Description: Have a little fun with images from our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse millions of images as part of Smithsonian Open Access.
Description: The Smithsonian Institution Archives continually strives to add more collection information to its website. This is a periodic post highlighting new acquisitions and individual collection items.
Description: Just two days ago, the Smithsonian celebrated the one-year anniversary of the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). It seems like just yesterday that we were all waiting for the doors to open; yet, so much has happened in the past year. Since President Barack Obama rang the bell that opened the museum, long lines and happy faces are
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: Did you know that before the Smithsonian existed, there were two other institutions created for the promotion of science and diffusion of knowledge? Exploring the fate of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science.
Description: Barry Hampton played an important role in Division of Reptiles and Amphibians in the Natural History Museum for decades, but recognition was slow to come.
Description: Across the Smithsonian, in hundreds of photographic collections, you’ll find images that document historic objects and events, species on land and under the oceans, cultural achievement, and data that streams in from outer space on a daily basis.
Description: Did you know that Joseph Francis invented the first metal life-saving boat? Or that Gail Borden invented the process for creating condensed milk? Neither did I until I heard The World Is Yours episode titled “Unheraled American Inventors,” which originally aired on April 4, 1937.Where most of the episodes I’ve listened to begin with the host walking up to two people while they
Description: Link Love: a biweekly post with links to interesting videos and stories about archival issues, technology and culture, and Washington D.C. and American history.