to 1983, the Smithsonian undertook a comprehensive inventory of its collections. It was the first time the Smithsonian had ever tried to count each object in its collections and it was a massive task. Over five years, staff from every museum and research center spent thousands of
Description: The intense efforts that started the Field Book Project and have kept it in high gear are slowing down to a sustainable pace. After almost ten years, grant funding for the Field Book Project has drawn to a close, but there is still plenty more to look forward to that will benefit researchers for years to come.
Description: Breathing new life into medieval manuscripts at Bodelain Library. [via Adam Koszary/Medium]Over 600 new rights-free videos and other media showing embryos, robots, and bouncing water droplets! [via Wikimedia Open Access Report]The Smithsonian is gathering thought leaders in environmental and species conservation on Earth Day for their 1st Earth Optimism Summit, and our own Pam
Description: [caption id="attachment_6524" align="alignright" width="220" caption="Linsey Scott, Intern, and Michael Barnes, Photographer, from the Center of Scientific Imaging and Photography stand in front of the freshly remounted world-record Black Marlin that was caught in 1953 using 130 pound test line by Alfred C. Glascock, Jr."][/caption] I had the recent opportunity to sit down