Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Salman Rushdie's archives, featured in an Emory University publication, by Georgia Popplewell, Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic."][/caption] Back in October I talked—with great interest and at length—with Anne Van Camp, director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, about the various
Description: The Smithsonian Institution Archives has a lot of diaries. And they offer researchers a glimpse into the daily lives of scientists doing their work in the field and sometimes the joy and tragedy of family life.
Description: Learn some of the surprising facts about people and places from the Smithsonian Institution Archives that we have came across while writing Wikipedia articles using SIA materials.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="419" caption="Himantura signifier (Stingray), 2002, by Sandra J. Raredon, Digital Radiograph, National Museum of Natural History, Division of Fishes, Image ID# AFS 266"][/caption] The Smithsonian is hosting an online conference about problem-solving which will look at how we are working on solving some of our most complicated issues,
Description: African American communities have celebrated Juneteenth for more than 150 years. When did the Smithsonian begin hosting programs to commemorate the nation’s second independence day?
Description: As editor E. E. Slosson began setting up the Science Service news office, his mail was flooded with inquiries from potential contributors. Writers and photographers described their accomplishments and submitted samples of their work. One such letter, from Albert Harlingue on April 13, 1921, must have piqued Slosson’s interest, for it coincided with the Washington visit of “a
Description: The term “personal equation” came into use in the 19th century as scientists found that observers have inherent biases: some anticipate events, and some report events after they have occurred. Recognition of the problem led to a spate of personal equation instruments: some measured biases of this sort, and some reduced the effect of personal errors. Most of these