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
Description: Earlier this year, I blogged about a recipe for “Elephant Skin and Ivory” (a black and white tinted candy) that I found in the 1984 National Museum of Natural History Docent Cookbook. Well, while researching the history of the same museum’s Insect Zoo for my recent blog post, I came across another recipe that I'd like to share—mealworm chocolate chip cookies.This recipe
Description: This month, the Smithsonian Institution Archives, along with many other archives across the Smithsonian and around the nation, will be celebrating American Archives Month. The purpose of this celebration is "to raise awareness about the value of archives and archivists." We write a lot about what an archivist does on this blog, but, for those of you who don't know and are
Description: In honor of the Heritage Preservation organization’s annual MayDay initiative to protect cultural heritage from disasters, the Archives will be highlighting how we deal with emergencies and how you can prepare yourself in a series of blog posts. [caption id="attachment_12763" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="This image is quite dark for a reason—in an emergency
Description: This blog post was edited in October 2021 for clarification. While surveying and collecting specimens in the Aleutian Islands in 1871-1872 for the United States Coast Survey, later renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, naturalist William Healey Dall befriended George Tsaroff (1858-1880), an Unangan (Aleut) teen from Unalaska Island who had been hired as local
Description: Note: This blog post borrows heavily from the article, “Shooting Fireworks: Capture the Spectacle,” from former Smithsonian employee, Jim Wallace (originally published on the Smithsonian staff photographer’s website in 1995), with valuable additions from Ken Rahaim. The 4th of July is coming up next week, promising picnics, gatherings, and of course, fireworks. You may have