Description: The 1846 legislation that established the Smithsonian Institution provided for a Secretary, appointed by the Board of Regents, who would run the day-to-day affairs of the Institution. When David Skorton became Secretary last year, he was the thirteenth person to take on that responsibility. In our last blog, we discussed the first six and now we’ll look at seven through
Description: Do you still work with 3.5-inch diskettes? How about 5.25-inch floppy disks and Zip disks? I do. As an electronic records archivist at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, I spend most of my time working with digital information to help ensure it will be accessible in 5, 25, or even 100 years from now. Born-digital materials arrive at the archives in a variety of ways (CDs,
Description: This National Preparedness Month, collections care professionals might consider joining their local Alliance for Response initiative to improve their organizations, practices, and programs.
Description: A couple of months ago, Tony Cohn, host of Smithsonian’s Sidedoor podcast, contacted the Archives about an upcoming episode they were preparing. Sidedoor highlights the unseen or little-known stories about collections at the Smithsonian. The Archives’ work was recently front-and-center of an episode of The Sidedoor Podcast about America’s first food spy.
Description: Artist Mathew Mohr has created a 14-foot interactive sculpture that creates projections of visitor's faces! [via Colossal]The Library of Congress has added 64 films for free streaming to their National Film Registry. [via Info Docket]Conservators are using light in the form of Reflectance Transformation Imaging to find Isaac Newton's doodles on the walls of childhood home.
Description: The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History needs your help to preserve Dorothy's ruby red slippers. [via Washington Post]The gravedigger from Hamlet, Malvolio from Twelfth Night, and more Shakespeare-inspired Halloween costumes! [via Folger Shakespeare Library]IBM's Watson Supercomputer + Encyclopedia of Life= Biodiversity Treasure Trove Unlocked! [via Smithsonian
Description: [caption id="attachment_10960" align="aligncenter" width="376" caption="Peter Finkel, volunteer at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. "][/caption] Here at the Archives, we have 25 fulltime staff members, and half as many volunteers and interns at any given moment.
Description: A daily photo highlight from Smithsonian collections. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="441" caption="A papier mache model of a Stegosaurus dinosaur in the Fossil Reptiles Exhibit. The exhibit opened in June of 1963 in the National Museum of Natural History as part of the Exhibits Modernization Program, 1963, by Unknown photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian