Description: An examination of logbooks in the Smithsonian Institution Archives reveals the multiple ways that the Division of Inquiry in the United States Commission of Fish performed scientific work at marine laboratories in the early 20th century to fulfill their expansive mission statement.
Description: As we digitize the Archives’ collections to make them available online, I am constantly being exposed to handwriting from the past two centuries. As a result, I have a deeper appreciatiation of how many different things influence the way a person’s writing appears on the page, things beyond the quality of their penmanship. Writing on the deck of a ship, on horseback or on