Description: Have you ever wondered why museums choose the exhibition topics they do? These are the kinds of questions that the Smithsonian Institution Archives’ historic records of exhibitions can sometimes help us answer. An idea could stem from the personal interest of a curator, reflect an institution’s holdings, be inspired by comments from a visitor, or be designed around a specific
Description: Some refer to the Smithsonian as "America's Attic." It probably earned this nickname because throughout its history, the Smithsonian has acquired artifacts, relics, paintings, personal collections, and even hair samples related to the Commander in Chief (yes, the National Museum of American History has a collection of presidential hairs!).With Presidents' Day coming up on
Description: One of the challenges of being a reference archivist is focusing on the inquiries received, while suppressing the bits of information you come across that may be of personal interest (the corner of my desk is occupied by an ever increasing list of topics I aspire to research further on my own time). Recently, however, a colleague who is familiar with my interest in rare and
Description: A profile of the Archives' collections related to the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899 which explored Alaska's flora, fauna, and geography.
Description: When I started working with museums in 2005, the concept of crowdsourcing was in its infancy. That year, James Surowiecki ‘s book, “The Wisdom of Crowds,” was published and there were tiny experiments in crowdsourcing occurring in the cultural heritage sector. There were hesitations and objections about the whole concept within the GLAM (gallery, library, archive, museum)
Description: While responding to a digitization request, I uncovered the story of how the Smithsonian International Exchange Service (1849-1992) helped rebuild the library collections of Chinese cultural heritage institutions during the Second World War.
Description: The historical legacy of amatuer photographer Julian Papin Scott (1877-1961) is far greater than was acknowledged at the time, because of both who he photographed and how he set up the images.
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