The Smithsonian’s Journey of Computerized Library and Archives (1994-2009)

Read Part I: The First Integrated Library System

Read Part III:  Increasing Access Through Broader and Deeper Reach

PART II: STEPPING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

Jump starting and Supporting Digitization

In 1994, OIRM SIRIS began a new venture in the field of library and archives automation: the support of online media files.   At the time, the Smithsonian had several Collection Information Systems including the library’s system, but no catalog records were linked to images or video files, which prohibited public access.   

One of the NAA images digitized during early digitization

With a newly implemented internet, we modified a new WebPac application configuration to enable images to display with catalog records online, demonstrating the technical potential to library and archives staff. This new and exciting feature required Smithsonian staff to digitize images and then link the image files to catalog records by referencing the image URL in the MARC 856 field.  It was a challenge to get started because no one knew how this would work, so we had to lead by example.

By 1995, OIT (Office of Information Technology, successor of OIRM) purchased a couple of image scanners.   SIRIS helped the NMAA Art Inventory project digitize about 200 photographs of sculptures and linked them to their catalog records.  The first Smithsonian public online system that could display object records with images was born!   In 1996 at the Smithsonian Institution’s 150^th Anniversary Event on the National Mall, we showcased the brand-new functionality to the public.  The online demonstration using the Netscape Navigator web browser even included a few cephalopod video clips from NMNH.   The excitement for the new functionality energized archives staff.  Although more archives professionals accelerated their image digitization efforts, most of them did not have the resources to host images online.  The digitized image files accumulated on hard drives, CD-ROMs, and laser disks.  Many of these storage devices sat on bookshelves or under desks; they were not accessible to the public online.

In 1996, OIT SIRIS created the first Smithsonian central “Multi-Media Server” that hosted online images for SIRIS members. This service included online storage and web server support, image maintenance support, digitization training programs, image linking trainings, and usage statistic reporting.  Until 2014, this multimedia server hosted over 900,000 images, video and sound files for 18 SI units.  Jim Felley, (SIRIS senior system administrator), provided critical support and management of the service until it was retired in 2014, after all images were migrated to a new Digital Asset Management System (DAMS).

Leadership in Data Standard and Vocabulary Control

In 1999, the Smithsonian library system was upgraded to the Ameritech (now SIRSIDYNIX) Horizon system.  This new system came with flexible system-configuration capability and a strong authority (vocabulary) control function.  Most importantly, it allowed the Smithsonian to establish many locally defined fields, supported record relationship linking capability and supported specialized indexes that met the needs of the Smithsonian’s nontraditional challenges.  SIRIS had grown to support eight databases:  Library, Archives, Art Inventories, SAAM Photo Archives, Art Exhibition, Research Bibliography, History of Smithsonian, and Directory of Airplanes. 

Over the years, 14 archives, 20 library branches and several museum research departments depended on SIRIS to do a wide variety of collection management functions.  More and more data sets were added to the eight databases using custom programming and data importing.  By 2006, nearly 50% of the 955,000 non-library records were transferred from local databases such as DBASE, MS Access, Excel, C-Quest, FileMaker Pro, WordPerfect, Text, etc. 

Library of Congress Subject Headings Catalog

Mapping these different datasets into the MARC format was a big challenge, but dealing with data inconsistencies was an even bigger one!  Much of the data from these random databases lacked consistency from record to record and across datasets, and very few datasets followed national data standards.  So, our priority shifted to data cleanup of the records created by the staff at 14 Smithsonian archives .  Our goal was to following national data standards and cataloging guidelines.  This approach proved to be a wise decision on multiple levels.  First, we avoided internal disagreements as to how to standardize the data among several archival units.  Secondly, we were able to hire professionals whose knowledge was applicable to our goal.  Finally, standardizing the data in different databases across the Smithsonian made building the Smithsonian wide Collections Search Center platform much easier. We didn’t know the benefit of this final point at the time. 

We used a few main approaches that were very productive:

• Conducted extensive data analysis, created reports using thousands of programming scripts, looked for exceptions and patterns in data and listed them out for catalogers to review or make changes. This approach took advantage of both human intelligence and computer speed to handle complex data issues.
• Conducted several thousand global data modifications based on cataloger’s requests.  This allowed us to make changes to thousands of records at a time, thus speeding up progress and efficiency.
• Prioritized access points and authority records for Names, Subjects, Form & Genre, Geographical, and Culture terms which greatly improved searchability and discovery.
• Sent out authority records to professional vendors for authority heading matching, then flipping incorrect terms to Library of Congress standards and reloading the records back into our system. While expensive, it provided high quality data.
• Conducted regular cataloging and metadata training and encouraged collaboration among cataloging units to maintain high-quality cataloging practices.  The regular face to face meetings reinforced the importance of data quality and improved interactions among staff across the Institution.

For more than ten years, we continued to transform and standardize metadata within the eight Horizon databases.  We established methodologies as to how to handle chaotic situations and developed creative solutions to solve problems.  The result of our persistent efforts became the solid foundation for the next phase: creating a centralized searching system for the Smithsonian Institution and filling the goal and wish from 1980.

Pushing Beyond the Norm and Changing Culture - First Large-Scale Library, Archives and Museum Online Search Center

By 2005, the Smithsonian’s libraries, archives and museum collection records had been growing rapidly across the Institution thanks to the advancement of and wide use of database technology.  Large numbers of computer records were created and maintained in highly specialized commercial and local database systems.  However, collection records were available on over 100 disparate websites, which made them difficult for the public to use. 

