Description: When you think of the National Museum of Natural History, what comes to mind are probably inanimate things—rocks and dinosaur bones, cultural objects, and stuffed animals. But did you know that the museum has a collection of live insects? Today is the 35th anniversary of the opening of the permanent installation of the Insect Zoo, though the Zoo actually began as a temporary
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
Description: The Archives was recently gifted an 1860 letter from Spencer F. Baird, second Secretary of the Smithsonian, to George N. Lawrence, fellow naturalist. The donor requested that, along with a digital version, a transcription be provided, which I undertook alongside a simple treatment. The letter was in overall excellent condition: the thin paper exhibited only a pair of small
Description: A brief history on the invention and implementation of microfilm and our acquisition of a new, modern microfilm reader/scanner that enables us to provide digital access to and enhance the quality of SIA’s microfilm collections.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="356" caption="Photo of a termite nest, near Aguadulce, Panama, From 1910 to 1912 the Smithsonian participated in the Biological Survey of the Panama Canal Zone, to document the natural history of the Canal Zone prior to construction of the Panama Canal, 1910-1911, by Henri Pittier, Photographic print, "Completion of the Biological
Description: Have you ever wondered how our staff preserves the oversize collections at the Smithsonian Institution Archives? Here is an intern’s perspective on preserving the personal collection of Alexander Dallas Bache.
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