Description: Last week, Dr. Cynthia Chavez Lamar was named director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Chavez Lamar has worked at the Museum throughout her career, from an internship in 1994 to her current role as acting associate director for collections and operations. Between 2000 and 2005, she was an associate curator, leading the work on “Our Lives,” one of
Description: Link Love: a weekly blog feature with links to interesting videos and stories regarding archival issues, the Smithsonian, and Washington D.C & American history.
Description: How Transcription Center themes open connections for Smithsonian Archives' collections that create relatedness, unveil stories, and ask new questions.
Description: This post is the second in a series this month that honors the anniversary of the famous Scopes Trial, held in Tennessee from July 10–21, 1925, and highlights a set of rare and newly digitized photographs, from the Smithsonian Institution Archives, of witnesses at the trial collections, which have been added to the Smithsonian Flickr Commons. In tone, composition, and setting,
Description: On what better day than Election Day to follow up on that tidbit I dropped a couple weeks ago regarding a consultation about then-candidate Barack Obama’s dry-erase boards, a recent acquisition by the National Museum of African American History and Culture? These artifacts, along with archival material and other realia (in archives terms: a man-made three-dimensional object)
Description: An important part of the museum story that we often forget: how the objects got there in the first place. Donors’ stories often reveal the fascinating and complicated path that object take before they come into the Smithsonian’s collections. Here’s a great read on a family who collected celluloid (plastic) souvenirs, jewelry, products, and knick-knacks, that now reside at the
Description: In celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, this is the first in a series of installments from Smithsonian Institution Archives staff highlighting women in science photographs. We will post portraits of women science here throughout the month. Formidable (adj). Having qualities that discourage attack; tending to inspire awe or wonder. What a word!
Description: [caption id="attachment_1872" align="aligncenter" width="263" caption="Eyeball 1, by loonyhiker, 2009."][/caption] At some point, everyday, I scan the Internet for stories about photography’s role and impact in culture. It turns out that in addition to all the images that are out there to be seen, there are surprising numbers of reports circulating about the power of those
Description: June the 9th is AskArchivists Day: a day organized by the International Council on Archives to encourage you to ask professional archivists all over the world all of those burning questions about about their profession and about the collections in archives you've always wanted answered.[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="384" caption="The Smithsonian Institution