In 2006, OCIO LASSB (Library Archives System Support Branch, successor of SIRIS) began to design a one-stop discovery platform that would include all Smithsonian collection data regardless of data format, professional disciplines or data owning organization.  We decided that this Cross Search Center should support simple keyword searching and be able to filter search results by data categories such as Name, Topic, Place, Culture, Date, Media type.  Since no one had done this at a large scale before, we had to innovate and find the best solutions to problems as they arose. 

We started with the eight SIRIS Horizon datasets. Our first challenge was to address the diverse data types and find ways to make the data consistent in the Cross Search Center.  We reviewed technology platforms, data standard options and data mapping possibilities.  We identified common data elements in records from across different disciplines including art, science, culture and history, and defined a new metadata format that supports a wide range of material and object types (i.e. books, journals, bibliographies, photographs, art objects, and archival materials). 

Andrew Gunther(senior software developer), took the lead in selecting an open source technology (Solr) platform that supported easy searching, faceted filtering and fast indexing functions.  The platform also allowed searching with automatic stemming for word matching, configurable relevancy ranking of search results, positive and negative limit options, and scalability for large data sets.

Insisting on consistent metadata standards was the key to our success.  After evaluating several existing metadata standards (MARC, VRE, MEDS, CDWLITE, CCO), we identified the most common data elements and created the Smithsonian Index Metadata Model.  George Bowman (senior system administrator), took the lead in designing this flexible metadata model that accommodated many specific use cases.  The LASSB (Library and Archives System Support Branch, the successor to SIRIS) team consulted OCLC FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) schema and used it to break up our LCSH subject heading by subfields from our MARC records, thus allowing faceted searching and filtering in the Cross Search Center. 

The system was designed to aggregate data from multiple databases into a central Solr index.  Jim Felley (senior system administrator), led our team in extracting data from the Horizon databases.  All data was mapped to follow the Smithsonian Index Metadata Model and each dataset required custom extraction programs to support the necessary data mapping.  We carefully tracked the highly complex data mapping requirements in a spread sheet, which allowed us to update the data and refresh it daily in the data repository for the Cross Search Center.  Randy Arnold (system administrator) ensured all systems are integrated and monitored multiple servers and system operations.

Data Aggregated from different databases into EDAN for Collections Search Center

In 2007, the Cross Search Center (http://collections.si.edu)  went live with nearly two million records from the Smithsonian libraries, 14 archival units, and several other research offices from two museums.  For the first time, the public was able to search all library and archival collection records in one platform at once.  These search capabilities were the result of Smithsonian staff’s diligence in working on metadata and authority control over the past ten years. The public and the reference staff loved the new user-friendly system.  Anne Spire, Director of the Office of the Chief Information Officer, advised that the Cross Search Center (CSC) be expanded to support all Smithsonian museum collections. The Cross Search Center was renamed the Smithsonian Collections Search Center (http://collections.si.edu), and the back-end data indexing and data repository platform was named the Enterprise Digital Access Network (EDAN). 

Getting more museums to contribute data to EDAN and Collection Search Center required effort to build relationships between OCIO LASSB and the museums.  Even though the technology and system design were fully ready to take on the wide variety of data, changing institutional culture took a lot more time and work.  Smithsonian collection staff had not traditionally worked together across the institution, and letting go of their carefully curated data that was compiled over many years required a new way of thinking. 

LASSB made sure that this collaborative work with the museum staff created mutual benefits. 

• To make sure the museums can control their own data in the centralized system, we allow the museums to decide on which data elements to contribute and the display labels for their data element.   
• In the Collection Search Center, museum names were prominently on display and every record had a link to the hosting museum’s website which greatly increased online traffic to the museums’ collection website. 

LASSB first approached smaller museums that were more willing and had more to gain in participating in this project.  Some of the early participating museums included the National Portrait Gallery, the National Postal Museum and the Freer Sackler Gallery.  Mike Trigonoplos (system administrator) extracted most museum data in this phase.  These museums’ holdings were seemingly unrelated, but in the Collection Search Center, search results produced surprising connections.  The positive feedback and testimonies from staff helped to propel the project forward.  The message was clear: collaboration among units produced powerful results.   

Screen shot of Collections Search Center in 2009

By December 2009, the Collection Search Center became the first large scale LAM system in the United States with more than two million catalog records from several SI museums. The system added data from more museums over the next few years.   Today, this system includes 15.5 million records and five million online images, audio and video files from all major Smithsonian libraries, archives, museums, blogs and YouTube websites.  Once again, we had to tackle data consistency issues submitted by the different museums.  Capitalizing on our previous experience in vocabulary control, we quickly developed a systematic method to address these issues.   George Bowman created a sophisticated data mapping database system that defines exception terms and enables replacements by the controlled vocabulary and data categories.  This database contains about 50,000 specific use cases and instructions.  The standardized terms significantly improved the performance of the Collections Search Center and the accuracy of search results.

In 2012, a public tagging functionality was added to the Collections Search Center.  It allowed the public to add keywords to catalog records online, with those tags searchable within ten minutes. During the trial period, 1.6 million records from nine Smithsonian units were released for tagging.  In just six-month, the public entered more than 1,000 tags.  Public users filled in blanks for creator names, classified object types, identified historical events, individuals, ethnic groups, genders, aesthetic characteristics and style, characterized film clips and pointed out mistakes. 

A Tagging Screenshot from the Collections Search Center in 2009

The tags function improved searchability and increased public participation.  However, the Smithsonian staff did not have the resources to shift through all the tags and add them to catalog records, so the project ended after 5 years.

