Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Window Necklace, by Hoong Wei Long, Creative Commons: Attribution 2.0."][/caption] For those who continue to believe that bigger is better—that you’re better off, for example, the more megapixels your digital camera delivers—a recent article by Jordan Ellenberg in WIRED magazine suggests the opposite may be true.
Description: As we mentioned earlier this week, today is AskArchivists Day on Twitter. Starting at 9 am EST, and until 5 pm EST today, Smithsonian expert archivists, will be answering all of your questions about archivists, archiving, and archival collections.Come on over to the Smithsonian Twitter feed, and ask a question by adding @Smithsonian and the hashtag #AskArchivists to your
Description: When I first applied for an internship at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, I admittedly did not know much about it. For my internship, I was asked to make a video that would explain to the general public what the Archives was, as well as what resources it could offer them. On my first day here I was told that the Archives held the records and history of the Smithsonian
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="405" caption="U.S. Troops Surrounded by Holiday Mail During WWII, by unidentified photographer, c. 1944, National Postal Museum"][/caption] It’s no wonder that this photo of soldiers sorting holiday mail is such a favorite on the Commons. It clearly tugs on the heart strings of those who know (or try to imagine) what it would be like
Description: [caption id="attachment_7461" align="aligncenter" width="369" caption="Construction of the National Museum of the American Indian, July 2003, digital photograph, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 06-012, Box 24, Folder NMAI Construction-July 2003, Folder CD_1, # U.jpg."] [/caption] At the Archives, we’ve recently begun working with some digital files of architectural
Description: Operation Moonwatch created an international network of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteer sky-watchers of both genders and from every walk-of-life. These citizen-scientists joined professional astronomers to track and report on satellites travelling through the night sky. Food and location played a role in keeping volunteers engaged with Operation Moonwatch.
Description: What was the Saint Augustine Monster? According to Wikipedia, it was a globster—“an unidentified organic mass that washes up on the shoreline of an ocean or other body of water.” This great-grandaddy of globsters kept cryptozoologists speculating and scientists testing for a century—and a piece of it lives at the Smithsonian. The St. Augustine monster was discovered by two
Description: This is a summary of the Smithsonian Institution Archives' 3rd Wikipedia edit-a-thon on the scientific field books in the Archives’ collections
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: When tragedy struck during the space shuttle era, mourners found a place to honor the fallen astronauts of the tragic Challenger and Columbia flights at Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.