What do you do when you are out and about and have a craving for a quick snack? Shoppers, picnickers, theatregoers, or someone simply out for a stroll in the early 20th Century might have stumbled across a popcorn and peanut machine like one shown in this trade catalog. The trade catalog is by C. Cretors & Co. and is both untitled and undated. However, we believe it was published circa 1924 by piecing together some information from the catalog, such as the company was established in 1885, it mentions 40 years of experience in building these machines, and it has a library stamp date of 1924 ..read more

“When did I get my first TV? When I was eight?”  *Mom laughs* “More like when you were one…”   Screenshot of Kayla Henry-Griffin as child from a collection of family Hi8 tapes. Family and technology have always been in the picture for me. They are intertwined, connected, and that bond can never be broken. I have always been interested in how technology works and how I could use it not only in my artistic practice, but also how I can save family memories. I look towards pictures of my grandmother whom I never met to understand my family and how we are dispersed globally. I look toward ..read more

My name’s Dawson, and over the summer I worked as an intern at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library in DC. I’m currently an Art History and Visual Culture student at Bard College. I applied to the internship last spring with only a little archival experience under my belt, and no idea of how I would live in DC if I even got the position. It was a total leap of faith, and I’m still a little surprised I landed on two feet. In the cover letter, I expressed my belief that “[w]orking with the library’s art and artist files is an opportunity for me to engage directly with the histories ..read more

Camping, hiking, and enjoying the outdoors are common summer pastimes. This trade catalog from 1919 shows how visitors in the early 20th Century might have explored the wonders of Yellowstone National Park. The trade catalog is titled Yellowstone National Park in Your Own Automobile (1919) by Yellowstone Park Camping Co. Referring to the national park as a “motorist’s paradise,” this brochure encourages tourists to visit in their own vehicle and camp, or lodge, at designated sites. The focus of the brochure is the summer season of 1919 which ran from June 20 to September 15. Yellowstone Park C ..read more

The Zoological Gardens and Aquariums Ephemera Collection began as an all-call for interesting memorabilia relating to zoos, aquariums, gardens, or the societies that support such institutions. Many items were received, cataloged, and filed in cabinets located in the former library space at the National Zoological Park (Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC). A previous attempt was made to rehouse, organize, and digitize parts of the collection, but the project was left incomplete. The collection was eventually moved to the National Museum of Natural History Library so that the items could be properl ..read more

The color blue has had a long history in the Western world. The ever-changing role of blue has been used in bookbinding and the book arts to color manuscripts, maps, and scientific illustrations. Colorants used in inks, paints, and dyes have come from a variety of natural sources, including clays, gems, plants, and insects. Blue pigments were first made from imported minerals from Central Asia, eventually shifting to local resources within Europe. The exhibition, Nature of the Book, explores the use of natural materials in bookmaking during the hand-press period (1450-1850), touching on how th ..read more

It’s interesting to think of how much of our everyday culture goes unnoticed, lost to time and simple decomposition. The newspaper someone tossed yesterday turns to mush in a landfill pile. The gilt invite you saved from your alma mater’s 15th reunion is lost in a pile of documents, kids’ art projects, and bills. The sticky note with your to-do list gets stuck to the bottom of your shoe and wears away as you walk to work one day. We often don’t take the time to think about these little pieces of paper, these tiny fragments of memory and thought that we churn out every single day, though these ..read more

As we gear up for the upcoming school year, the Education Team at Smithsonian Libraries and Archives wants to remind you of our growing fleet of Traveling Trunks! These interactive educational resources are available for teachers and schools across the country. This program is free of charge and trunks can be lent for up to four weeks. We have been working hard to add more themes over the past year and currently have three different trunks to lend, with a fourth available in October.  Nice Tú Meet You focuses on Latinx cultures from Central America and the Caribbean through the ..read more

This is the fifth in a series of ongoing blog posts from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI), spotlighting the labor of Smithsonian media collections staff across the Institution, and the first to feature a past Smithsonian worker. Among several current professional roles, former Smithsonian contract audiovisual consultant Rick Prelinger runs the non-profit Prelinger Library in San Francisco with his partner Megan. AVMPI Co-Presents: Radio Preservation Task Force On April 30th, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ pan-institutional Audiovisual M ..read more

This exhibition and blog post were curated and written by Joana Stillwell. Sonic Strategies in the Library accompanies the newly opened exhibition Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Musical Thinking, by Curator of Time-Based Media, Saisha Grayson, focuses on video art that uses sonic strategies including scores, improvisation, and interpretation, as well as styles, structures, and lyrics that speak to American life. The works selected for this accompanying exhibition at the American Art and Portrait Gallery Library (AA/PG) include books ..read more