Description: Whether we love to hate them, or hate to love them, paper clips are a huge part of working in archives. In an attempt to showcase this little contraption, we did a call out to the twitterverse for other archivists to share their collection of paper clips. Needless to say, it was not a disappointment. Now go forth archivists! And remember Clippy will always be there to
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: Link Love: a weekly post with links to interesting videos and stories about archival issues, technology and culture, and Washington D.C. and American history.
Description: Claudine K. Brown began her long career with Smithsonian as the Director of the African American History Project, 1990–1995, developing a program plan for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Brown also served as Smithsonian’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Arts and Humanities, 1991-1995. She returned to the Smithsonian in 2010 as Assistant
Description: Dr. Sharon F. Patton, Director, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, 2003-2008, oversaw the museum’s 9,000 African art objects and welcomed the distinguished Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection. Under her leadership, the museum opened its first traveling exhibition and established a visiting artists program. #Groundbreaker
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: 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 researching recently, and you’ll get into some