Alana Jiwa, 2014 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Library Intern
Earlier this year, the Cooper-Hewitt Library was awarded a Smithsonian CCPF 2014 (Collections Care and Preservation Fund) grant to continue the conservation work we started based on a CCPF funded condition survey of our Special Collections in 2010.
This summer, Library intern Alana Jiwa is focusing on custom enclosures for our rare folio sized materials. She is measuring books, using a new custom made folio sized book measurer made by Don Stankavage in the SIL Book Conservation Lab. Stay tuned for progress reports from Alana…
April is Volunteer Appreciation Month and boy, do we ever appreciate our wonderful volunteers! The dozens of volunteers placed with us at the Smithsonian Libraries truly help us run. They include students, professionals, retirees and even former Libraries staff members. Here are a few special volunteers who help make our organization great. A heart-felt “thank you” to each and every one, as well as all of the other amazing folks behind the scenes!
(L-R): Jonathan Kavalier (Smithsonian Gardens Supervisory Horticulturist), Todd McGrain (Artist), and Susan Frampton (Libraries Program Coordinator) stand next to the newly-installed passenger pigeon sculpture in the Urban Habitat Garden.
Throughout the year, the Smithsonian Libraries works with brand managers at the Smithsonian Enterprises to develop products based on unique items in our collection. From sleigh beds to weather vanes, our books have inspired a variety of merchandise! Not only are they neat items, but a portion of the proceeds comes back to the Libraries for the care and maintenance of our collection. Below is a list of perfectly giftable items just in time for the holiday season.
One common problem with the Internet is that hyperlinks become outdated without web page editor awareness. Websites change URLs for a host of reasons and unfortunately when third parties link to them users end up encountering “page not found” and other dead-link errors. For this reason, many academic publishers use a system of unique identifiers for their online content to act as permanent links to articles thereby avoiding these errors.
Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon at the dedication of the LBJ Library and Museum in Texas, 1971
Americans, once they had elected a President, have always tended, barring catastrophes, to protect their investment. They choose him and consider that the question of their good judgment is involved in his standing. It is a personal and kindly attitude as distinguished from their obvious patriotic duty to uphold the presidency. Curiously, they are generally less kind to his wife. Human nature breaks out all over as she takes her prominent place in the White House goldfish bowl. — Doris Fleeson, political columnist, Threshold of Tomorrow: the Great Society
The year 2012 celebrates the centennial birthdays of two American First Ladies who served consecutively: Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969), and Patricia Nixon, the wife of Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974). Claudia Alton Taylor, born on December 22, 1912 and nicknamed Lady Bird, and Thelma Catherine Ryan, born on March 16, 1912 and nicknamed Pat, had a surprising number of things in common: losing their mothers before reaching adulthood, always being referred to by nicknames, displaying precocious intellectual skills throughout their school years, procuring a BA at a time when few women completed university, a propensity for travel, receiving marriage proposals from their husbands on the first date, actively supporting their husbands from the onset of their political careers, bearing two daughters each, and finally, enduring abject criticism of their husbands’ presidencies.
During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corps heavy bomber fleets of B-17’s, B-24’s, and B-29’s were examples of some of the most advanced technology of the period. These four-engine aircraft were designed and built to deliver tons of bombs to a target, defend themselves against enemy fighter attacks, and get their 10- or 11-man crews back to base, if possible. According to a postwar study of bombardier training, the first bombardiers in the Air Corps were pilots interested in bombing or enlisted personnel who had shown some interest and skill in bombing. Eighteen men graduated from the first class of bombardier training in February 1941. By September 1945, 47,000 bombardiers had been trained by the Army Air Force Training Command.
