Description: On September 28, 1999, representatives of dozens of tribes from across the hemisphere gathered on the National Mall for the groundbreaking of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. On the overcast morning, several hundred people packed under three tents during a ceremony that featured blessings from the four cardinal directions. After the ceremony, some
Description: [view in Spanish][edan-image:id=siris_sic_6874,size=185,left]Alexander Wetmore, ornithologist and avian paleontologist, was the Smithsonian's sixth Secretary (1945-1952). As a young biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey, Wetmore conducted extensive fieldwork in Latin America. He spent 1911 in Puerto Rico studying bird life, and later traveled through South
Description: [view in Spanish][edan-image:id=siris_sic_9227,size=200,left]The foremost grass specialist of her time ended her formal education after grammar school. She began collecting and illustrating plants in her twenties, and was hired by Chicago's Field Museum in 1901 and later as a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientific illustration was a way for
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_arc_395101,size=300,left]When Harvard Medical School distributed these photographs of John Clavon Norman, Jr., M.D. (1930-2014) to news services in the 1960s, Dr. Norman was at an exciting stage of his career. The young physician had already made quite a journey, but there would be even more paths to blaze. He had been born in West Virginia to parents who
Description: The South Yard behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle, is bordered on the east by the Arts and Industries Building and west by the Freer Gallery of Art. In the late 19th century, it was the site of small buildings for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Taxidermy Studio, National Zoological Park, and Aerodrome Studio. After World War I, a Quonset hut
Description: This post originally appeared on the National Museum of Natural History's blog, Unearthed.Who would think that behind the west wall of NMNH's paleontology hall is a painting of a goddess that created a sensation when installed in 1910? Some of you who visited the museum fifty years ago may remember the captivating Diana of the Tides as she surveyed the hall.Diana was painted
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="294" caption="Rocket Row along the West Side of the Arts and Industries Building before the National Air and Space Museum was built. The four missiles on exhibit are: From left to right, the Jupiter C, which launched Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite; the Vanguard; the Polaris, the first U.S. submarine-launched ICBM; and the Atlas,