Description: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Niagara Falls, by Platt D. Babbitt, 1854, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Division of Information Technology and Communications, Photographic History Collection"][/caption] One of the top U.S. tourist destinations, Niagara Falls has been photographed countless times since the invention of photography in
Description: As editor E. E. Slosson began setting up the Science Service news office, his mail was flooded with inquiries from potential contributors. Writers and photographers described their accomplishments and submitted samples of their work. One such letter, from Albert Harlingue on April 13, 1921, must have piqued Slosson’s interest, for it coincided with the Washington visit of “a
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: [caption id="attachment_3939" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Prehistoric paintings, Lascaux caves, France. Photo courtesy of Prof saxx, Wikimedia Commons."][/caption] Roger Shattuck, teacher, writer, and cultural critic (The Banquet Years, his study of turn of the 20th century French avant-garde stands as one of the best cultural histories ever produced), once wrote
Description: Long ago and far away, before gray hairs and creaky knees, before history became my passion, I was an undergraduate physics major. Physics seemed fascinating and beautiful, if difficult. Later, after career paths led into history and science policy, I learned that physics, however elegant, did not reside in a cultural vacuum. Its people and discoveries coexisted with
Description: The Walt Disney designed--and General Electric sponsored--look at America’s figurative and literal electric future, Progressland, wowed visitors at the 1964 World’s Fair--and elements of it exist today in both Disneyland and Disney World theme parks.