Description: In conservation it can be easy to overlook the content of an item and just get on with the treatment. Here is a case where overlooking the content was simply not possible.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="442" caption="View of Canyon, 1873, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Black and white photoprint on cardboard mount, National Anthropological Archives, SPC Sw Gen NM 113605 01861700, Local Number: NAA INV 01861700."][/caption] I paid another visit to the Timothy O’Sullivan exhibition now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a
Description: Collections here at the Archives span over 171 years of Smithsonian history and include personal papers of the many notable people who have been part of its work in science and culture. Cryptic and coded content is not unusual here. One would expect special vocabulary in the accessions of scientific observations. For example, notations of depth, temperature, and sounding and
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="296" caption="This image from Mercury mission number four taken on Sept. 13, 1961 is just one of the many images that was written on by engineers. Credit: NASA/JSC/Arizona State University."][/caption] On May 16th, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the vicinity of Cape Canaveral to watch the Endeavor, the NASA space shuttle,
Description: If the Smithsonian Institution had a hall of fame for Volunteers, then Zoe Martindale would certainly be in line for induction. Martindale started volunteering at the Smithsonian Institution Archives in 1997 immediately after she retired. This past February, Martindale retired again, this time from her volunteer position at the Archvies after over twenty years of service.
Description: As a teenager, Robert Ridgway was tapped by the Smithsonian’s Assistant Secretary to be an expedition zoologist. In 1881, when the US National Museum opened its doors, he was the curator of Birds. Download and reuse some of bird illustrations today through Smithsonian Open Access.
Description: The Smithsonian Institution Archives has been spending a lot of time looking at our audiovisual preservation practices. Check out the results from our recent assessment!
Description: Consider the courage it took for some of the earliest women in science at the Smithsonian to donate their personal papers to the Institution.
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 DMZ ecology project reveals the Smithsonian’s commitment to ecological research programs as well as the complexity and contingency of an international collaboration.