Description: During debates about the Smithsonian’s founding, the idea of using James Smithson’s bequest for a botanic garden was included in several drafts of the bill considered by Congress. In 1850, President Millard Fillmore commissioned America’s preeminent landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing to design plans for the National Mall, including grounds around the Smithsonian Castle,
Description: The history of the Smithsonian’s Children’s Room, a project led by Smithsonian Secretary Langley and famous interior designer Grace Lincoln Temple.
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: Watch how we make invisible Beatles’ autographs visible with Reflectance Transform Imaging, a technique for forensic document examination.
Description: The Smithsonian Institution Archives has led and collaborated on the earliest efforts in the field of email preservation since the mid-2000s. A look at our Collaborative Electronic Records Project (CERP) tool.