Description: Each Smithsonian Institution Archives collection has a life story. That narrative, much like the biography of a person, can explain how a collection's photographs, letters, and documents relate to each other. Closer inspection may also reveal hidden connections to other archival materials and can help in identifying photographers and writers. This new blog series will turn a
Description: To kick off Women's History month, a look at some of the women in humanities represented in the Smithsonian Institution Archives collections.
Description: A daily photo highlight from Smithsonian collections. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="410" caption="Owls, named "Increase" and "Diffusion", lived in the West Tower of the Smithsonian Institution Building, 1977, by Michael Johnson, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371 Box 2 Folder June 1977, Negative Number:96-929."][/caption]
Description: A daily photo highlight from Smithsonian collections. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368" caption="Cybill Shepherd at the “Castle” during the filming of “Chances Are,” where she plays a Smithsonian Institution curator, 1988, by Jeff Tinsley, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 5, Negative number: 88-10752-31."][/caption]
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="410" caption="The Division of Radiation and Organisms, located in the basement of the Smithsonian Institution Building (SIB), Shown here is apparatus for studying phototropism (bending toward light) of seedlings, in connection with experiments to determine effects of wave lengths of light on growth, Date unknown, by Unidentified
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Untitled, by Thomas Smillie, c. 1890, Smithsonian Institution Archives."][/caption] One of the things people often want to know about photography at the Smithsonian is, “How many photographs do you have?” with the quick follow-up, “Have you counted all of them?” No one knows for certain, but statistical sampling suggests
Description: As we digitize the Archives’ collections to make them available online, I am constantly being exposed to handwriting from the past two centuries. As a result, I have a deeper appreciatiation of how many different things influence the way a person’s writing appears on the page, things beyond the quality of their penmanship. Writing on the deck of a ship, on horseback or on