Description: Each week, the Archives features a woman who has been a groundbreaker at the Smithsonian, past or present, in a series titled Wonderful Women Wednesday.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_10581,size=200,left]Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch tantalizing glimpses of our patrons’ manifold research topics.The reference team fields around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been
Description: In December 1978, Gloria Steinem met with the Smithsonian Institution Women’s Council (SIWC) to advise the group on carrying out the work of change at the Smithsonian and to broaden members’ understanding of the women’s movement. As described by attendees, the conversation was “dynamite…great…wonderful.” One member expressed her surprise at finding Steinem so agreeable;
Description: Yesterday, we celebrated MayDay2019 by reviewing the contents of Nora’s PRICE team go-bag, which you can explore in this Facebook Live, courtesy of the Foundation for the Advancement of Conservation!This MayDay post comes to you at a time when cultural heritage disasters on a mass scale are fresh in people’s minds. Paying attention to high visibility events offers opportunity
Description: To celebrate Black History Month, we’re sharing two recently-digitized video clips featuring exhibitions from the Anacostia Community Museum in the 1980s.
Description: In 1956, Helena M. Weiss received a letter asking for information about “how to capture them, also how to raise them… what to put them in, also what to feed them.” Interestingly, the letter-writer neglected to specify what he or she meant by “them,” leaving Weiss only to guess what exactly the inquiry was referring to. From 1948 to 1956, Weiss was Chief of the Office of
Description: Curator Keith E. Melder's efforts to create the first permanent exhibit on African American history at the National Museum of American History was successful, but its journey faced difficulties and hatred from the public.