Read Part I:  The First Integrated Library System

Read Part III:  Increasing Access Through Broader and Deeper Reach

Ching-hsien Wang,  Branch Manager

Library and Archives Systems Support Branch (LASSB)

Office of the Chief Information Officer

Archival Collections around the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Institution is made up of 19 museums, research centers, and the National Zoo. Within each of those museums are multiple departments and units, each overseeing research, collections management, visitor experience, and more. So, while most people see us as one large institution, the reality is that “The Smithsonian” is a rather complex system of different units, staff, and collections, all working together while also fulfilling their individual goals.

Smithsonian Castle, 1885-1910, 2010.0080.02, photographed by Walter J. Hussey, National Museum of American History

One example of this complex web of units, is the large system of archives that exist within the Smithsonian. Currently, our institution is home to 16 different archival repositories, with different missions, collecting policies, and holdings. Their collections document history, culture, science, music (and more!) from every continent on earth. In total, these impressively diverse and valuable collections measure over 156,000 cubic feet!

Capital Gallery Stacks, 2008, Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Archival collections are kept because they provide documentary evidence of past events, created by those who lived it. These can also be referred to as primary sources; different from secondary sources—such as mass publications—in that archival materials are considered “rare”. They provide first-hand information or data from participants and witnesses in history. Because of the rarity of archival collections, these materials are non-circulating, meaning you can’t take them home with you.

Researchers interested in seeing archival materials must go to a research room and work with staff to request the item they’d like to see. This isn’t meant to dissuade visits, but simply serves to protect these fragile collections. Alternatively, many libraries’ holdings can be borrowed by patrons, since they often contain secondary sources that are mass-produced. (Libraries can also hold special collections of rare books or other historic, unique materials—but we’ll cover that at another time.)

Community researchers from the Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana work to match archival records with collections objects in the NMAI Archives Center in October 2017. Left to right: Boyo Billiot, Nathan Sowry, Chantel Comardelle.
Photo: Judith Andrews

Why are there so many Smithsonian archives, what are they, and what do they all hold? The different archival repositories around the Smithsonian were founded at various times throughout the Institution’s history in order to gain physical and intellectual control over different aspects of our work. Because of this, each archive preserves and facilitates access to historical records related to their unit’s mission and history. Together we hold the comprehensive picture of the Smithsonian’s continuing research and mission. These archival materials may be photographs, negatives, correspondence, artwork, diaries, manuscripts, field books, professional and personal papers, and audio-visual materials, but all are permanently valuable records of people, activities, government, or organizations.

Breath of Life Community Research Visit, National Anthropological Archives, 2017.

Most archives at the Smithsonian are part of a larger museum or department, and hold materials that document that unit’s work. These various archival repositories—along with their missions and a summary of their collections—are:

Air and Space Museum Archives
The National Air and Space Museum Archives collects materials documenting the history of air and space flight. Their archival collection contains approximately 12,000 cubic feet of material, including an estimated 2 million photographs, 700,000 feet of motion picture film, and 2 million technical drawings.

Anacostia Community Museum Archives 
The Anacostia Community Museum Archives collects, preserves, and makes available materials supporting the object-based collection and the research and educational activities of the museum, as well as the museum's mission. Collections include personal papers, exhibition records, over 50,000 photograph collections, and more than 200 volumes of books dating from the nineteenth century to the present.

Archives Center, National Museum of American History
The Archives Center supports the National Museum of American History by collecting, preserving, and providing access to archival documents that complement the museum's exhibition, research, and collecting programs. The Archives Center holds more than 1,400 collections documenting the history of technology, invention and innovation, business and consumer culture, American music, and popular culture as well as many other topics.

Archives of American Gardens
The Archives of American Gardens, part of Smithsonian Gardens, collects, preserves, and provides access to photographic images and records documenting the evolution of gardens and landscapes throughout the United States. As of 2017, its holdings include over 100,000 images and supplemental files across over forty collections.

Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives 
The Archives, within the National Museum of African Art, are devoted to the collection, preservation and dissemination of visual materials that encourage and support the study of the arts, cultures and history of Africa. The collections contain approximately 450,000 items, including rare collections of glass plate negatives, lantern slides, stereographs, postcards, maps and engravings.

Freer Sackler Archives
The Freer Sackler Archives is a manuscript and photograph repository dedicated to furthering the study of Asian and Middle Eastern art and culture, as well as turn-of-the-century American art. It collects, preserves, and makes available documentary materials supporting the holdings and research activities of the Freer and Sackler galleries. The archives holds more than 160 collections—amounting to over one thousand linear feet of materials—dating from the early nineteenth century to the present.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection Archive and Special Collections
Maintained by the Curatorial Department of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, this archive includes research files on the entire permanent collection, emphasizing provenance, exhibition histories, published references, and comparative works. Records of more than 11,500 objects include photographs, official documents, research notes, correspondence, and copies of reference materials assembled by the staff.

Human Studies Film Archives
Within the Department of Anthropology, the National Museum of Natural History (and a sister unit of the National Anthropological Archives), the HSFA is devoted to preserving, documenting, and providing access to anthropological moving image materials. Collections comprise more than eight million feet of film (3,000 hours) and one thousand hours of video recordings. These visual research resources, along with related documentary materials, encompass a broad range of genres that span most of the 20th century.

