Description: Perfect time of year to take a tour of D.C.'s secret gardens, including the Smithsonian's! [via Shakespeare Theatre Company]The State Library of Virginia asked residents for Civil War mementos, and they delivered (and they are now online). [via Centre Daily Times]Hear about the massive undertaking to save wartorn Sudan's archives. [via National Geographic]Cambridge Dictionary
Description: Meet the women behind African American hair care! [via #HiddenHerstory]MIT Libraries is kicking off the "Women in Science and Engineering@MIT" archival initiative to improve the representation of women in their archives. [via MIT Libraries]Know someone with cognitive and sensory processing disabilities? Tell them about Morning at the Museum, a program that provides early
Description: To celebrate the season, we have a series of posts looking at images of summer in the Smithsonian photo archives and collections. To start things off, Mary Savig, Archives Specialist at the Archives of American Art, describes how artists recharged in the summer months. Like eager vacationers everywhere, artists have long escaped to the beach on hot summer days. The shore
Description: New to the interwebs: a massive archive of 150 years of photography capturing Russian life from more than 40 institutions and collections. [via Hyperallergic]Nominate your favorite .gov website for the U.S. Federal Government End of Term Web Archive! [via The Signal, Library of Congress]Why save a computer virus, indeed?! [via The Conversation]Giant pandas are no longer
Description: Dr. Meghan Ferriter, a scholar in online communities, grew the Smithsonian's Transcription Center from 1000 to 9000 volunteers spanning the globe, and rallied the community to help the Smithsonian make over 300,000 pages of primary source documents searchable online! #Groundbreaker
Description: In August 1996, the Smithsonian marked its 150th anniversary with a huge birthday celebration on the National Mall. For its sesquicentennial, a term which this author constantly forgets no matter how many times she looks it up, the Institution threw itself a two-day birthday party, sprinkled with special exhibit tents, concerts, nineteen birthday cakes, a special website, and
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="424" caption="U.S. National Museum, May 3, 1917, seen from the National Mall, by Unknown photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 45, Box 79, Folder: 10, Neg. SIA2009-2203."][/caption] As part of my work as the historian for the history of the Smithsonian, I’ve been working for the past year on
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="South Beach, Miami, Florida, 2004, Courtesy of the TypArchive: www.typarchive.com."] [/caption] A visual archive of hand-painted and cool old signage [via @leetranlam]. Check out the Smithsonian Libraries’ extensive links to online exhibitions created by libraries and archives. Catch the spirit! The Gospel Music History