Description: When I started working with museums in 2005, the concept of crowdsourcing was in its infancy. That year, James Surowiecki ‘s book, “The Wisdom of Crowds,” was published and there were tiny experiments in crowdsourcing occurring in the cultural heritage sector. There were hesitations and objections about the whole concept within the GLAM (gallery, library, archive, museum)
Description: Throughout the next months, the Smithsonian Institution Archives will feature posts related to the Smithsonian and the Civil War in honor of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. On July 21, 1861, the First Battle of Manassas raged just thirty miles southwest of Washington DC and the Smithsonian Institution Building that housed Secretary Joseph Henry and his family.
Description: A collection of interviews from 2013 records the history of the Smithsonian Associates. One of recordings included Brigitte B. Blachere, the program manager of the organization. She detailed the youth and family programs she has developed for 23 years.
Description: One of our recent projects, these photographic crayon enlargements, associated with founder of the National Zoo William Temple Hornaday, were made on sensitized paper that was then adhered to a linen “canvas” stretched around wooden frames. The paper had become brittle, and handling at some point in the past led to a number of punctures and tears through both the paper and the
Description: In addition to a rich collection of analog moving image material currently being digitized, the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) accessions large quantities of born-digital video from various hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and websites across the Institution. And just as digitization is a method of preserving moving image content before it degrades on an analog carrier, digital
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="414" caption="Lecture Room in the northeast Range in the United States National Museum, now the Arts and Industries Building, early 1900s, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95 Box 32 Folder 24, Negative Number: 16242 (MHT)."][/caption]