Nam June Paik Archive
The Nam June Paik Archive, within the Smithsonian American Art Museum, includes written and object materials created by artist Nam June Paik. Among the most influential and prolific video artists, Paik had a profound impact on late twentieth century art through his transformation of the electronic moving image into an artist’s medium. The collection includes early writings from Paik, along with postcards, telegrams, faxes, programs for exhibitions, performances, and festivals, and various objects related to the early history of television and radio.

National Anthropological Archives
Within the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History (and a sister unit of the Human Studies Film Archive), the NAA collects and preserves historical and contemporary anthropological materials that document the world’s cultures and the history of anthropology. The collections include a wide variety of manuscript materials, photographs, maps, artwork, and sound recordings created by Smithsonian and non-Smithsonian anthropologists, Native peoples, scholars, and researchers. The NAA holds one of the world’s largest and richest archival collections related to North American archeology and ethnography, indigenous artwork, and historical photographs.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Library and Archives 
The National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC) Library and Archives are devoted to collecting and providing access to resources that support scholarship in African American history, culture, and the African Diaspora. As the newest addition to the family of Smithsonian museums, NMAAHC is still currently building its archival and library collections.

Archive Center, National Museum of American Indian 
The Archive Center at the National Museum of the American Indian actively acquires and serves as a repository for the records of contemporary Native American artists, writers, activists, and organizations. In addition, the Archive Center holds the records of the NMAI’s predecessor institution, the Museum of the American Indian (MAI), Heye Foundation. The Archive Center supports the mission of the museum by collecting, organizing, preserving, and making available papers, records, photographs, recordings, and ephemera that reflect the historical and contemporary lives of Native peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere. Collections include 1,500 linear feet of manuscripts and thousands of photographic objects.

Photograph Archives, American Art Museum
Maintained as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Photograph Archives contain nearly a half million negatives, photographs, and slides, that document American art from the colonial period to the present.

Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
Part of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the Folklife Archives- named for the founding director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival – includes collections covering world ethnic performance traditions, spoken word recordings, sounds of science and nature, occupational folklore, and family folklore. The collections are strong in American, and more specifically Euro-American, African-American, Caribbean, and Native American musical and performance traditions.

Two of the Smithsonian’s archival repositories—the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the Archives of American Art—are independent collecting units, meaning they are not a part of a Smithsonian museum, or department.

Smithsonian Institution Archives
The Smithsonian Institution Archives captures, preserves, and shares with the public the history of this extraordinary Institution through collection and documentation of the Smithsonian’s official records. Its collections include administrative and exhibition records, personal and professional papers of Smithsonian staff and collaborators, scientific expedition field books, correspondence, diaries, and much more. Because of SIA’s mission to collect institutional records, many of their holdings overlap with, or relate to, other archival repositories listed above.

Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the world’s preeminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America. Founded in Detroit in 1954 to serve as microfilm repository; this mission expanded quickly to collecting and preserving original material. In 1970, the AAA joined the Smithsonian. Their collections consist of more than 20 million letters, diaries, scrapbooks, manuscripts, financial records, photographs, films, and audiovisual recordings of artists, dealers, collectors, critics, scholars, museums, galleries, associations, and other art world figures.

Want to dive deeper and learn more about the collections within each archive at the Smithsonian? Click on any of the linked repository names above, or explore digitized and catalogued archival items online through the Smithsonian’s database for ALL of our collections -- Collections Search Center. You can browse by individual archival repository by choosing a unit name from the “catalog record source” tab.

You can also directly help us make many of these archival collections more accessible, by transcribing and reviewing digitized materials in the Smithsonian Transcription Center! There are currently ongoing projects from the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution Archives, National Air and Space Museum Archives, and more! Reach out anytime to transcribe@si.edu with questions.


Caitlin Haynes, Coordinator
Smithsonian Transcription Center

October is American Archives Month: The Power of Collaboration

Happy American Archives Month! To celebrate, the Smithsonian Collections blog is running its seventh annual blog-a-thon with blog posts every weekday in October.

This year’s theme is the Power of Collaboration. An apt choice for this particular blog, as we are a collaboration between archives, museums, and libraries across the Smithsonian.  The power of collaboration resonates deeply across the Smithsonian as scholars from diverse disciplines work together to ‘increase and diffuse knowledge.’ I suspect James Smithson would be delighted to think that the institution he endowed would go on to study and foster collaboration between topics as diverse as African Art, Astrophysics, American History and Natural History. 

This month we will be posting stories about collaboration in archives and initiatives across the Smithsonian.  The Smithsonian Transcription Center through the power of collaboration has made more than 321,274 pages transcribed and text searchable, making them available not only to scholars, but anyone with access to an internet connection.  Along with the Collections Search Center, SOVA – our online virtual archives, and SIRIS - the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System, these Smithsonian collaborations make our collections and the knowledge they help us create more accessible and useful

Locally, we will be celebrating at the 2017 Archives Fair at the National Museum of American History on Saturday, October 21st. A collaboration between Smithsonian Institution Archives and Special Collections Council, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference DC and Maryland Caucuses, and the National Archives Assembly that will highlight the power of the cultural heritage and the stewardship archives provide to preserve it.  Come join us to explore the ways in which the preservation of archival collections translates into the preservation of culture and how collaborations between artists and archives nurture cultural heritage.

Here at the Smithsonian Collections blog, we bring Archivists, Museum Specialists, and Librarians together to highlight their collections, current work, and the curiosities of working with collections.  With recent blogs ranging from ethnographic fieldwork to solar eclipses and National Aviation Day, this blog is a collaboration that highlights the simply amazing variety of things we can learn from each other.  The Collection Search Center is a collaboration that brings together over 12 million objects, archival collections and library materials; we hope that this month our blog can give you a peak into the work that makes these collections available and these collaborations possible.

