On June 5 and 6th, much of the world will be able to catch a glimpse of the planet Venus traversing across the face of the Sun. The “Transit of Venus” occurs when the planet passes between the Earth and the Sun, a rare occasion that has happened only seven times since the year 1600. Many folks in the modern era will have a chance to witness this remarkable occurrence twice in their lifetimes, as the last Transit occurred in 2004.
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“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some are to be
chewed and digested.”
~Francis Bacon, Essays (1625) Bacon’s Essays By Francis Bacon, Richard Whately.
We have talked about artists’ books on the Smithsonian Libraries blog before. And we’ll talk about them more, as a part of a short series to highlight interesting works of book art owned by the Smithsonian’s American Art & Portrait Gallery Library.
But what, exactly, is an artist’s book? You may not be able to tell just from looking at the object itself!
Doesn’t everyone have a female friend of the family that they call aunt, but she really isn’t a blood relation? I had one. Aunt Honey. Honey was single, educated and well-traveled, and when I was a kid I thought she was so sophisticated and cool. She had been absolutely everywhere and she always smelled heavenly. I never knew what perfume she wore until after she passed away-it was Vol de Nuit Guerlain.
Meghan Doherty, Smithsonian Libraries Dibner resident scholar of 2009, has been awarded the second Notes and Records Essay Award at a reception at the Royal Society on 18th May, 2012.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland celebrates the 60th (Diamond Jubilee) anniversary of her Coronation on June 2, 1953. She celebrated her Silver Jubilee (25 years) in 1977 and her Golden Jubilee (50 years) in 2002.
The origin of curry, the saucy, spiced dish celebrated in India and Great Britain, is not exactly known. But it is now thought that similarly spiced dishes were developed concurrently, but independent of each other, in England and in India thanks to the spice routes that spanned from Asia and into Europe. Exotic spices like turmeric and pepper made their way into England during the conquests of the Romans in 40 AD and the Moors in 711 AD, and came in handy during Middle Ages when highly seasoned meats could make aging meat more palatable.
I have met with several federal science library groups in recent weeks and among other things felt a great sense of relief on discovering that most of them face the same issues in managing digital content as we do at the Smithsonian Libraries.