Description: In honor of Martin Luther King Day 2010, we selected images from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage's Diana Davies Photograph Collection. Davies began her career as a musician and became a photojournalist in the 1960s. During that time she documented Newport Folk Festivals, anti-poverty and Civil Rights movements, and farm workers' struggles. Her images,
Description: [caption id="attachment_11206" align="aligncenter" width="219" caption="Bells Rock Lighthouse, Chesapeake Bay, c. 1880s, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic negative, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Negative number: MAH-48182H."][/caption] We recently digitized a series of lighthouse images that led me on a surprising research path.
Description: One of the goals of THE BIGGER PICTURE blog is to highlight stories about the ways images delivered in an online environment can describe extraordinary events or comment equally powerfully on our everyday life. Our contributors talk about collections at the Smithsonian, about images or archives that are making headlines, or about people that make, care for, and think about
Description: When James Smithson wrote his will on October 23, 1826, he made several bequests to people before adding the contingent clause that created the Smithsonian Institution. One bequest was to a resident of London’s notorious East End.
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.