Remember to check back every day for new content from across the Smithsonian!

Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant
Smithsonian Institution Archives 

Solar Eclipse Collections at the Smithsonian

Are you excited about the eclipse today? So are we! Over the centuries, people have long been fascinated by solar and lunar eclipses. The Smithsonian Institution has many eclipse related and inspired collections. Check some of them out on the Smithsonian Collections Search Center.

Here are a few highlights:

This National Portrait Gallery photograph from 1869 depicts John A. Whipple (center, left) and the Harvard Observatory team photographing a rare solar eclipse. An inventor and photographer, Whipple was also the first person to photograph the moon's surface in great detail in 1851.

John A. Whipple and the Harvard Astronomical Expedition to photograph a rare solar eclipse (1869). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Larry J. West, NPG.2007.127.

Astronomical Photographer and Professor Henry Draper took this photograph of a total solar eclipse on July 29, 1878. You can read more about Draper and his scientific family in the National Museum of American History’s Draper Family Collection finding aid on the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (SOVA).

Photograph of the Corona 1878, [photograph reprint], National Museum of American History, Archive Center, AC0121-0000001.

In 1901, future Smithsonian Secretary Charles G. Abbot, then working at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, traveled to Sumatra to study a solar eclipse. Though cloudy weather prevented a perfect viewing for Abbot, but colleagues stationed in other locations were able to gather data. Read more about Abbot's adventures from the Smithsonian Institution Archives: The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Astronomers. 

1901 Sumatra Eclipse Expedition, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Image Number 94-12603. 

And learn more about how science journalists have covered solar eclipses near and far. 

If you want to learn more about how to view the solar eclipse safely, check out the National Air and Space Museum’s website for some great videos including this one on fun ways to view the eclipse.

Stay safe everyone and happy eclipse viewing!

Emily Moazami, Assistant Head Archivist

National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center


Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant
Smithsonian Institution Archives

Archives and Manuscripts Collections in the Smithsonian Libraries

In 1992, I was hired to be the rare book cataloger for the Smithsonian Libraries (SIL), and almost all of my work for the first dozen years or so was focused primarily on monographic cataloging of printed books. But over the years since then, my work has been experiencing a noticeable transition encompassing a wider variety of formats, including archival materials and manuscript collections. Trend forecasters have been talking for years about the convergence of the LAMs (where LAMs = Libraries, Archives and Museums; this catchy phrase was used by Kiersten F. Latham and John E. Simmons in their 2014 publication, Foundations of museum studies: evolving systems of knowledge). I can attest that this is happening on a broad scale: internationally, nationally, within the Smithsonian Institution, and in the Smithsonian Libraries, library stuff is mixing with museum stuff, which is also mixing with archival stuff. There are fewer bright lines separating these formats in our daily work and collections, regardless of how our units identify themselves. To cope with all these changes, library, archival and museum workers need to be flexible and open to creative thinking and learning on the job. More than ever, it is crucial to collaborate with colleagues beyond the traditional boundaries of one’s profession to derive the greatest benefits from shared knowledge and experience.

Postcards from Ernst Mach to E. Kulke

The Smithsonian Libraries, which currently encompasses 21 branch libraries and a central administration, grew, at first informally, as the Smithsonian Institution itself grew. During the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, various curatorial offices developed in-house book collections acquired from the personal libraries of staff members and scholarly exchanges and donations over the years. SIL’s Director, Dr. Nancy E. Gwinn, has written an overview of the haphazard early development of the Smithsonian’s library collections, which were viewed ambivalently by the first Secretary, Joseph Henry, and which were just one part of a complicated nexus of collections competing for priority and precious resources. The Smithsonian Libraries, as it is known today, was formally created as a unit by Secretary S. Dillon Ripley in the 1960s.

So what kinds of archival and manuscript materials have become part of the Smithsonian Libraries’ collections over the years? I’ll outline some examples here, many of which I have been personally involved with as a cataloger. I’d also like to note that several other staff members here at the Libraries also have archival training and responsibilities, with skills that are being put to good use as our collections continue to expand beyond the usual library formats.

The Smithsonian Libraries’ first major foray into the stewardship of manuscript collections was launched in 1974, with the gift of over 10,000 rare books and manuscripts from the Burndy Library, the private collection of industrialist and philanthropist Bern Dibner. The Burndy donation became the core collection of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology. Bern Dibner’s printed book and manuscript collections document the growth of European and American scientific and technological advances between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries, featuring correspondence, drafts, sketches, and ephemera by luminaries including Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein, among others. The Dibner Library currently has approximately 2,000 manuscript groups, having acquired additional items from other Smithsonian units and curators as well as gifts received from outside the Institution.

In 2006, the Smithsonian Libraries received its second major collection of archival and manuscript materials with the acquisition of the Russell E. Train Africana Collection for the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History. Featuring approximately 6,000 archival and manuscript items, including handwritten and typed correspondence, draft novels, photographs, sketch books, diaries, original artwork, ephemera, and both man-made and natural artifacts, the Train Africana Collection highlights the adventures of explorers, missionaries, conservationists and other travelers in Africa between the late seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The manuscript and archival materials of the Train Africana Collection are a rich trove of insights into the lives and activities of David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley, Ernest Hemingway, and Theodore Roosevelt, among others. Thanks to the help of contract archivists and the Smithsonian’s EAD coordinator, a detailed finding aid of the Train Africana Collection, including digitized content, is available on the Smithsonian OnlineVirtual Archives (SOVA) website.

