Description: Bloggers on The Bigger Picture often describe how, in the course of their work, they come across intriguing archival objects and artifacts that trigger new insights into history. “Hands on” encounters with compelling evidence from the past are thrilling and can be provocative. But so can different sorts of encounters, including those that are driven by data, rather than
Description: As the Lichtenstein Foundation closes, half a million documents are coming to the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art! [via NY Times]Bitcoin is entering the art market. [via Mutual Art]Hyperspectral scanning reveals Picasso's process during his "blue period." [via The Star]What could possibly connect Abraham Lincoln to vampires? The Smithsonian's National Museum of American
Description: What's changed, and hasn't — the Fair Housing Act 50 years later. [via National Museum of American History]A 1749 book, The Governess, advocated for female literacy when the literacy rate was 40% in England. [via Smithsonian Magazine]The Library of Congress has archival materials of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and records on historical Supreme Court cases now
Description: The Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum looks at the history of rapid change in Washington D.C., the ensuing inequality, and neighborhood activism with A Right to the City. [via Smithsonian Magazine]Check out the newly released 2018 National Design Award winners from the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt. [via Architect Magazine]There may be a developing love story at our
Description: “Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture," a new exhibit highlighting celebrity activist, Oprah Winfrey, opened at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. [via WAPO]Archivists with The Obsidian Collection are digitizing and publishing newspapers that document the Great Migration, Civil Rights, and Jim Crow eras. [via Info
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="222" caption="In the City Where Nobody Cares, by unidentified photographer, 1910, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Archives Center."][/caption] A couple of years ago, as soon as Google’s Street View application was introduced, it generated worldwide controversy. Ground-level photographic images, shot from cameras
Description: It’s an old fashioned card catalogue full of jokes! The National Museum of American History gives insight into Phyllis Diller’s “gag file”—50,000 annotated jokes featured in a new exhibition at the museum. How are institutions preserving born digital art? Here’s an article about Rhizome’s ArtBase—an archive of digital artworks [via the National Digital Information
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: Gorgeous rights-free illustrations of caterpillars from a German entomological by Christian Friedrich Vogel volume in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. [via Public Domain Review]A look at the first multispecies experimental coral microcosm in the world installed at our National Museum of Natural History in 1980. [via Ocean Portal]You can explore over 30,000 NY Historic
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="237" caption="This is America...Keep it Free!, Dorothea Lange, 1942, National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, Archives Center."][/caption] More cameras in more places. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the installation of red light cameras and the controversy surrounding their use that’s continuing to spread
Description: 2018 Women's History Month edition!Little-known Hungarian art deco designer, Ilonka Karasz, has a solo show at the Cooper Hewitt [via Antiques and the Arts Weekly]The New York Times is trying to right the gender imbalance in their obituary archive by adding obits for 15 historic women including activist Ida B. Wells, feminist poet Qiu Jin, and mathematician Ada Lovelace...with