Description: It can be so frustrating to put great effort into something, and then to have your work and achievements called into question. I can't begin to imagine how frustrated Samuel Pierpont Langley was in 1903. By that time, he had spent over forty years studying astrophysics and aerodynamics. His work on astronomically-derived time measurement in the late 1860's is the heart of the
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="413" caption="Construction of National Museum of Natural History Rotunda Dome, 1908, by unknown photographer, photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 79 Box 9 Folder 4, Negative Number:2004-10334. "][/caption]
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="412" caption="Exhibit of a hippopotamus in the Hall of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History, 1959, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95 Box 44A Folder 2, Negative Number: MNH-217."][/caption]
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="419" caption="Sculpture on pedestals outside the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, Exhibition Hall in the Natural History Building, October 1964, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 313 Box 48 Folder 3, Negative Number:
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="358" caption="Print of the original architectural drawing for the new National Museum of Natural History's location on the National Mall, c. 1903, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 92, Box CGMC, Folder Building Series 4, Book 400-470, NMNH, Negative Number: SIA2009-2367."][/caption]
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