Chandeliers from Caldwell & Co.

Other branches of the Smithsonian Libraries also contain archival and manuscript collections of diverse themes and formats. The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library in New York City has the papers of industrial designers such as Belle Kogan, Donald Deskey and Henry Dreyfuss, and the photographic archives of both Edward F. Caldwell & Company (one of the major lighting designers of the first half of the twentieth century) and fashion photographer Thérèse Bonney. The National Air and Space Museum Library has archival and manuscript materials ranging from a scrapbook of early aeronautica to the Bella C. Landauer collection of United States aeronautical patents. The National Postal Museum Library has the Hugh McLellan Southgate archival collection on postal history. The American Art and Portrait Gallery Library has an album of cartes-de-visite portraits of nineteenth century artists. And those are only some of the highlights.

The National Museum of African American History & Culture Library, the newest unit of the Smithsonian Libraries which opens to the public in late fall 2016, is embracing archival materials as a focal point of its collections: in addition to the head librarian, the NMAAHC Library staff includes an archivist and a genealogy specialist.

The National Collections Program’s Collections Digitization Reporting System (CDRS), a Smithsonian-wide initiative to get a grip on documenting significant materials that have not been described adequately even at the collection level in the various online catalogs of the Smithsonian, has spurred the Libraries’ staff over the past couple of years to identify and describe various pockets of archival and ephemeral materials scattered across its locations, in an effort to make these formerly hidden collections (as the Council on Library and Information Resources would refer to them) findable and properly preserved, and, where appropriate, eventually digitized.

Several recent Smithsonian-wide developments are helping the Libraries to transition into a unit where its archival and manuscript collections are nearly as accessible as its printed and digital materials:

• We have multiple options for online discovery of collections: At the Smithsonian, the Libraries’ holdings are available through its dedicated SIRIS catalog, the Collections Search Center with over 10 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials from across the Institution, and the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (SOVA), which came online in 2015 and contains finding aids for more than 8000 diverse collections of primary resources from more than a dozen repositories at the Institution. The Libraries’ collections are also indexed in OCLC’s Worldcat, a global union catalog of library resources in all types of formats, and some of our digitized materials are available through the Internet Archive and the Digital Public Library of America, as well as more specialized thematic web projects like the the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Livingstone Online. To take full advantage of these various outlets, the Smithsonian Libraries has been prioritizing efforts to upgrade the description and access points for its archival and manuscript materials and, where possible, make them available in digitized form, since these unique collections hold the greatest interest for researchers who would otherwise be unaware of their existence.

Aeronautica scrapbook page

• We collaborate with other units at the Smithsonian, which generously share their expertise and advice through forums such as the SIRIS Members Group, which provides discussions and training about Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) and other cataloging standards like Describing Archives: a Content Standard (DACS) and Resource Description & Access (RDA) that shape the content and structure of collections data in our online catalogs; the Smithsonian Institution Archives and Special Collections Council (SIASC) which addresses concerns of the collecting units and supports projects that benefit them; the Smithsonian Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Users Group which has been instrumental in launching the SOVA database and training staff in the use of Archivists' Toolkit; and pan-Institutional initiatives like the Field Book Project, a partnership of the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution Archives, the Smithsonian Libraries and the Smithsonian’s Office of the Chief Information Officer.

• We have the Smithsonian Digital Volunteers Transcription Center, which went online in 2013 and has now had over 1,000 projects transcribed from fourteen participating museums, archives and libraries. The Smithsonian Libraries has so far contributed fourteen of its manuscript and archival holdings for transcription, including the commonplace book of a late eighteenth century English woman interested in scientific topics; a scrapbook of papers related to physicist Ernst Mach; a notebook of pressed butterfly specimens collected in East Africa during the second half of the nineteenth century; and a parallel vocabulary of the English and Potawatomi Indian languages, to name a few. Currently, the Transcription Center is featuring a fifteenth century Latin manuscript of Boethius’ De institutione arithmetica, complete with intricate palaeographical markings and abbreviations. The international community of Smithsonian Volunpeers, or digital volunteers, has diligently and accurately transcribed the various works made available through the Transcription Center, and thanks to their efforts, these texts are now keyword-searchable in the Collections Search Center.

Cropped section from page 125 of Boethius' De Institutione Arithmetica

Twenty-first century library, archival, and museum work here at the Smithsonian and elsewhere is continually subject to transitions: in organizational structure, workflows, formats, priorities, staffing, budgets and technological developments. Regardless of our job titles, we have to be flexible and continually learn new skills to deal well with the changes, since the tasks and policies that have traditionally defined our collecting units are not always things we can, or need to, sustain. While this ever-changing working environment is challenging, I welcome the opportunity to collaborate more closely with my colleagues across the Institution –archivists, conservators, researchers, curators, information managers, social media officers, exhibition designers, and others – to improve the ways we present our collections to the world.


Diane Shaw, Special Collections Cataloger
Smithsonian Libraries

Sneak Peek: Newly Digitized Photos in the Collection

Every day photos are being digitized and made available online across the Smithsonian.  Anyone can find thousands of these photos in the Smithsonian Collections Search Center or on the Smithsonian’s Flickr page.  At the Smithsonian Institution Archives, our newly digitized materials reflect our focus on the Smithsonian’s newest museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Jeannine Smith Clark and Judith Wragg Chase, by Unknown, June 5, 1986, Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2016-011425a.

