Collection Highlights

This week (April 4-10, 2021) is  National Library Week  and Tuesday is set aside to celebrate National Library Workers Day. It’s a wonderful opportunity to highlight the important contributions made by all library staff.  In honor of National Library Workers Day, we caught up with a few staff members to hear what they’ve been working on over the past year.

This post originally appeared on the Smithsonian Institution Archives’ blog. Nell MacCarty’s internship was part of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ 50th Anniversary Internship program, with funding provided by the Secretary of the Smithsonian and the Smithsonian National Board.

Ready to fall into another round of digital jigsaw puzzles? We’ve put together, or rather, taken apart five new puzzles based on images in our collections.

The holiday season has kitchens humming around the world, whether it’s churning out a favorite cookie recipe or prepping a celebratory meal with loved ones. In the 1700s, kitchens in England regularly consulted Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy for tried-and-true recipes. Among Glasse’s readers was a food lover near and dear to our hearts: Smithsonian founder James Smithson. Whether he knew it or not, Smithson had a bit in common with Glasse.

Did you know you can honor friends and family, enable important research, and skip the mall this holiday season? Adopting an item from the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is a unique way to celebrate your loved ones while providing essential funding to support our work. Whether your gift funds the preservation of volumes from hundreds of years ago, the purchase of new titles for our collection, or increased accessibility to items on our shelves, your adoption enables all that we do.

History is full of narratives and those narratives have a history.

When the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building reopened in November 2021, it launched FUTURES, an ambitious, interactive exploration of what lies ahead for humanity. This building-wide exhibition is on view until July 7^th, 2022 and highlights artworks, technologies, and ideas that look towards the future. Included in the exhibition is “Women in America: Extra and Ordinary”, an innovative classroom tool developed by Sara Cardello, our Head of Education.

Argentine grass expert Dr. Cleofé E. Calderón (1929-2007) collected species, published descriptions of rare and unusual plants, and led workshops that helped shape the field of bamboo taxonomy. Affiliated with the Smithsonian for much of her agrostology career, Dr. Calderón’s legacy can be traced in collections across the Institution, including publications, field books, and photos in Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

This post was written by Katie Wagner, Senior Book Conservator, David Holbert, Digital Imaging Specialist, and Jacqueline E. Chapman, Head, Digital Library and Digitization. Learn more about the diaries of the Hewitt Sisters in a previous post by Jennifer Cohlman Bracchi.

This is the fourth part of a series sharing Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ work with linked open data and Wikidata. For background and overview of current projects, see the first several posts in the series. This post was written in collaboration with Nilda Lopez, Reference Librarian at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Library, and a valued team member of the Artist Files Wikidata Pilot Project.

The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage open a new exhibition, “Music HerStory: Women and Music of Social Change” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History June 22. “Music HerStory” will be on display through Feb. 20, 2024.

Recently, I stumbled across a trade catalog that made me pause. As I looked at its vibrantly illustrated front cover, I thought of relaxing, summer days at the beach. It shows a bicyclist riding along the shoreline, a dog following closely behind, and boats in the distance. I also noticed one more thing. The name of the company refers to sewing machines while the front cover illustrates a bicycle. That observation sparked my curiosity to explore the pages within this catalog.

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives wants to help you gain a better understanding of information literacy and further your skills in this crucial area. In an age where there are myriad sources of information, unending news coverage, and a vast, often unregulated digital world, how can you tell which sources to trust for reliable information?

Curious what might life have really been like for two wealthy, unattached New York City sisters at the turn of the 20^th century? Fictional sisters Ada and Agnes from HBO’s new series, The Gilded Age, could have been inspired in part by real sisters, Sarah (1859-1930) and Eleanor (1864-1924) Hewitt. Also known as “Sallie” and “Nellie”, without them the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and its library, would not exist.

To celebrate National Library Week and a new spring season, we’ve put together another round of digital jigsaw puzzles. This time we’re featuring a variety of soothing natural history-related scenes.

This September, the National Museum of African American History and Culture celebrates its sixth anniversary. When it first opened, our National Museum of African American History and Culture Library, housed on the second floor, displayed a noteworthy selection of highlights from its collection. The library has just unveiled a new exhibit featuring another set of books and materials significant to the African American story.

If you were sick at the turn of the 20th Century, a doctor might have visited you at home. This was called a house call. But to do this, doctors needed reliable transportation. What were their options? One option was the Crestmobile.

In preparation for a Chinese Object Study Workshop hosted by the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) in late August, I selected a sutra in the Freer and Sackler Library to illustrate the evolution in printing of Chinese books.  The rolled sutra is Baoqieyin Dharani sutra (宝箧印陀罗尼经) and was printed in 975 CE, likely making it the oldest printed item in our library collections.

During American Archives Month, we’re highlighting the work of our Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative in a series of posts. This is the second post in the series.

263,663!

293,586!

Join us for a virtual tour on Tuesday, November 15th! 

The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives presents a new exhibition, “Nature of the Book,” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History November 11. “Nature of the Book” will be on display through March 17, 2024.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we might be thinking of delicious food. Or perhaps we are realizing how much time it will take to prepare such a meal. Modern kitchen appliances have made cooking easier but imagine what it was like to cook on a stove, such as one of these, in the 1860s.

To celebrate November 21 as World Television Day, staff from the Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI) have aggregated 100 of their favorite online Smithsonian collection items about TV. Take a look at our Spotlight on Smithsonian television collections.