Next month the annual conference for the American Library Association comes to Washington DC. Four of the twenty branches of the Smithsonian Libraries will be having tours: the Botany-Horticulture Library, more »
Category: Natural and Physical Sciences
The Frog, by Hilaire Belloc Be kind and tender to the Frog, And do not call him names, As "Slimy skin," or "Polly-wog," Or likewise "Ugly James," Or "Gap-a-grin," or "Toad-gone-wrong," Or more »
I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us—don't tell! They'd banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a more »
April's birthstone is the diamond. I'm sure Marilyn Monroe's alter-ego Lorelei Lee would have been proud to wear any of the fabulous stones pictured below.—Elizabeth Periale Lewis Feuchtwanger, A popular more »
Howard Fogg, Revised encyclopedia of caged birds . . . , 1928, Woodcut showing the family tree of canaries -all varieties coming from the wild canary. The Anacostia Community Museum more »
As part of the Smithsonian's celebration of Women's History month, many photographs are grouped on Flickr. An image from the Libraries collections by edward Curtis is on display, "Jicarilla Maiden," more »
Leonardo da Vinci diagrammed one of the first parachutes designed in the late 15th century. Since Leonardo da Vinci was a well-known polymath, artist, and engineer, many reference questions about him have come to more »