Description: In celebration of over a century of volunteer contributions at the Smithsonian, explore the work of some stellar volunteers from our collection.
Description: Have a little fun with images from our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse millions of images as part of Smithsonian Open Access.
Description: Have a little fun with images from our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse millions of images as part of Smithsonian Open Access.
Description: Each Monday, sit back, relax, and ease into the work week with puzzles created from images in our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse these images as part of Smithsonian Open Access, launched in 2020.In honor of the anniversary of the groundbreaking of the Arts and Industries Building, then known as the
Description: Have a little fun with images from our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse millions of images as part of Smithsonian Open Access.
Description: Readers of The Bigger Picture will be familiar with the Hungerford Deed, a 1787 property contract dividing a lucrative land inheritance between the mother and aunt of the Smithsonian’s founding donor, James Smithson. Over the last three years I have been able to take a deep dive into the content of the Deed and strengthen our understanding of Smithson’s choice to leave his
Description: In 1956, Helena M. Weiss received a letter asking for information about “how to capture them, also how to raise them… what to put them in, also what to feed them.” Interestingly, the letter-writer neglected to specify what he or she meant by “them,” leaving Weiss only to guess what exactly the inquiry was referring to. From 1948 to 1956, Weiss was Chief of the Office of
Description: We thought our work was done when a social media follower helped us identify our popular “unidentified male model” as German naturalist Emil Bessels. Then we discovered he may have murdered his captain during the 1871–73 Polaris Expedition.