Description: At the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, we are determined not to let history repeat itself. From our colleagues at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, who research and track birds in the wild, to our Bird House keepers who care for and breed these animals at the Zoo, we are working together to study, understand and protect common birds
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: One of our recent projects, these photographic crayon enlargements, associated with founder of the National Zoo William Temple Hornaday, were made on sensitized paper that was then adhered to a linen “canvas” stretched around wooden frames. The paper had become brittle, and handling at some point in the past led to a number of punctures and tears through both the paper and the
Description: Have a little fun with images from our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse millions of images as part of Smithsonian Open Access.
Description: One of the things we do here at the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) is keep track of original records about donors and the objects they have given to the Smithsonian—and so we have donor and accession records dating back to our earliest years. Because of this, it’s common to receive a reference request beginning something like, “My great-great grandmother donated a
Description: Dr. Margaret S. Collins became a renowned expert in multiple areas of termite zoololgy during her almost 50-year career as a scientist and professor.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_arc_391843,size=300,center]By the 1960s, Science Service had been acquiring photographs of scientists, obscure as well as famous, for over four decades. Portraits of Edison or Einstein were always in demand, but experience had also shown that bright, accomplished young people might someday be awarded a major prize or make a discovery deemed