Shining More Light on a “Hidden” Collection

Major improvements have been made recently to accessing the Smithsonian Libraries’ extraordinary collection of trade literature. Making an on-line inventory of the entire 430,000-plus piece collection was the first major step—truly a milestone for the collection. Now another significant improvement has recently been completed: the collection can be searched on the web. For the first time, researchers can access the entire collection from one location: the SIRIS Collections Search Center

This search could then be refined using the left-hand column's breakdown of categories to narrow the search. For example, on this simple search of “watches,” the first item is an oil painting from the National Portrait Gallery, the second is James Doolittle’s pocket watch, from the National Air and Space Museum,  the third is an advertisement from the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History. This gives you an example of the rich contextual potential of such searches. Then, you can confine your search just to trade catalogs. Also on the left hand side of the page, under material type,  click on the category “trade catalogs.”  With the search term “watches,” this yields 496 hits.

Now, your search is set for displaying only the  trade catalogs. On the first record displayed, for the Waterbury Watch Company, you can see that the library's holdings for this company comprise six items or pieces. On the right hand side of this record is the “expand” button. Click on this and you will see a more detailed description of the materials for this company, including topics(or subjects) for the kind of goods produced by this company. Click on one of those and you will be taken to a display of all the records for which that topic is tagged. In the "expand" mode you can also see dates for the years covered in the company's collection; some of the descriptive note field; and whether there are any special contents, such as product samples. However, clicking on the  record for one of the catalogs does not mean you will see images of the actual catalog. Right now, more than likely you won’t, but we’re making strides in this area too. See the Galaxy of Images for a variety of images from the trade literature collection. We are continually adding images and catalogs to the data base, so check back with us every now and then to see what’s new. Try the SIRIS Collections Search Center and let us know what you think of it. We think it helps shine the light more brightly on what was once considered a “hidden” collection. More information on the trade literature collection can be found by contacting the Smithsonian Libraries' National Museum of American History branch library.—Jim Roan