Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_8807,size=250,left] In the institutional archivists' world, there is constant discussion about what we save and why we save it. While there are many reasons why this is such a pointed concern, one of the main factors institutions consider when deciding what to collect is the relevance of a collection's contents to the institution's mission.
Description: In November of 1996, the electric guitar, its history and its makers, were the focus of attention at the National Museum of American History.
Description: This blog piece is about summer weather in Washington, DC, the Alice Pike Barney collections here at SIA, and the Barney’s “summer cottage” in Bar Harbor, ME, “Ban-y-Bryn.”
Description: Margaret Simmons Vining was a museum specialist and later curator of armed forces history at the National Museum of American History from 1983 until her death in 2018.In addition to curating major exhibitions and building the division’s collections, she founded and supervised the Smithsonian Archive of Women’s Military History. Together with her longtime collaborator and life
Description: Spring edition! British Library is digitizing the last surviving play script by William Shakespeare pleading for the humane treatment of refugees. [via The Guardian]Why Ben Franklin would hang out at libraries today. [via the Atlantic]Wall of Birds, a new interactive from artist Jane Kim and Cornell Lab ornithologists. A local wins the National Portrait Gallery's 2016 Outwin
Description: Mary Agnes Chase is known for her extensive contributions to the study of grasses, but who was Mary Agnes Chase? Why is her private life so shrouded in mystery, and how can we find out more.
Description: To celebrate Women’s History Month, here are two examples of 20th-century women who applied their education and expertise in geology and paleontology outside traditional university career paths.