Past Events

Join us live on Facebook as we explore the life and art of Elizabeth Gould. Gould, wife of English ornithologist John Gould, is an oft overlooked contributor to natural history. As a 19th century artist, she was responsible for some of the most historically significant images of birds ever published.

With the help of experienced Wikipedians, attendees will learn to edit Wikipedia and improve or create Wikipedia articles related to women in natural history, drawing on the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s free and extensive online collections as source materials. No editing experience is necessary.

Storytime at the Museum

Join us to hear Lilla Vekerdy and Morgan Aronson discuss their just-published ABECEDARIUM: An Adult Coloring Book for Bibliophiles!

In this talk, Dr. Fye will discuss medical book collecting from the perspective of a bibliomaniac who developed a passion for historical research and writing four decades ago. He will describe some medical bibliophiles who contributed to scholarship during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth and willconsider forces that have transformed book collecting during the past half century. Finally, he willtouch upon some of the challenges confronting current-day medical book collectors and the implications they have for scholarship and for the development of special collections housed in institutional libraries.

Smithsonian Libraries, Coast to Coast: San Diego hosted by Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board members Amy Valeiras and Elizabeth Oliver

Save the date for the next lecture in our Smithsonian Libraries 50th Anniversary series: Silk, Salvage, and Special Collections: The History of Lessing J. Rosenwald’s Graphic Arts Donations

A collaboration with Smithsonian Libraries, Smithsonian Associates, and the National Museum of American History to present an evening tasting beers from Brewery Ommegang and finding their garden ingredients. 

Plazi uncovers vast troves of data and citations contained in the published record. Donato Agosti will discuss some of the first findings from the project in both human and machine readable formats at TreatmentBank, Biodiversity Literature Repository and the fledgling Openbiodiv biodiversity knowledge management system. 

Save the date! Please join the Smithsonian Libraries for a talk with Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden as part of our Information Matters and 50th Anniversary Lecture Series.

We are taking your favorite lunchtime getaway where we exlpore libraries and make a craft and brinigng it outdoors to explore the Folklife Festival in our yearly Outdoor Recess! See the rules below on how to participate. Everyone is welcome!

Join us as Dr. Jennifer Atkinson and Dr. Robert S. Emmett explore the garden's unique role in American history and literature, including ways it has shaped U.S. culture and the arts, social justice movements, environmental advocacy, and other public and private visions of the good life.

Join your Smithsonian Libraries friends and colleagues at our 50th Anniversary Homecoming Celebration!

Smithsonian Gardens and Smithsonian Libraries want YOU to join us at a Garden Party for Victory!

Our libraries hold many treasures that are unique in all the world, but few are as heavily annotated as the Cullman’s 1491 edition of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia.