Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="James 'Jim' Mello, Assistant Director of the National Museum of Natural History, sitting at a demonstration loom in the National Museum of American History's Textiles Hall, 1983, by Richard K. Hofmeister, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 4, 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: It’s Preservation Week - see what conservation staff at the Smithsonian Institution Archives are doing to contribute to preservation-mindedness.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368" caption="Interior of Office of Printing and Photographic Service's cold storage vault, 1983, by Richard K. Hofmeister, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371 Box 4 Folder September 1983, Negative Number 2004-10338."][/caption] To be sure, the Smithsonian has a lot of photographs. Millions of them in hundreds of
Description: Sure, you’ve heard of famed composer John Philip Sousa. But did you know that Sousa composed a march just for the Smithsonian?On November 6, 1854, the “March King” John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C. With roots in Southeast Washington near the Marine Barracks, where his father played trombone in the United States Marine Band, it should have been of no surprise to
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="307" caption="Wilhelm Carl Paul Gottlieb Heinrich (1880-1955) in 1913 joined the United States Department of Agriculture, He first worked on applied entomology but later switched to the classification of Lepidoptera, c. 1940, by Unidentified photographer, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7427, Box 1,
Description: President John F. Kennedy's doodles were given a new dimension by local Washington, D.C. sculptor Ralph M. Tate and the Anacostia Community Museum.
Description: Today, James Smithson’s bequest to found the Smithsonian is considered a wonderful event, but in 1835 when it was announced, many Americans responded negatively. Why did they look his gift horse in the mouth?
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="296" caption="Letter by President Andrew Jackson to the United States Congress informs them that as president he has no authority to take any steps for accepting James Smithson's bequest but instructs Congress to take such measures as they deem necessary to accept the funds, December 17, 1835, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record
Description: In the spring of 1846, after years of debate, the legislative logjam over what the Smithsonian would be was finally broken with compromise legislation by New York Congressman, William Jervis Hough.