Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: Field Book Project

A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down

Allegra Tennis
October 12, 2016
Leave a Comment

This is the second post in a two-part series. Catch up on the first part here.  Allegra Tennis interned with the Field Book Project and Metadata Services over the summer to investigate Smithsonian research related to countries with populations of under a million.

I came to the field of librarianship from a scientific background.  The processes, details, and discoveries to be made have always held a magical quality for me.  As I grew up and talked with others, I began to notice that not everyone views science in this way.  Many people seem to be interested in science, whether in the idea of it, the usefulness of it, or they raw beauty of it.  Yet too often people are intimidated by science, either by the research or by the researchers themselves.

Continue ReadingA spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down

No Wheat Chex, and other scientific issues of the 1960s

Allegra Tennis
July 20, 2016
Leave a Comment

This is the first post in a two-part series.

Lawrence N. Huber devoted several pages of his journal lamenting the fact that the Navy vessel he was aboard had run out of Wheat Chex.  This comes from a young man who was out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, banding thousands of often rather uncooperative birds, making observations of any type of fauna he came across in the Pacific Islands, and swimming in the ocean with open abrasions with the stated intention of attracting sharks.  All these things to write about (which he also does), but his main complaints revolve around food, the quality of it, the quantity of it, and the absence of it, as in the case of his beloved Wheat Chex.

Continue ReadingNo Wheat Chex, and other scientific issues of the 1960s

Dolphins and True Love: An Ode to Frederick W. True

Erin Rushing
February 6, 2015
Leave a Comment

The Smithsonian Field Book Project is showcasing Frederick William True in February. This post is part of a series of blogs and social media content from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Pyenson Lab, Smithsonian Transcription Center,and Smithsonian Institution Archives, celebrating #FWTrueLove.The campaign will include a fascinating new transcription project and exciting behind-the-scenes opportunities! Learn more on the Field Books Project blog.

Continue ReadingDolphins and True Love: An Ode to Frederick W. True

The write stuff for National Handwriting Day

Julia Blase
January 23, 2015
Leave a Comment

It’s National Handwriting Day! The Smithsonian Field Book Project, a joint initiative between the Smithsonian Libraries, Smithsonian Institution Archives, and National Museum of Natural History to uncover, catalog, digitize, and share online the primary source records of scientific research done at, by, and for the Institution, celebrates this day with a showcase of some of the handwriting samples encountered during the project work. The Project works with materials stretching back almost 200 years, to 1816, and therefore often runs across examples of both very good and very bad handwriting.

Continue ReadingThe write stuff for National Handwriting Day

Down the Rabbit Hole: Bohumil Shimek and the onset of WWI

Erin Rushing
December 16, 2014
Leave a Comment

This post was written by Julia Blase, Field Book Project Manager. It first appeared on the Field Books Project Blog here.

Recently, I sat down to scan two diaries of Bohumil Shimek, a botanist, zoologist, and geologist of Czech descent whose field books came to the Smithsonian along with his extensive collection of specimens after his death in 1937. He is well-known for his long career and extensive study of the geology and ecology of the American prairies, particularly in his home state, Iowa, though he is also remembered as a champion of education and a supporter of Czechoslovakian independence . In fact, his travels to Europe in 1914, initiated by his invitation to visit the Charles University of Prague, Bohemia, as exchange professor in Botany in 1914, are what led to the two remarkable items I scanned as part of the Field Book Project. Our cataloger, Lesley Parilla, wrote a piece about these items almost a year ago, because they are indeed striking.  The volumes capture Shimek’s first impressions of the unfolding of the beginning of World War I:

Continue ReadingDown the Rabbit Hole: Bohumil Shimek and the onset of WWI