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Month: May 2014

Joseph Stella: Best of Both Worlds

Anne Evenhaugen

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-This post was written by American Art/Portrait Gallery Library (AAPG) Spring 2014 intern Sara Cecilia Johnson.

"Stella 1943" — Image of “Brooklyn Bridge” from the exhibition catalog “Stella 1943” (AA/PG Art & Artist Files)

Joseph Stella’s paintings sit quietly, unnoticed on the second floor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. People often pass them by, maybe one or two stopping to admire the vibrant color or dynamic movement, but otherwise Stella remains an obscure, unfamiliar name to the average American. What they don’t know about is his striking spectrum of work that evolved during the inter-war period in the 1920s and ‘30s or about his friendships with leading art figures of him time, such as Alfred Stieglitz, Walter Arensberg, Katherine Dreier, and Marcel Duchamp.

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A Squirrel’s Life

Alexia MacClain

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It’s springtime in DC. That means squirrels are everywhere on the National Mall. Take a walk around the Mall and you are bound to see a squirrel or two run across your path. Sit on a bench for a few minutes and you might hear a rummaging sound and then see a squirrel pop up out of a trash can. And you are sure to see a squirrel or two getting their picture taken, sometimes looking as if they are posing for the camera!

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Philatelic literature at the National Postal Museum Library

May 9, 2014

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oconnor5 — Restored lobby of the National Postal Museum.

This post was contributed by Michael O’Connor, contract cataloger.

Directly across the street from DC’s Union Station is the spectacular 1914 neoclassical structure that houses the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum (NPM). Since July of 2013 I have worked as a project cataloger on NPM Library’s Small Journals Project, an effort to catalog thousands of rare periodicals from the 1800s to the present.

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Spotlight: Elements of the philosophy of plants (Edinburgh, 1821)

May 7, 2014

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Elements of the philosophy of plants by Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle and Kurt Sprengel is the first edition in English of a composite work by two of the most eminent botanists of the early 19th century. The first three parts on nomenclature, theory of classification, and descriptive botany are from a work by de Candolle, while the final part on the structure and nature of plants is by Sprengel. This book was recently adopted through our Adopt-a-Book program by George Gwynn Hill.

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Code4Lib Conference in Raleigh

May 5, 2014

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"Inside the Personal Computer" — “Inside the Personal Computer”

Code4Lib is many things. It is an IRC Channel, a hashtag on twitter, and of course an annual conference. The group is comprised of programmers, libraries and librarians, designers, curators, and many other types of people who work to support their libraries, archives, and museums (more info on what Code4Lib is all about). The annual conference of the meeting of the minds (as I like to call it) has been happening once a year since 2006. The conference was held in Raleigh, NC this year and was from March 24-27. As one of the resident computer nerds here at the Smithsonian Libraries, I was fortunate enough to be chosen by the powers that be to attend the conference this year and represent the Libraries.

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MayDay – What’s in our disaster kit?

May 1, 2014

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Each year archives, libraries, museums, and arts and historic preservation organizations set aside May 1 to participate in MayDay, an initiative created by Heritage Preservation to protect cultural heritage from disasters. Organizations are encouraged to do one thing for emergency preparedness. This year, the Libraries would like to share with you the content of our Emergency Response Kits.

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