Description: Many of us read, write and send emails every day, but when did it all start at the Smithsonian? In 1980 Smithsonian staff had typewriters and telephones on their desk, with one or two FAX machines per office. The Smithsonian operated a single general purpose computer, the Honeywell mainframe, for all Smithsonian data processing applications and which did not include an email
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="419" caption="S. Dillon Ripley (1913-2001), Smithsonian Secretary (1964-1984), Mrs. Mary Livingston Ripley (d. 1996) and their partners dance a waltz at the National Associates Program's Contributing Membership ball, 1984, by Unknown photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371 Box 4 Folder
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368" caption="Interior of Office of Printing and Photographic Service's cold storage vault, 1983, by Richard K. Hofmeister, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371 Box 4 Folder September 1983, Negative Number 2004-10338."][/caption] To be sure, the Smithsonian has a lot of photographs. Millions of them in hundreds of