Results for "Smithsonian Institution. Assistant Secretary for Science"
Growing a National Museum – the Curators’ Annual Reports
- Date: May 19, 2016
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: The United States National Museum Curators’ Annual Reports will be added to the Smithsonian Transcription Center, beginning the first week of June.
Pursuing Knowledge in Unfamiliar Country
- Date: November 15, 2018
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: In mid-19th century America, some believed that world-class discoveries came exclusively from Europe. But early Smithsonian leaders had a sense of urgency to disseminate an authoritative body of knowledge, pursue further discoveries, and provide a deeper understanding to the public at a time when American society was changing.
- Blog Post
Robert Ridgway – From Protégé to a Leading Ornithologist
- Date: February 27, 2020
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: As a teenager, Robert Ridgway was tapped by the Smithsonian’s Assistant Secretary to be an expedition zoologist. In 1881, when the US National Museum opened its doors, he was the curator of Birds. Download and reuse some of bird illustrations today through Smithsonian Open Access.
- Blog Post
Discoveries Don’t Happen in an Armchair
- Date: November 27, 2018
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: The 19th century was a transformative time for the natural sciences. New discoveries didn't just happen in an armchair. Scientists adventured into unfamiliar territory by land and sea on expeditions, and their new findings fed new theories. Groups like the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences formalized America's place
Getting Your Due, Samuel Pierpont Langley
- Date: November 28, 2017
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: It can be so frustrating to put great effort into something, and then to have your work and achievements called into question. I can't begin to imagine how frustrated Samuel Pierpont Langley was in 1903. By that time, he had spent over forty years studying astrophysics and aerodynamics. His work on astronomically-derived time measurement in the late 1860's is the heart of the
- Blog Post
Collaboration’s Value in the Pursuit of Science and Peace
- Date: September 19, 2019
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: Advancing peace requires a strong, wide, and active network.
- Blog Post
A Quirk, a Chase and the Power of a Crowd
- Date: March 13, 2014
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: People everywhere are helping the Smithsonian Institution Archives make more of its collections deeply accessible through helping transcribe field books, journals, and diaries in our collections.
Can We Keep to a Schedule, Please?
- Date: October 12, 2017
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: The Smithsonian’s scientists and naturalists were, and still are, constantly on the move. When they weren’t in the field, they were in the museum studying collected specimens, writing papers, and getting ready for the next series of trips. Dr. Waldo LaSalle Schmitt (1887-1977) was no exception.Logistics is a special skill, an essential one when traveling on scientific
- Blog Post
Almost here … World Migratory Bird Day 2019!
- Date: May 9, 2019
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: While only two years old, World Migratory Bird Day is just one of the latest evolutions in conservation awareness. Related celebrations go back more than twenty-six years and draw on over a century of research.
Keeping up with our #Volunpeers – SIA’s Transcription Center Accomplishments
- Date: September 14, 2017
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: When it comes to the Smithsonian Transcription Center, there’s always more to discover, more material with which to engage. It can be easy to lose track of just how much our crowd of #volunpeers accomplished and why it is so important to us. We’re not done yet, but after four years, it’s a good time to take a step back and see what has been accomplished through the effort of
Rapid Capture Digitization to bring the Smithsonian's Board of Regents Minutes Online
- Date: September 8, 2015
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- Description: Digitizing the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents minutes to make them available online.
Is there a place for paleography in archives?
- Date: January 23, 2018
- Creator: Ricc Ferrante
- 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