Just recently digitized and newly available online, this photo shows Jeannine Smith Clark, a member of our Board of Regents, representing the Smithsonian Institution at a conference of the African American Museum Association. She is seen here speaking with Judith Wragg Chase, then director of the Old Slave Mart Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.

Smith Clark came to the Smithsonian as a volunteer and docent in 1968 and became a member of the Board of Regents.  As a Regent, she became the founding chair of the Cultural Education Committee, a multi-cultural, multi-racial committee of citizens in the Metropolitan-Washington area that solicited community support for the Smithsonian’s outreach activities. With Jeannine Smith Clark at the helm, the Cultural Education Committee was an important force for broadening outreach and diversity at the Smithsonian.

Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Celebrate the Potato

September is National Potato Month. Almost all the potatoes grown in the United States are planted in the spring and gathered in the fall. It is the time of year that schools in northern Maine have “harvest break” when students work to dig and sort the season’s spud crop soon after summer vacation.

Maine’s custom is one small part of the very long and interwoven agricultural, economic, social, culinary, medical, and ritual histories of this humble staple. It is a story that stretches from ancient gardens in the Andean Mountains 10,000 to 8,000 years ago … to perhaps Mars in the future? In the recent movie, The Martian, the stranded astronaut-botanist (played by Matt Damon), bases his long-term survival strategy on the Red Planet, not completely unfeasibly, on planting potatoes. But is the potato relevant for us today?

A carbohydrate, the tubers have nutritional detractors who point out that Americans consume far too many calories from white starches, including processed potato products in the forms of French fries and chips (along with the harmful fats and salt that go with them). With dehydrated and other potato products, these foods account for fifty percent of the potato market. Meanwhile, the annual consumption of fresh potatoes in the United States has fallen from eighty-one pounds per person in 1960 to forty-two pounds recently (the official Government report here). Potatoes are a hot political issue: Congress has fought successfully to keep the white potato in food assistance programs, including those of school lunches and breakfasts, against recommendations from the Department of Agriculture.

Following rice, wheat, and corn, potatoes are among the most consumed food crop in the world. The tuber is easy to grow in a variety of climates and soils, and is not as thirsty for water as many other vegetables, producing a high yield from a small area. Able to be stored for long periods, the potato is a good source of vitamin C (surprisingly), potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin B₆, and some iron. Inexpensive, lacking only calcium and vitamins A and D, it is almost a complete food. Beginning with the ancient civilizations of Huari and Tiahuanacu located in parts of modern-day Peru and Bolivia, the spud has been insurance against famine, providing sustenance when other crops failed.

If there is a food stuff that deserves a commemorative month or day (May 30^th in Peru), it is the potato.

A selection of organic potatoes from both coasts: Idaho and Yukon Gold from California; Honey Gold Nibbles, Gold Marbled Fingerlings, Purple Peruvian, and Adirondack Red potatoes from the Mid-Atlantic area. There are over a hundred varieties available. The petite type are growing in popularity (quick to cook, creamy in texture) as a substitute for pasta (photo by the author)

Not surprisingly, the Smithsonian does not treat the subject as small potatoes. In most, if not all, of the twenty-one separate libraries in the Institution, information on some aspect on the history and culture of the potato can be found. So what better way to celebrate the potato (Solanum tuberosum) and find its relevancy than by digging into some of Smithsonian Libraries’ holdings that tell its rich story? From the Anthropology, American Indian, Natural History, Horticulture and Botany libraries, the trade literature and cookery collections of American History, and, of course, Special Collections, all have original and secondary sources for an (almost) complete picture of this highly significant plant.

Archaeological research finds that the potato was first domesticated from wild plants on the shores of Lake Titicaca in the Andes. With sophisticated agricultural technology, including raised field terraces and irrigation systems, Pre-Inca cultures came to thrive on huge yields of the crop. The Inca Empire relied on potato storehouses, including a freeze-dried product (chuña) that could hold for years, in times of crop failures. Pedro de Cieza de León, explorer and historian, described the cultivation and cooking in his Chronicles of Peru, in 1540. Spanish conquistadors, who largely destroyed the Inca civilization, brought the potato across the Atlantic. Early accounts are a bit murky with the confusion between white (papas) and sweet potatoes (batata), but they were cultivated on the Canary Islands from 1565 and then onto the mainland of Spain.

John Gerard, The Herball, or, Generall historie of plantes (Imprinted at London by John Norton, 1597). There had been an earlier written description (but with no illustration) of the plant in Gaspard Bauhin’s Phytopinax of 1596. The Dibner Library of the Smithsonian Libraries has this first edition of Gerard. The Biodiversity Heritage Library has digitized the copy in the Peter H. Raven Library, Missouri Botanical Garden (pictured here).

Potatoes were being grown in London not long afterwards. The first printed pictures of the potato plant appear in woodcut illustrations in John Gerard’s great Herball of 1597. Gerard, who grew the plants in his own garden, misidentifies the origin of the potato as Virginia. It was not introduced into North America until the 1620s when the British governor of the Bahamas sent the tuber, along with other vegetables, to the Jamestown colony in Virginia. However, Derry, New Hampshire claims the first potato patch in North America, planted in 1719 when Scot-Irish immigrants settled in the area.

The 1636 edition of Gerard's Herball. The author holds a spray of potato flowers in the illustrated title page of the book, seen in the bottom center, just above the imprint. The Cullman Library of the Smithsonian has two copies; this image is from the scanned copy in the Peter H. Raven Library of the Missouri Botanical Garden (from the catalog of the Biodiversity Heritage Library).

