Description: Managing archival collections requires a comprehensive approach that incorporates identifying needs, establishing priorities, and allocating resources to meet goals. PoliciesSmithsonian Directives (SDs) serve as the authoritative source for policy information about the management, administrative, and programmatic operations of the Institution. The Archives closely follows the
Description: [view in Spanish][edan-image:id=siris_sic_9227,size=200,left]The foremost grass specialist of her time ended her formal education after grammar school. She began collecting and illustrating plants in her twenties, and was hired by Chicago's Field Museum in 1901 and later as a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientific illustration was a way for
Description: Why would an English chemist donate his fortune to the United States, a newly formed country he had never visited? We will likely never know exactly why in 1826 James Smithson chose to bequeath more than half a million dollars to create the Smithsonian Institution.
Description: [view in Spanish][edan-image:id=siris_sic_9793,size=200,left] William and Lucile Mann forged a natural history career together, combining his skills as a scientist and institution builder with her skills as a writer and publicist.William Mann ran away from his Helena, Montana, home as a child to join the circus. John Ringling discouraged his interests and advised him to pursue
Description: In conservation it can be easy to overlook the content of an item and just get on with the treatment. Here is a case where overlooking the content was simply not possible.