Hello! My name is Julia Murphy and I am currently a contractor at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. My primary task is to ingest the Hirshhorn’s collection photos onto the DAMS, Smithsonian’s Digital Asset Management System, which acts as an online image database for long-term storage and access. In between contracts I found myself with a two-week break in January so I reached out to Anna Brooke, head librarian at the Hirshhorn Library, and asked if she needed any assistance. Although my volunteer time was short I tried to help in any way. As a volunteer in the library I re-shelved books, repaired torn covers, and answered reference questions. A major part of my volunteer time was devoted to scanning slides for a curator who needed them for a presentation about a future exhibit. These slides included images not found online and were from her personal collection so they were valuable and needed to be digitized. Of the 70 the curator asked for, I was able to scan, edit, and share 50 of them.
Author: Erin Rushing
Erin Clements Rushing is the Outreach Librarian for Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. She enjoys sharing the Libraries and Archives' treasures with new audiences and telling the stories from the stacks through various outreach efforts. She coordinates social media and the blog (Unbound), plans tours and manages the internship program. She also handles rights and reproductions for library collection images and acts as point person for copyright concerns. Erin holds an M.L.S from the University of Maryland, as well as a B.A. in History and Art History.
Do your research with Smithsonian Libraries! Deadlines for our Fellowships and summer Internships are fast approaching.
This post was written by Mae Colburn, a graduate student in the History of Decorative Arts and Design program at Parsons the New School for Design. Her focus is textiles. This post first appeared on the Cooper -Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Object of the Day blog.
Novelties in Laces for Furniture and Decoration is a set of one hundred and fifty color lithographic prints depicting over one hundred and ninety unique tassel and trim designs. The designs incorporate gimp, braid, galloon, bows, flies, and bobbles. Color reveals details of ply, twist, pile, and luster, and highlights and lowlights provide a sense of dimension. The prints are housed in a custom storage box bearing the date 1880. Also in the box is the leather-bound presentation folder, pictured above on the left. The folder describes the object’s place of origin, Vienna, and maker, Philip Schwarz, “Manufacturer of Laces.” Also on the presentation folder is Schwarz’s business address, “ZiegerGasse 11,” in what was then an important business district near the major shopping street, Mariahilfer Strasse.
Last year, the Smithsonian began a partnership with Gale, part of Cengage Learning, to digitize content, package it, and make it available through libraries around the world. Gale debuted the first of these products with digital versions of the Smithsonian magazine and Air & Space magazine’s archive. The Smithsonian Libraries is excited to be a part of the second group of products, Smithsonian Collections Online: World’s Fairs & Expositions: Visions Of Tomorrow and Smithsonian Collections Online: Trade Literature & The Merchandising of Industry. Assessment of the items and scanning is already well underway. Get an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes with William Bennett, contract conservator for the project!
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.
In honor of George Washington’s Birthday and President’s Day, we’d like to highlight this charming little history of our Nation’s Capital, which pays special attention to the White House.
This post was contributed by Kristen Bullard, librarian for the National Zoological Park.
Have you ever wondered why Rusty the red panda was paired with the female, Shama? Or been curious about how the black-footed ferret was saved from extinction in the wild? If so, then this Valentines’ themed post is for you!