The Catesby Commemorative Trust launched the publication of The Curious Mister Catesby with a program at the National Museum of Natural History this past April. Smithsonian Libraries’ own Leslie Overstreet, a contributor to these various perspectives on Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama islands (London, 1729-1747), spoke on that work’s long, complicated printing history. Another speaker, E. Charles Nelson, presented his research into the naturalist’s biography. His mention of the author’s maternal family name, Jekyll, caught my attention˗˗could this early 18th-century Englishman, who produced the great study of the flora and fauna of colonial America, be related to the later renowned horticulturist, influential garden designer and wonderful writer Gertrude Jekyll?
Category: Events
So you’re a library or museum and you’ve been crowdsourcing and now you’ve collected lots of fantastic data. What do you do with it?
Or maybe you’ve been thinking about crowdsourcing but you’re not sure how you would integrate what you get with the data you already have.
The truth is that crowdsourcing often yields lots of fuzzy data and fuzzy solutions for reintegration with existing content. It can be challenging to figure out how to herd all of that fuzziness together in a useful way for reuse in your own project, library, or database.
History in the Making…
In addition to rare books and special collections housed in the DeWitt Clinton Ramsey Room, one of the valuable resources located in the National Air and Space Museum’s Library is its rich and diverse collection of books and journals which focus on the meteoric rise and advances in the field of aviation during World War II. May 8th marks the 70th anniversary of V-E Day, or “Victory in Europe Day”. To commemorate this historic occasion, organizations including the Commemorative Air Force, Texas Flying Legends, Fagen Fighters, and the Fighter Factory are coming together for the World War II Victory Capitol Flyover.
Before John James Audubon, Englishman and naturalist Mark Catesby (1682-1749) was documenting the natural world. His etchings of flora and fauna in the “new world” of America are treasured by many.
The Smithsonian Libraries is pleased to host the launch of The Catesby Trust’s book tour for The Curious Mr. Catesby: a “truly ingenious” naturalist explores new worlds, with speakers Dr. Charles Nelson, David E. Elliot and our own Curator of Natural History Rare Books, Leslie K. Overstreet. Learn more with a question and answer panel and explore this new publication, which includes facsimiles of Catesby’s original watercolors. We invite you to join us for this interesting and unique experience.
On February 26th, the Smithsonian Libraries will host a free lecture with Dr. David Carr, “Questions for an Open Cultural Institution: Thinking Together in Provocative Places”. To get to know Dr. Carr a bit better, we asked him a few questions and his insightful answers are below. We hope that you enjoy learning more about Dr. Carr and that you have the opportunity to join us (either in person or online) for his talk on the 26th!