From England, the potato moved to France and then on to the Netherlands. Carolus Clusius (or Charles de l’Ecluse) introduced the potato to the Low Countries. Woodcut illustrations are in his Rariorum plantarum historia (The history of rare plants; Antwerp, 1601). Because potatoes were a good source for preventing scurvy on long voyages, they were distributed via shipboard provisions to the far reaches of the world in the age of exploration. Potatoes also lessened the effects of tuberculosis, measles and dysentery. But the tuber became stigmatized as it moved from the exclusive botanical gardens of the wealthy in the 17^th century, when it was thought to be poisonous and fit only for livestock or the truly indigent.

Clusius' Rariorum plantarum historia (Antwerp, 1601). Images of the white and the sweet potatoes (above and below) from the scanned copy in the Peter H. Raven Library of the Missouri Botanical Garden by the Biodiversity Heritage Library (link). The Smithsonian's Cullman Library also has the title.

Clusius also created the first European representation of the potato, a lovely watercolor of 1588 of a plant in his garden. The work of art, with a note written by Clusius, is now in the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp (link here).

In Europe and Russia during the second half of the 18^th century the potato was vigorously promoted to lessen the economic distress of successive disastrous harvests of corn and wheat. Various groups and individuals produced pamphlets and books to educate and extol the crop’s virtues, such as the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and military pharmacist and agronomist Antoine Augustin Parmentier. An example is Memoria sopra I pomi di terra (Memoire on the potatoes) of 1767, an Italian translation of a French publication (Dibner Library) that discusses varieties and cooking methods.

In France, the tuber was particularly regarded as a poor person’s food. Sadly, the Smithsonian Libraries does not own a copy of the important Parmentier work, Examen chimique de la pomme de terre (Chemical examination of the potato, 1778). He was so successful in his efforts that some still believe he invented the potato, and there are many dishes named for him, such as the casserole of veal chops à la Parmentier.

By the 19^th century, the potato was common and so prevalent that historians debate its exact role in fueling the population explosion of the period. The food stuff also was being put to other uses, such as in alcoholic spirits. John Ham’s The theory and practice of brewing, from malted corn and from potatos (London, 1829), is one such treatise. There are many gardening manuals in the Smithsonian Libraries that discuss all the types then being developed and best methods of growing and storage. William Cobbett’s The American gardener (London, 1821) has this charming entry:

"Potatoe – Every body knows how to cultivate this plant; and, as to its preservation during winter, if you can ascertain the degree of warmth necessary to keep a baby from perishing, you know precisely the precautions required to preserve a potatoe. – As to sorts they are as numerous as the stones of a pavement in a large city."

But such dependency on a single crop, relied on by a huge population, proved ripe for disaster. This came in the form of late blight disease in the 1840s, which struck hard in Europe and was particularly devastating in Ireland. These catastrophes led to the development of disease-resistant plants, in particular by American horticulturist Luther Burbank who worked to improve the Irish potato; he bred a type in 1872 that established the Idaho potato. These new varieties led to even more potato dominance in food production and plantings around the world. It is a story likely to play out again with climate change, as scientists work to develop cultivars even more resistant to heat, drought and disease. To lessen pollution and water use and help feed its exploding population, China is now by far the largest producer of the staple in the world. Will the potato once again save some parts the world? (see Zuckerman, Larry. The potato: how the humble spud rescued the western world. Boston, 1998 and this Wikipedia entry on the subject).

"Good seeds at fair prices": National Museum of American History Trade Catalogs of 1902 from Minneapolis, Minnesota (image from Wikimedia Commons of the copy in the National Agricultural Library)

The extensive agricultural trade literature collections in the Smithsonian illustrate the trends in the potato’s popularity and dominance into the 20^th century (one example linked here). The evolution of the vegetable as source of sustenance to a snack food is also traced in the Libraries’ culinary holdings. Thomas Jefferson had "potatoes served in the French manner" at a White House dinner in 1802 (not, strictly speaking, and contrary to the myth, the French fry). A relative of Jefferson’s, Mary Randolph, had seven recipes for potatoes, including one “to fry sliced potatoes” in her book, The Virginia house-wife, or, Methodical cook. The Dibner Library holds the fourth edition of this important cookbook, published in 1830. The Russet Burbank potato, developed in the 1920s, long, regular with a high sugar content, is the hybrid ideal for French fries. Speaking of which, France and Belgium are still arguing over who invented “French fries.”

An artist book in the collections: French fries : a new play, written by Dennis Bernstein, Warren Lehrer ; designed by Warren Lehrer, 1984.

This short history, centered on the Smithsonian Libraries collections, merely skims the surface of the potato. So even if you tend to avoid white potatoes in your diet, pick up one of the many, many accounts of the spud to read or raise a fork to the potato this month and celebrate this small vegetable’s big history in the world. In the words of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A. A. Milne: “What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow” (“Lunch” in Not that it matters, 1919).

Julia Blakely
Special Collections Cataloger
Smithsonian Libraries 

An excellent dish for the month: Rainbow Potato Roast.

For further reading:

Chilies to chocolate: food the Americas gave the world. Tucson, 1992.
Hawkes, J. G. The potatoes of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay: a biosystematics study. Oxford, 1969.
Ochoa, Carlos M. Las papas de Sudamérica. Lima, Perú, 1999.
Salaman, Redcliffe N. The history and social influence of the potato. Cambridge, 1985.

Well, if you are going to have bacon with your potatoes, might as well have sour cream as well. Photo by the author but the  great recipe and story from the New York Times.