Description: [caption id="attachment_2093" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="R•I•T Big Shot No. 1, HIGHLAND HOSPITAL, Rochester, New York USA, produced by The Highland Hospital, The RIT Biomedical Photographic Communications Dept., Other Students, Faculty & Friends of RIT Photography, December 4, 1987."][/caption] In December of 1987, professors William DuBois and Michael Peres of
Description: In 1925, seven George Washington University students volunteered to stay awake for sixty hours, and drove, danced, sang, and swam in an effort to remain alert.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_6861,size=300,right] Some students look forward eagerly to the new school year; others dread the end of summer and the long year ahead. How did the Smithsonian’s founding donor, James Smithson (1765-1829), feel about school? Smithson attended Oxford University in England from 1782 to 1786, receiving a Masters of Arts degree in chemistry and mineralogy.
Description: Deborah Bell, Assistant Collections Manager for the U.S. Herbarium at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 1975–2014, conserved, documented, and made accessible the collection of five million plant specimens. She participated in numerous expeditions, collecting specimens and training local students and staff. #Groundbreaker
Description: This month students head back to school ready for another year of learning. And though the summer crowds may have gone home, staff around the Smithsonian are now preparing for the many field trips headed their way. One of my favorite things about school was the special field trips my class got to take. You would hear the year before about going on this boat or heading to this
Description: Lord of the Rings fans! A newly-discovered map annotated by Tolkien. [via Open Culture]A last call for Archives Month to contribute your stories and memories of gardens and gardening to the Community Gardens digital archive. [via Smithsonian Gardens]Gorgeous fly-throughs of 17th Century London before The Great Fire from a talented group of students at De Montfort University. A
Description: In 1925, seven George Washington University students volunteered to stay awake for sixty hours, and drove, danced, sang, and swam in an effort to remain alert.
Description: There are 145 collection items at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and their new Objects of Wonder exhibit looks at how scientists use these collections to further our understanding of the world! (via Buzzfeed)Get cozy while you research! Folger Shakespeare Library lends out handmade shawls to visitors. [via Atlas Obscura]Students from the College of
Description: 435 high resolution book plates of gorgeous illustrations from Audubon's The Birds of America are now available for free download! [via Hyperallergic]And after you're done with the plates, check out peacock feathers under a high magnification lens, by artist Waldo Nell. [via Wired]University students are working to save the remaining copies of a black-owned newspaper, 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 goals of THE BIGGER PICTURE blog is to highlight stories about the ways images delivered in an online environment can describe extraordinary events or comment equally powerfully on our everyday life. Our contributors talk about collections at the Smithsonian, about images or archives that are making headlines, or about people that make, care for, and think about