Digital Collections related to Technology

Displaying 1 - 4 of 4.

Cover of The Scientific Shop showing a microscope

Instruments for Science

Scientific trade literature is a unique and uniquely valuable category of historical evidence. But it has not always been so highly regarded. Being commercial documents, catalogs have traditionally had a hard time fitting into library or archive collections. Even the companies that printed these catalogs expected their usefulness to end as soon as the next edition was printed. That's why so many of them were printed on the cheapest paper available. In many ways it's not surprising that so few of them have survived - or that when they have survived, their existence has gone unnoticed.

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web

Library and Archival exhibitions on the Web features links to over 2,500 online exhibitions sponsored by libraries, archives, and manuscript collections from around the world. Search for exhibitions by keywords in titles, subjects, and/or institutional names. "Editor's Pick," Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (August 2010).

Shedding Light on New York

Shedding Light on New York

The E. F. Caldwell & Co. Collection at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum Library, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, contains more than 50,000 images consisting of approximately 37,000 black & white photographs and 13,000 original design drawings of lighting fixtures and other fine metal objects that they produced from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries.

Cover of Columbia bicycle catalog, 1912, showing a woman kneeling painting the words Columbia while crowning a bicycle with a laurel wreath.

Trade Literature Collection

The trade literature collection of the Smithsonian is internationally known as an important source for the history of American business, technology, marketing, consumption, and design. Manufacturers issued trade catalogs to promote and sell their products. The present collection contains more than 500,000 catalogs, technical manuals, advertising brochures, price lists, company histories and related materials representing more than 30,000 companies. The Smithsonian Libraries acquires trade literature through gifts and purchases.