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Artists of the Work
One of the great illustrated books of the Renaissance and landmark in botanical and medical history is De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (Notable commentaries on the history of plants). The...
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From the Mountains to the Sea: Vin Hoeman and POBSP
The Division of Birds in the National Museum of Natural History holds an extensive collection of field books that are part of Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 000245, and contain the notes...
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Change the Station, Change the Noise: Space for the Inner Self in Wild Places
When one is alone at night in the depths of these woods, the stillness is at once awful and sublime. Every leaf seems to speak.~ John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir (1938) Our...
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Celebrate the Potato
September is National Potato Month. Almost all the potatoes grown in the United States are planted in the spring and gathered in the fall. It is the time of year that schools in northern Maine have...
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"Every Minute Counts"--The Legacy of Katherine Joseph
Garment Workers on the Home Front. Photograph by Katherine Joseph, 1942. © Richard Hertzberg and Suzanne Hertzberg. Katherine Joseph Papers, 1942, Archives Center, National Museum of American...
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October is American Archives Month: Transitions
As the weather finally begins to cool down from the summer the activities in the many archives and special collections are just getting heated up across the Smithsonian in preparation for American...
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Boardwalk Memories: Atlantic City and Beauty Contests
Archivists are frequently baffled by the handwriting and personal, even idiosyncratic, notations in documents. When cataloging color transparencies by Donald Sultner-Welles for the NMAH Archives Center...
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Baaaxuawaalaáche: Images of the past
Growing up on the Crow reservation we are afforded many wonderful things; a river to play in on hot July afternoons, horses to ride from sun rise to sunset, many mothers to feed us and speak Crow to...
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A Suitcase Full of Cameras: The Travel Films of Lisa Chickering and Jeanne...
Jeanne Porterfield (l) and Lisa Chickering (r) at the editing table.Lisa Chickering and Jeanne Porterfield Collection, Human Studies Film Archives.The Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) houses several...
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Flash Forward Friday: Celebrating New Beginnings in an Archive
While many people visit an archive to delve into the past, the people working within them often spend just as much time thinking about the future. Archivists grapple with questions like ‘how can these...
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Encountering Migration Dynamics in the Archives
Over the summer, I was fortunate to be in residence at the Anacostia Community Museum as a Visiting Student Fellow, where I conducted independent research on Latino migrant suburbanization and...
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Presidents in Flight
George, Tom, Abe, Teddy, Bill, and Herbie--the "Racing Presidents" for the hometown Washington Nationals baseball team feature large-headed versions of past Commanders-in-Chief. Can you imagine what...
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Throwback Thursday: October 13th, 1917
For this throwback Thursday, let’s take a look back in time to see what was happening at the Smithsonian on this day in 1917. The nation was preparing for war as Europe sunk deeper and deeper into the...
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Flash Forward Friday: Conference on the Future of the Smithsonian
Looking to the future comes as naturally to the Smithsonian as looking to the past. From scientists studying changes in our environment to preservationists making sure cultural heritage survives for...
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Journals and Diaries: A Window into the Past
As a member of the Archives Center staff, I have worked with numerous hand-written archival materials over the past four years. Most of my work with hand-written documents has been for the purpose of...
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Sneak Peek: Newly Digitized Photos in the Collection
Every day photos are being digitized and made available online across the Smithsonian. Anyone can find thousands of these photos in the Smithsonian Collections Search Center or on the Smithsonian’s...
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Archives and Manuscripts Collections in the Smithsonian Libraries
In 1992, I was hired to be the rare book cataloger for the Smithsonian Libraries (SIL), and almost all of my work for the first dozen years or so was focused primarily on monographic cataloging of...
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Throwback Thursday: The Field Notes of M. Moynihan
The field notes of Martin Moynihan, first director of Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, have been a source of fascination for the Field Book Project since they were cataloged in 2013. Moynihan...
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Flash Forward Friday: National Breath of Life Institute Coming this June!
2015 National Breath of Life participants. Photo by Judith Andrews, Recovering Voices, Smithsonian Institution.In June of 2017 the National Breath of Life institute for indigenous languages will be...
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Portraiture in Transition
Muhammad Ali, Cat’s Cradle (1942–2016) by Henry C. Casselli, Jr. (born 1946), oil on canvas, 1981. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (NPG.2002.2)Portraiture has been...
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