Sneak Peek from the Stacks: A Summer Photo Identification Project

An intern at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens has spent the summer identifying hand-painted glass lantern slides that were photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) in the Garden Club of America Collection utilizing the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs online catalog.

Some of the photographs identified in the Garden Club of America Collection depict private estates documented by Johnston for her 1930s Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, a project funded by the Carnegie Corporation and coordinated by the Library of Congress. 

The Library of Congress is the primary repository of Johnston’s photography collection including her earlier garden photography work of the 1910s-1920s and is explained in more detail here: "Lantern Slides for Garden and Historic House Lectures."

Below is a 'sneak peek' of one of the lantern slides now attributed to Johnston in the Archives of American Gardens.

Hand-painted glass lantern slide, Woodberry Forest, Louisa County, VA, 1932. Frances Benjamin Johnston, photographer. Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Garden Club of America Collection

Safety film negative, Woodberry Forest, Louisa County, VA, 1932. Frances Benjamin Johnston, photographer. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-J7-VA-2120

 

Kelly Crawford

Museum Specialist

Archives of American Gardens

Smithsonian Gardens

Link Love: Music Around the World

Check out Smithsonian.com for NMAI archivist Michael Pahn's February 15 contribution to the "Around the Mall" blog.  The post explores music and music related collections throughout the Smithsonian and we are delighted that the highlighted collection is HSFA's John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection.  

Here's a preview of one of the songs.

Pam Wintle, Human Studies Film Archives

Let's Celebrate: October is American Archives Month!

October is American Archives Month—a time to celebrate the importance of archives across the country. In honor of Archives Month, we’re participating in a pan-Smithsonian blogathon throughout the month. Throughout October we, and other blogs from across the Smithsonian, will be blogging about our archival collections, issues, and behind-the-scenes projects. We encourage you to subscribe to an RSS feed of all blogathon posts from across the Smithsonian and to check out all of the participating blogs.

In addition to the blogathon, the Smithsonian will be celebrating Archives Month with various activities, including an Archives Fair and a Facebook Q&A with Smithsonian archivists and conservationists. The Archives Fair will be held on Friday, October 14th from 9 am to 5 pm at the S. Dillon Ripley Center on the National Mall, and will include lectures, informational tables, as well as an “Ask the Smithsonian” event in which visitors can bring in archival items for review by Smithsonian experts (see details and a link to reserve free tickets to the “Ask the Smithsonian” portion of the event here [http://www.aaa.si.edu/archivesmonth]).

If you can’t attend the Archives Fair, we will be live streaming the lectures on the Archives Month website [http://www.aaa.si.edu/archivesmonth], and we also invite you to bring your archival questions to Facebook on Wednesday, October 12th from 10 am to 5 pm, when Smithsonian experts will be on hand to answer your questions live on the Smithsonian Institution Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/SmithsonianInstitution].

During this month, we hope to convey the value of archives and inspire you to learn more about the amazing and diverse collections in the Smithsonian!

Jennifer Morris
Archivist
Anacostia Community Museum Archives

Phantoms of the Museum

Happy Halloween! Make sure you check out Pam Henson's post "Phantoms of the Museum" originally published at the National Museum of Natural History blog.

"As Halloween approaches, I am reminded of a May 13, 1900, article (see the scan at the bottom of this post) on the National Museum in the Washington Post that reported on “Shades of Scientists Who Walk There Nightly,” (shades was an old term for ghosts). The U.S. National Museum was then housed in what is now known as the Arts and Industries Building. The guards and staff who worked late reported that the deceased but devoted scientists of earlier eras continued to walk the halls of the Museum at night, guarding over their collections. Foremost among these was Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), the first Smithsonian curator and second Secretary of the Smithsonian."

Read More!

Montana is Celebrating October is American Archives Month!

Check out Sister Affiliate blog Montana History Revealed as they help instruct you on How To Take Care of Your Family History!

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archives

Halloween Costume Ideas and Mustaches - oh my!

Check out Archives of American Art's blogs on: Halloween's Costume Guide: Archives Style and Mustaches of Note - John White Alexander!

Rachael Cristine Woody
Freer|Sackler Archives

Miss the Fair?

Archived footage of the Lecture Series and Ask the Smithsonian will be available soon on the Archives Fair web page, but until then catch up with the live-blogging that happened by sister blog:

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Live Blogging from the Smithsonian Archives Fair!

