An umbrella protects us from the rain, but it can also be used in other ways. So today, on Umbrella Day, we are featuring a different type of umbrella—one that was popular at bridal showers. It’s an umbrella used as a gift holder.
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Unbound
This plate from John James Audubon’s The birds of America: from drawings made in the United States and their territories, 1840-1844 depicts the Hudsonian Godwit, or Limosa haemastica. As you might suspect, they tend to breed near the Hudson Bay, as well as farther north in Canada and even as far as Alaska, and then migrating to South America.
The Libraries would like to highlight some more new and diverse titles that have been added recently to the National Museum of American History Library.
As the Smithsonian American Art/National Portrait Gallery Library (AA/PG), where I am working, deals mainly in art-related items, I was a bit concerned that works on Dickens would be rather hard to come by. Fortunately, I was entirely wrong. In fact, in the main stacks, I found enough books both by and about Dickens that I needed to make two trips to carry them all!
In the words of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, this child’s alphabet primer and portfolio with over 400 illustrations, The child’s picture scrap book, from 1865, makes learning the alphabet and reading fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk as simple as, well, do re mi.
On a chilly January day with snow all around here in the Washington, D.C. area, it’s easy to dream of stretching out next to one of these lovely ceramic tile ovens (also known as Kachelöfen or masonry heaters).
One of the most distinctive features of the Libraries’ building at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is the exciting mural by the famous Panamanian artist, Brooke Alfaro. Sadly, after heavy rains and leaking, the mural was seen to be bulging and considered in danger.