Past Events

Enjoy an elegant evening with us celebrating French food, wine and culture while exploring and adopting Smithsonian Libraries Rare Books. Guests will have the opportunity to browse a trove of remarkable and historic volumes and are invited to learn more about the Libraries' special collections and why they must be preserved.

Hey educators! Smithsonian Libraries needs your help!

Wednesday, September 16th, 2015. 2-5pm. Lecture Room, National Museum of African Art950 Independence Avenue Southwest, Washington, DC 20560 Free and open to the public.

Join us for a Tweet Up with the National Museum of American History and Smithsonian Libraries!

Opening July 2015 in the Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition Gallery in the National Museum of American History

Thursday, February 26th 11:00am-12:00pm S. Dillon Ripley Center, Lecture Hall Free and open to the public  

Nancy E. Gwinn, Director, Smithsonian Libraries Cordially invites you to attend the 21st Dibner Library Lecture  

Gone and nearly forgotten, the Labrador Duck, Great Auk, Heath Hen, Carolina Parakeet and Passenger Pigeon have left a hole in the American landscape and in our collective memory.  Moved by their stories, sculptor Todd McGrain set out to bring their vanished forms back into the world by permanent

Martha's Flight into the Future: Heresy as Hope

The film, "From Billions to None," will have the power to move minds. It will be the strongest element in the 2014 centennial effort to galvanize awareness of human-caused species declines. The trends, documented by careful research in the sea and in the wild, are overwhelming.

Free program. Suggested ages: 12 and younger.

Numbering in the billions, the passenger pigeon was the most abundant bird in North America if not the world. As late as 1860, a single flight near Toronto likely exceeded a billion birds and maybe three billion.

Open Access (OA), like every other publishing or distribution model, carries with it both benefits and costs.

Please join us for our annual Adopt-a-Book event!  Thursday, January 9, 2014, 6:00 p.m.  The Smithsonian Castle, 1000 Jefferson Drive SW