Description: Bloggers on The Bigger Picture often describe how, in the course of their work, they come across intriguing archival objects and artifacts that trigger new insights into history. “Hands on” encounters with compelling evidence from the past are thrilling and can be provocative. But so can different sorts of encounters, including those that are driven by data, rather than
Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="215" caption="Belle Grove, rear, White Castle vic., Iberville Parish, Louisiana, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1938, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print."][/caption] Oooo—a pretty resource I’ve not come across before. The Carnegie Survey of the Architecture
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Salman Rushdie's archives, featured in an Emory University publication, by Georgia Popplewell, Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic."][/caption] Back in October I talked—with great interest and at length—with Anne Van Camp, director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, about the various
Description: [caption id="attachment_10342" align="alignleft" width="228" caption="Miss Willey Glover DeNis, (1879-1929), Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2008-0987."][/caption] At the Archives, we often run across images that have minimal information associated with them. Sometimes it’s a number or a name (usually incomplete) or a year. It is rare to find a beautifully complete
Description: Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Media Arts, Dr. Asma Naeem, was an attorney and public servant prior to studying art history, and researches the history of technology and the sensorial imagination of both artist and beholder. #Groundbreaker
Description: It would be hard to imagine stepping into a Smithsonian museum today and not seeing a single camera. Digital cameras and smart phones with cameras are so completely a part of today’s museum-going experience that - unless a flash goes off in your face – you probably wouldn’t notice the camera next to you. However, in 1938, you would have seen a very different sight. On August
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_12035,size=350,center]June is National Camping Month, and to celebrate we are recognizing one of the Smithsonian’s original outdoorsmen: Alexander Wetmore. The Smithsonian’s sixth Secretary thrived outside. Annually for 20 years Wetmore would make the trip south to Panama, to the same spot, Isla Iguana. There he would conduct his observations, record