Description: Joan Gilder has been a volunteer with the Smithsonian Institution Archives' Preservation Team for two decades, and has worked to treat many of our collections in order to increase their lifespan and improve access. She has been an invaluable asset to the Archives since she first began, and we are thrilled to share a little more about her story.What did you do before you began
Description: Donna Strahan, Head of the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research at the Freer Sackler, has written numerous articles on topics ranging from technical studies on Chinese Buddhist sculpture and Thai bronzes to best practices for the field. #Groundbreaker
Description: As a postdoctoral fellow at the National Museum of American History, I’ve spent months in the Smithsonian Institution Archives researching a book tentatively titled, Not Naturally a Grass Country: Environment, Plant Genetics, and the Quest for Agricultural Modernization in the Humid World. It’s largely a story about global attempts to replace one form of agriculture—the
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_6823,size=150,left] On this Valentine’s Day, you might wonder if Cupid has ever shot any arrows around the Institution. The Smithsonian has been the site of many romances and even some tragedies, so today I’ll tell a story which combines both. In the process of recording his oral history interviews, Dr. T. Dale Stewart, a physical anthropologist at the
Description: The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (NPG) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018. Ahead of next year’s festivities, NPG unveiled an exhibition commemorating its May 1968 opening. The Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) provided several pieces for this gallery, including a photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s dedication speech on May 3rd. Check out the full
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="274" caption="Untitled, 1950/printed 1982, by Roy DeCarava, Gelatin silver print on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Henry L. Milmore, 1992.15.3."][/caption] Last week American photography lost another of its grand masters. Roy DeCarava died at the age of 87 in New York on October 27th. He was an
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="410" caption="Loyal B. Aldrich of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (1908-1955) and Astrophysicist Charles Greeley Abbot (Fifth Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1928-1944) playing tennis behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, next to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, in the South Yard, 1920, by Unidentified
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="Empty display cases of what was the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) museum shop in the Arts and Industries Building, NASM was housed in the Arts and Industries Building until 1975 when it moved to its own building which opened in 1976, 1975, by Richard Farrar, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives,