We wish you warm tidings from all of us at Smithsonian Libraries this holiday season!
Within the snow globe is an image of the Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle) from Hints on public architecture, containing, among other illustrations, views and plans of the Smithsonian Institution by Robert Owen (1849). Our current exhibition is featured...
The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library has nearly 2,000 movable and pop-up books, that are made with a variety of paper construction types and mechanisms that control the movement of the action on the pages. One type of movable book form is a carousel book. A carousel looks like an ordinary flat two dimensional book, but when opened, it unfolds...
Scouring toy catalogs and selecting their favorites is a holiday tradition for some children. We took a look in our collections to see what children might have selected in 1868. As you might expect, toys from 1868 are quite different from 21st Century toys. This trade catalog gives us a glimpse into playtime for children in 1868. Even though at first...
