This post was written by James Truitt, intern in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History. In August, the National Museum of Natural History opened Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend, an exhibition about the tusked whale monodon monoceros sometimes called the unicorn of the sea. Most of the exhibit focuses on narwhal biology, arctic ecology, and Inuit culture, but one section breaks from the polar theme to explore another legacy of more »

In conjunction with the recently opened exhibition “Igniting Artistic Consciousness: Ephemera of Twentieth Century Instructors of the Art Students League of New York” produced by Michelle Ibarra at the American Art and Portrait Gallery (AA/PG) Library, the blog has been exploring themes and artists featured in the exhibit, which will be on display through December 2017. Interested in the Art Students League and participating in Wikipedia? Join us for the Art Students more »

This post was written by Amy Skipper, summer intern in the Smithsonian Libraries Education department. What do you see? What do you wonder? These are the questions students are given for each image in the I See Wonder (ISW) collections, an online resource tool geared toward use by teachers and students to encourage curiosity, foster imagination and analytical skills, and incite discussion in the classroom. During my eight-week internship with the Smithsonian more »

Samuel Snodgrass is a Katzenberger Foundation Art History Intern with Jacqueline Protka at the Smithsonian Libraries branch in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden with the project, “Modern and Contemporary Art: A to Z.” He is a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a Visual and Critical Studies Thesis. He studies Arts Administration, Art History, and Fashion Design. In high school, Samuel more »

Patrice Green is a Smithsonian Minority Awards Intern with Smithsonian  Libraries at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is currently pursuing a dual master’s in Public History and Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina, where her focus is Archives and Preservation Management. As a public history and library/information science student at the University of South Carolina, I often find myself confronting living memory. In more »

The Neville-Pribram Mid-Career Educators Awards grants funding for teachers and educators to come to Washington, DC and explore the collections of the Smithsonian Libraries.  The awards are open to middle & high school teachers, college teachers, and museum educators who are developing educational materials.  

Imagine it is 1918 and you are resting in a comfortable chair with the phonograph playing. Perhaps this trade catalog will give us a glimpse of what that might have been like almost a century ago.