Description: A 1936 exchange of letters about the prickly porcupine preserves both a contemporary scientific debate and the wit and wisdom of a young Utah girl with a beloved pet.
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 around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been researching recently, and you’ll get into some