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Month: February 2014

A Dream Realized: The National Museum of African American History & Culture Library

Trina Brown
February 28, 2014
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A Dream Realized: The National Museum of African American History & Culture LibraryNMAAHC construction
NMAAHC construction
View of the NMAAHC construction site, January 2014

Shauna Collier, Librarian for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, contributed this post.

Late last year my dream of becoming the librarian for the National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC) came true, and a month ago I returned to the Smithsonian Libraries (I worked here years ago as the Anacostia Librarian).  After receiving the warmest welcome from my library and museum colleagues, I started receiving the question “So what’s happening with the NMAAHC Library?”  Well, it is all still coming together, but I will use this opportunity to give a brief update.

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Panama in February

Erin Rushing
February 27, 2014
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This post was written by Monique Politowski, Digital Library Technician. After yesterday’s look at sleds on the blog, today we take a trip to sunny Panama!

“Snow, snow, snow, snow everywhere, piled up as high as the tops of street cars.” I think we can relate to the words of the late G. Frank Lydston M.D. from p.23 of his travel book, Panama and the Sierras: A Doctor’s Wander Days.  Written over one hundred years ago, Dr. Lydston’s book was able to capture a timeless sentiment and fulfill every winter warrior’s fantasy of escaping bitter cold by fleeing to the tropics.

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John Kerr Tiffany Manuscript Added to Smithsonian Transcription Center

Doug Dunlop
February 24, 2014
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John Kerr Tiffany (1842-1897) of St. Louis, Missouri is considered one of the earliest stamp collectors (known as philatelists) in the United States and belongs to the American Philatelic Society’s Hall of Fame. Tiffany was also the first president of the society in 1886 and was re-elected the following ten years, until he decided to stop running. In addition to having been an avid stamp collector, Tiffany created one of the largest library’s on the topic of stamps during his era, along with publishing books, catalogs and indexes on the topic. The National Postal Museum Library contains a manuscript copy from 1880-81 of Tiffany’s Philatelic Index.

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Library Hacks: Creating Animated GIFs

Richard Naples
February 21, 2014
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Library Hacks: Creating Animated GIFsbeating heart animation
beating heart animation
From A system of anatomical plates of the human body by John Lizars (1840?)

It might be a sign of a twisted mind, but I can’t help imagining illustrations and pictures from old books coming to life. Lucky for me, we live in a time when tools for making my twisted dreams come true are readily available. Below, I’m going to go through the basic steps I take in order to turn images collected from our digitized books into the animated GIFs the Smithsonian Libraries posts to its Tumblr blog.

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