True Story: October is American Archives Month!

Ed O'Reilly (center), intern Heidi Talbot (left), and Sallie Bodie (right) hold items from the newly acquired Moses and Frances Asch Collection at the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies archive, circa 1987. Photo by Eric Long.

The Smithsonian Collections Blog is finally back from the government shutdown, and boy did we miss you, dear readers! We've already blown through half of October--the most wonderful time of the year because it's American Archives Month--but we'll get things shakin' again today. What was supposed to be a month-long celebration of archives and the work that makes them run will now be a jam-packed two weeks!

Here at the Smithsonian Collections Blog, we live every day like it's Archives Month, but we also like to go big in October with a BLOGATHON!

We will have new posts for you (almost) every day for the rest of October on a myriad of topics following this year's theme: True Story. True stories abound in our stacks--whether they're stories told by our materials, or the stories we live as archivists and librarians, we'll be bringing you them all month (true story).

Check back here every morning for a daily dose of the Smithsonian collections, and while you're at it, check out our sister blogs for more Archives Month coverage:

Eye Level - Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian Field Book Project
Airspace Blog - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
The Bigger Picture - Smithsonian Institution Archives
Archives of American Art Blog

For more about the Smithsonian's Archives Month activities, check out the official page here.

Happy American Archives Month!

Cecilia Peterson, Project Archivist
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections