Should you happen to spot—say, in a yard sale, thrift store or grandparent’s house—an old copy of that classic of ornithological literature, A Field Guide to the Birds, have a close look. The first printing of the first edition of 1934 is calling for prices well over $10,000 in the antiquarian book trade. One was recently spied by keen-eyed staff in an office at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park. This volume has more »

  As a commemoration of the Imperial collection of shells in Vienna, the printed folio of Testacea Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis of 1780, is splendid. The eighteen engraved plates, carefully colored by hand, render individual specimens in the Habsburgs’ K.K. Hof-naturalien-Cabinet as if pieces of jewelry, casting shadows on a plain background of the thick, hand-made paper. Dedicated to the Empress of Austria, Maria Theresa (1717-1780), this production was also a work of more »

I recently discovered an important link between two stories about which I have known for years.  Turns out there is a deep connection between one of my favorite aircraft and a pioneering scientist at the National Museum of Natural History.  The connection appeared while working on a cataloging project, which ended up overlapping with a book that was recommended to me. The book, The Electra Story by John Selding (in Smithsonian Libraries), more »

This post was written by Abigail Espiritu, a summer intern focusing on social media and the Libraries’ blog. This fall, Abigail will be entering her freshmen year at the University of Maryland where she will be majoring in journalism. On August 8th, 2017, the Smithsonian Libraries opened their newest exhibition in the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Dazzling Diversity: The Insect World. The exhibition is located on the Ground Floor of more »

Smithsonian Libraries has partnered with the National Museum of Natural History to create a mobile museum scavenger hunt. This in-person hunt allows you to explore Libraries online collections while hunting for objects in the Natural History museum.  

Scientists, scholars, and curators at the Smithsonian and around the world consider the National Museum of Natural History Library to be indispensable and critical to their work. The Natural History Library and the Smithsonian Libraries at large provide an irreplaceable resource for researchers like me who need to access to original literature, in print, often from centuries ago, as well as digital versions, such as those online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Sometimes more »