Description: On a cloudy Saturday afternoon, over 30 volunteers showed up at the National Museum of the American Indian to write minority women into digital history during a Wikipedia edit-a-thon in honor of Women's History Month. On the to-do list were artists, educators, activists, Smithsonian employees, the first Chinese-American female dentist, and the African-American woman who
Description: The Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum looks at the history of rapid change in Washington D.C., the ensuing inequality, and neighborhood activism with A Right to the City. [via Smithsonian Magazine]Check out the newly released 2018 National Design Award winners from the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt. [via Architect Magazine]There may be a developing love story at our
Description: Women's History Month edition, continued!The story of fossil seller and paleontologist Mary Anning (for whom the "She Sells Seashells" rhyme was possibly written), in Peeps. [via The Last Word on Nothing]A look at the WWI Women's Land Army composed of "farmettes" who went outside the home to address the national food shortage. [via LOC Blog]For 25 cents an hour, less than
Description: Get your metadata nerd on with new fashion by Andrea Wallace from the Rijksmuseum's 2017 Rijksstudio competition! The largest transgender archive from the University of Victoria is now on the Internet Archive. [via Archive It]The Center for the Future of Museums has released their 2017 TrendsWatch report highlighting empathy, criminal justice reform, refugees & migration,
Description: Time to dust off your velocipedes and bone-shakers! The League of American Bicyclists have declared May to be “National Bike Month” and have several events lined up to celebrate biking everywhere; Bike to Work Day (May 16), Bike to School Day (May 7), and Cyclofemme (May 11) .I love picking a theme or keyword and browsing through the Smithsonian’s collections.
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: 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: It's time again to celebrate all the wonderful things archives have and do! The Society of American Archivists declares each October American Archives Month and the Smithsonian theme for this year is "Discover and Connect." At the Smithsonian Institution Archives, we handle over 6000 reference requests per year and have an ambitious digitization plan to serve people worldwide
Description: I was intrigued to receive a tweet from a digital colleague over at the NY Times pertaining to a family story that could very well be solved at the Archives. I’m continuously surprised at the variety of papers we hold here, but by now, I shouldn’t be given how far-reaching and varied the scope of the Smithsonian has been through history. Back to the story. THE elephant that