Description: Apparently black holes are not a one-way vortex we assumed. This image from NASA demonstrates objects projecting out of black holes! [via The Space Academy]The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will acquire records of The Academy of Washington, D.C., an LGBT organization that produced nationally-recognized drag pageants. [via Washington Blade]You can vote on
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_9592,size=200,left]Did you know the Smithsonian was an early adopter of the telephone? In June of 1878, a system of electronic bells and telephones was installed throughout the Smithsonian Castle. The system connected several workrooms and offices to provide instant communications within the building. At that time, there were only 187 telephone lines
Description: Lucy Hunter Baird did not shy away from her father’s towering legacy in American science, she embraced it. As the only child of Spencer Fullerton Baird, second Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Lucy Baird developed a passion for her father’s discipline of ornithology (the study of birds) and strove to chronicle his extraordinary life in a biography. Although she was
Description: Each week, the Archives features a woman who has been a groundbreaker at the Smithsonian, past or present, in a series titled Wonderful Women Wednesday.
Description: Bonanza! A gorgeous medieval illuminated manuscript from the University of Aberdeen is now online. [via Hyperallergic]Hello, funny face. A Japanese museum of rocks, with faces! [via Colossal]My childhood favorite wooden 'Little People' just entered the Toy Hall of Fame. [via NPR]Want to save your election day newspaper? Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute weighs in.
Description: The postcards in this gallery are from observatories associated with the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory established in 1890 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the Smithsonian’s research centers. Together with the Harvard College Observatory, it forms the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.The Mt. Wilson Observatory opened in the early
Description: [caption id="attachment_1356" align="aligncenter" width="251" caption="Tommy Dodgen, age 4, standing by the largest lamp in the world : Tampa, Florida, by unknown photographer, 1947, State Library and Archives of Florida, Commerce Collection."][/caption] The cover shot of Popular Science’s July issue, which focuses on the future of energy, uses some interesting new
Description: Each week, the Archives features a woman who has been a groundbreaker at the Smithsonian, past or present, in a series titled Wonderful Women Wednesday.
Description: During debates about the Smithsonian’s founding, the idea of using James Smithson’s bequest for a botanic garden was included in several drafts of the bill considered by Congress. In 1850, President Millard Fillmore commissioned America’s preeminent landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing to design plans for the National Mall, including grounds around the Smithsonian Castle,