Description: Research on shark attacks began at the National Museum of Natural History in 1958 when the Shark Research Panel was formed to track attacks and develop shark repellents.
Description: For six seasons, beginning in 1984, the television series Smithsonian World opened new windows on the research and scientists at the Smithsonian Institution.
Description: This summer Visiting Professional Laura Wahl had the chance to learn more about how to respond to the problem of mold residues found on archival materials. The Smithsonian Affiliations’ Visiting Professionals Program allowed her to spend time at the Smithsonian Institution Archives’ conservation lab researching this topic.
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_8807,size=250,left] In the institutional archivists' world, there is constant discussion about what we save and why we save it. While there are many reasons why this is such a pointed concern, one of the main factors institutions consider when deciding what to collect is the relevance of a collection's contents to the institution's mission.
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Privacy And Control, by Michael Pickard, Creative Commons: Attribution 2.0."][/caption] It’s a sign of the times that we’re being watched often and everywhere. Surveillance, a word that once summoned up all things intrusive and sneaky, is part of everyday lexicon and experience.
Description: Investigating digital files from the 1980s turns up software that let people play matchmaker–for endangered species. Let’s see where this leads.
Description: In the course of my internship at the Smithsonian Archives’ Digital Services Division I’ve worked with myriad digital records, converting both new material and past accessions into formats that can be more easily preserved. But the most exciting part of my time here came when I was given my very own accession, the Devra G. Kleiman Papers, to work on. My task was to copy all of
Description: Throughout the next months, the Smithsonian Institution Archives will be posting about the Smithsonian and the Civil War in honor of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.[edan-image:id=siris_sic_496,size=200,left]This month marks the 150th anniversary of the start of one of the most tumultuous periods in American history—the Civil War (view resources from the