Description: Scientific and scholarly pursuit are hindered when primary sources are un-cataloged or accessible only by visiting cultural heritage institutions. The Field Book Project seeks to promote awareness of and access to thousands of scientific field notes in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, and holdings at the National Museum of Natural History and the
Description: Lucile Quarry MannSmithsonian Institution Archives Oral History Collection, 009513Lucile Quarry Mann (1897-1986), who preferred to be called Lucy, moved to Washington, D.C., during the First World War and created a life and career full of adventure and dedicated to the Smithsonian. As an editor, she worked in the Bureau of Entomology and the National Zoological Park. She also
Description: A clause in the last will and testament of English scientist James Smithson eventually led to his estate being left to the United States "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” There was much debate as to what constituted such an establishment, but many of the proposals
Description: This blog post was edited in October 2021 for clarification. While surveying and collecting specimens in the Aleutian Islands in 1871-1872 for the United States Coast Survey, later renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, naturalist William Healey Dall befriended George Tsaroff (1858-1880), an Unangan (Aleut) teen from Unalaska Island who had been hired as local