Description: Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch tantalizing glimpses of our patrons’ manifold research topics.The reference team fields around 6,000 queries per year. Ask us what people have been researching recently, and you’ll get into some
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_12022,size=250,left]Volunteers have been an integral part of the Smithsonian since its earliest years. The Institution has always been “dependent on the kindness of strangers.” Volunteers make tremendous contributions to Smithsonian operations every day in virtually every corner of the globe. The Smithsonian's paid staff of some 6,000 employees is
Description: This is the latest post in our "Hot Topix" series. In each quarterly edition we show you what the reference team has been up to, and bring you some of the more notable inuqires we have received.Vicarious research is one of the great joys of the reference desk at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. From our front-row (well, only-row) seat outside the reading room, we catch
Description: For forty years, from around 1900 to 1941, Margaret W. Moodey (1862-1948) worked as a scientific aide in the Department of Geology at the United States National Museum. Her colleagues came to value her experience identifying, classifying, and cataloging geological specimens, which over the years, included gems and precious stones, fossil vertebrates and plants, and
Description: This piece is part one in a series of posts about Smithsonian Institution Archives’ (SIA) paper conservator and interns working on stabilizing a 1921 panoramic photo of air mail pilots and crews that is being moved to the National Air and Space Museum’s (NASM) Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. You can see Part II here. In addition to being the Paper Conservator for the Smithsonian
Description: The Smithsonian Institution Archives has captured two years of Smithsonian websites using the web tool Archive-It. See how we predict future research.
Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="221" caption="At the turn of the century, visitors are entering and leaving the United States National Museum Building, now Arts and Industries Building, via the North Entrance, c. 1900, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 95 Box 32 Folder 8, Negative Number:
Description: A brief history on the invention and implementation of microfilm and our acquisition of a new, modern microfilm reader/scanner that enables us to provide digital access to and enhance the quality of SIA’s microfilm collections.