Description: [caption id="" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Nora's Conservation Bag, courtesy Nora Lockshin."][/caption] New guest blog posts from our own over at the Smithsonian Collections blog: Sarah Stauderman on why the Smithsonian hasn’t digitized all of our collections yet, and conservator Nora Lockshin on what’s in her bag (hint: it’s not lipstick). There are 153 miles of
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="448" caption="Portrait of Dorothy Catherine Draper, copy of the original photo by John Draper, created by Daniel Draper, 1893, National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, Division of Information Technology and Communications."][/caption] Imagine that you are the first person to take a photograph. What would you
Description: This summer witnessed an exciting find by interns Shereen Choudhury and Rachel Midura, who identified Teddy Roosevelt in one of the broken glass plate negatives they were inventorying. This glass plate comes from a collection of images that have all been numbered, but have minimal descriptive records indicating what they may represent.
Description: As a student with a background in libraries, one of the most interesting things I learned as an intern at the Smithsonian Institution Archives this summer was how closely related records management is to archival practice. I was unaware that as an institutional archive, the Archives is specifically concerned with preserving records that relate to the Smithsonian’s identity,
Description: On January 24, 1925, for the first time in over a century, a total solar eclipse would be visible across the northern part of the United States. How scientists used a dirigible to observe the phenomenon.
Description: It would be hard to imagine stepping into a Smithsonian museum today and not seeing a single camera. Digital cameras and smart phones with cameras are so completely a part of today’s museum-going experience that - unless a flash goes off in your face – you probably wouldn’t notice the camera next to you. However, in 1938, you would have seen a very different sight. On August