Description: In 1925, seven George Washington University students volunteered to stay awake for sixty hours, and drove, danced, sang, and swam in an effort to remain alert.
Description: Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch tantalizing glimpses of our patrons’ manifold research topics.The reference team fields thousands of questions per year.