Surprisingly, the first Arbor Day was not held in a heavily forested part of the United States, but in Nebraska, known for its treeless prairies. In 1872, J. Sterling Morton, more »
Category: History and Culture
This post was written by Ariel Macon, a Masters of Library and Information Science student at the University of Kentucky. Ariel interned with the Smithsonian Libraries in March 2019 as more »
Have you ever designed a library space? Whether a home, public, or academic library, they all need a suitable arrangement of bookcases to make use of space in the best possible way. Here are a few ideas for bookcases that a 1907 library designer might have considered.
Music is a funny thing. It may spring from the heart, the soul, or the mind, from a communal cultural or religious experience, from an intensely personal place, a popular more »
Spring is almost here, and flipping through this trade catalog might help you dream of warmer days to come. The catalog is entitled Ranger Bicycles (1921) by Mead Cycle Co. more »
The National Museum of African American History and Culture has in its collections a copy of Twelve Years a Slave: The Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped more »
Since 2019 is the Smithsonian Year of Music, this is the perfect opportunity to take a look at music-related materials in the Trade Literature Collection. After a search of the Collections Search Center and a little browsing in the stacks, one rather thick catalog from 1912-1913 caught my attention.