Description: Did you know that Joseph Francis invented the first metal life-saving boat? Or that Gail Borden invented the process for creating condensed milk? Neither did I until I heard The World Is Yours episode titled “Unheraled American Inventors,” which originally aired on April 4, 1937.Where most of the episodes I’ve listened to begin with the host walking up to two people while they
Description: For forty years, Miss Helena Weiss kept the Smithsonian running smoothly as a clerk, stenographer, director of the Office of Correspondence and Documents, and Registrar. When she retired, her position was divided into seven separate jobs.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="253" caption="Storage area for the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, while still in the Natural History Building, October 1964, by Unknown photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 313 Box 48 Folder 3, Negative Number: 94-4420."][/caption]
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="412" caption="David Scott, Harry Lowe, and Harold Cross restore a Stuart Davis mural at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, 1965, by Unknown photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 314 Box 30 Folder 1, Negative Number: 95-20301."][/caption]
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="414" caption="Three portraits on exhibit by Portuguese artist Henrique Medina in the lobby of the National Gallery of Art, now the National Museum of American Art, in the Natural History Building, April 13 - May 7, 1938, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 311 Box 36 Folder
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="413" caption=" George Washington statue, sculpted by Horatio Greenough, encased in its support system sits outside the Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of American History, waiting to be moved inside, 1962, by Unknown photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 276 Box 97
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="425" caption="Deborah Bennett, museum technician, and Tim Coffer, data gatherer, sort trays of seashells for the mollusk inventory in the National Museum of Natural History's Division of Mollusks, October 1979, Jeffrey Ploskonka, Black and white photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 2, Folder
Description: Meredith Smith Diggs was employed at the Smithsonian in different capacities and was closely associated with the second Secretary of the Smithsonian, Spencer Fullerton Baird. Through Diggs' correspondence we can get a small glimpse of his life and work at the Smithsonian.
Description: [caption id="attachment_541" align="alignleft" width="144" caption="Inscription inside Lincoln's watch, by Hugh Talman, 2009, National Museum of American History"][/caption] Does photography always report on the past? Recently, as part of the Lincoln Bicentennial celebration, the Smithsonian took a closer look at a rare Lincoln object that possessed a secret message.