Description: When curators at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History looked at seven radiometers in storage, they learned the instruments had been at the Smithsonian for nearly one hundred fifty years.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="274" caption="Untitled, 1950/printed 1982, by Roy DeCarava, Gelatin silver print on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Henry L. Milmore, 1992.15.3."][/caption] Last week American photography lost another of its grand masters. Roy DeCarava died at the age of 87 in New York on October 27th. He was an
Description: The United States National Museum Curators’ Annual Reports will be added to the Smithsonian Transcription Center, beginning the first week of June.
Description: [caption id="attachment_680" align="alignleft" width="159" caption="Flickr member, Penny L. Richards"][/caption] I work with people across the Smithsonian to add photos to the Smithsonian Flickr Commons photostream. Occasionally, something stands out in the daily summary of comments and tags I receive. Sometimes, it’s an exchange between Flickr members sparked by a single
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: Some years back, and for what seemed like quite a while, people were talking about scrapbooking. As more aspects of everyday life were going digital, it felt like more and more people were paying homage to the paper-based mementoes of their experiences that appeared to be heading for oblivion. Quickly, and to support all the saving, trimming, and gluing that people were