Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="296" caption="Letter by President Andrew Jackson to the United States Congress informs them that as president he has no authority to take any steps for accepting James Smithson's bequest but instructs Congress to take such measures as they deem necessary to accept the funds, December 17, 1835, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record
Description: Throughout his twenty-five years as a Science Service journalist, Frank Thone maintained an active correspondence with fellow scientists and conservationists. His letters in the Smithsonian Institution Archives both preserve his wit and offer a glimpse at the informal networking that helped shape how Americans perceived the natural world. One of Thone’s correspondents was a
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Beauty is forever, by Just Warr, Creative Commons: Attribution 2.0 Generic."][/caption] At THE BIGGER PICTURE, we often write about the challenges of maintaining the data in digital archives. But a recent article bundled in the informative daily arts newsletter compiled by Jeff Weiss—you can subscribe by sending a request
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: "It is five o’clock, when the Megatherium takes its prey, that the most interesting characters of the animal are seen. Then it roars with delight and makes up for the hard work of the day by much fun and conduction." Folks at Home, February 17, 1863, Robert Kennicott[edan-image:id=siris_sic_5844,size=250,left]Not only is this beast intriguing as a specimen, but it is the
Description: Nearly two years ago, I first heard of a course on the conservation of Japanese paper co-organized by ICCROM, the cultural heritage arm of UNESCO, and the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (also known in Japanese as “Tobunken”). Over three weeks, the course offered a first-hand look at the traditional Japanese conservation techniques, materials, and
Description: In the most recent issue of Ezra (Winter 2010, pg. 3), Cornell University’s quarterly magazine, there is a small feature about photographs by graduate student Heather Flores of fruit fly ovaries. These images won the NYSTEM Stem Cell Awareness Day Image Contest. Besides the fact that there is a contest devoted to images that demonstrate the visual beauty of stem cell science,