Description: Consider the courage it took for some of the earliest women in science at the Smithsonian to donate their personal papers to the Institution.
Description: The Smithsonian Institution Building, or the “Castle,” is the most iconic of all the Smithsonian’s 769 facilities, which include its nineteen museums, nine research centers, National Zoo, and all of its other establishments. The Castle was the first building constructed specifically for the Smithsonian after it was founded in 1846. On March 19, 1847, a contract was signed with
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="Behind the Smithsonian Institution Building (SIB), the "Castle," is the site of the Smithsonian's museum complex on Independence Avenue, 1987, by Jeff Tinsley, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 410 Box 3 Folder Quad with Street, Negative Number: 87-7964-1."][/caption]
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_arc_308449,size=250,left]Though Roxie Laybourne may be a well-known topic here in the Smithsonian Institution Archives, there is a good reason she is so popular. From good advice to her pioneering career to modern day inspiration, her work offers new insight each time we turn to it. Laybourne’s interest in natural history began long before she began her
Description: A station for the Metro, Washington DC’s subway system, was eliminated from early plans but protest by the Smithsonian ensured it would be built.
Description: Computer science researchers at the University of Washington and Cornell University have announced a new system of powerful graphics algorithms that will create three-dimensional renderings of buildings, neighborhoods, and potentially even entire cities. Fittingly the inventors went for the gold and named the system PhotoCity. Like its precursor, Microsoft’s Photosynth, the
Description: Have you ever wondered why museums choose the exhibition topics they do? These are the kinds of questions that the Smithsonian Institution Archives’ historic records of exhibitions can sometimes help us answer. An idea could stem from the personal interest of a curator, reflect an institution’s holdings, be inspired by comments from a visitor, or be designed around a specific
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_9988,size=500,center]While many people view the Smithsonian as a complex of museums in Washington, DC, it began as and still is an international organization devoted to research and education. A look at the Smithsonian Global website reveals where Smithsonian staff can be found today.Since the Smithsonian’s founding in 1846, the Institution has
Description: Research Anthropologist Dr. Sabrina Sholts, Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, uses bones to study the effects of environmental contaminants on people in the past and present, and directs the Smithsonian Institution Bio-Imaging Research Center. #Groundbreaker
Description: [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="251" caption="Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1846-1878), and his wife, Harriet Henry, and their daughters Caroline, Helen and Mary with croquet mallets on the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution Building, c.
Description: Collections here at the Archives span over 171 years of Smithsonian history and include personal papers of the many notable people who have been part of its work in science and culture. Cryptic and coded content is not unusual here. One would expect special vocabulary in the accessions of scientific observations. For example, notations of depth, temperature, and sounding and