Description: As Director of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative, I’m often asked what makes the Smithsonian photography collections interesting and unique. For me, the answer is less about size – although, the Smithsonian does have more than 13 million photographs of all types – than about function.
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