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archives

Who Doesn't Love a Man in Uniform?

Check out THE BIGGER PICTURE's recent See Here post for Revolutionaries admiring Washington's attire.

http://blog.photography.si.edu/2010/10/19/see-here-10192010/

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archives

Smithsonian Libraries: Highlights of Smithsonian Library History: Former Librarian John Murdoch

Check out a piece of Smithsonian's Library History:

Smithsonian Libraries: Highlights of Smithsonian Library History: Former Librarian John Murdoch

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archives

Photography and the Smithsonian - what's so important about it?

A teaser from sister blog THE BIGGER PICTURE:

In 2000, as an answer to the question, “does the Smithsonian have an important collection of photography, and if it does, what’s so important about it?” we launched the Smithsonian Photography Initiative. The idea was not to focus on how many images there were around the Mall—the continual proliferation of images makes counting photographs an impossible task in any case, and one that was already nobly being addressed in all corners of the Institution—but rather to contemplate the role photographs played at the Institution. Given the multi-disciplined collections of the Smithsonian, we thought in so doing, we might also get at the nature of photography itself. And given the growing role that digital technologies played in giving institutions like the Smithsonian unprecedented opportunities to access vast collections, the powerful meaning of images—how they got here and how they function—seemed an important thing to know. Too, photography itself seemed at a crossroads: how it is made, how it is shared, how it has changed, and is changed by the people who make images and use images. It also was important to embrace new platforms for exhibiting and publishing images.

Read More: http://blog.photography.si.edu/2010/10/18/further-thoughts-about-photography-and-the-smithsonian/

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archives

Telluride Historical Museum: The Relief Train

Telluride Historical Museum: The Relief Train: " For some, inventory can be daunting. For myself, Collections Assistant at the Telluride Historical Museum, it is fascinating. Each muse..."

Read more from our affiliates as they too, celebrate October is American Archives Month!

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archivist

I Found It In the Archives - and it doesn't belong

Sister blog THE BIGGER PICTURE writes to us on the odds and ends that turn up in Archival collections:

http://blog.photography.si.edu/2010/10/14/i-found-it-in-the-archives/

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archives

Eye Level: Award Winning Art Signs

Eye Level: Award Winning Art Signs

Check out the amazing work that has been done at Smithsonian American Art Museum as they make Archives, Libraries, Galleries, Museums and Heritage Venues even more accessible with Art Signs OnLine - which has recently won a JODI award. This project started with an email, became a small event in the museum, and has now leaped to the web to reach an international forum. Check out their blog for a youtube introduction and post describing this ground-breaking project!

Congratulations to all involved!

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archivist

Meet Me at the Fair!

In case you've been asleep the last two weeks: October is American Archives Month!

YOU are invited to the First-Ever Archives Fair at the Smithsonian Institution - Free and Open to the Public!

Attend the first-ever Smithsonian Archives Fair on Friday, October 22, 2010 from 10am to 5pm in the S. Dillon Ripley Center’s concourse.  This event will highlight vast collections of archival and historical records at the Smithsonian. Programs include a Lecture Series on projects and research based on Smithsonian collections, informational displays from over a dozen Smithsonian archives, and an “Ask the Smithsonian” program with hands-on consultations and preservation tips from experts including archivists, librarians, museum specialists and conservators to teach local-area residents how to care for items they have tucked away in the attics, closets and basements of their homes. Visit www.aaa.si.edu/news/archives_month.cfm for all the details!

The S. Dillon Ripley Center is located at 1100 Jefferson Drive, SW near the Metrorail’s Smithsonian station (Mall exit).  Limited on-street parking is available.

 

MEET US ONLINE!

For those not able to attend the Smithsonian Archives Fair, the Lecture Series will be stream cast and archived at the above web address.  Also, a Smithsonian paper conservator and an electronic records conservator will be available virtually on the Smithsonian’s Facebook account, http://www.facebook.com/SmithsonianInstitution Thursday, Oct. 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.to answer any questions the public may have about their own paper and electronic archival items.

The Smithsonian Collections Blog is hosting a 31-day Blogathon for October in partnership with sister blogs: 

Archives of American Art Blog
The Bigger Picture, blog of the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Eye Level, blog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Affiliate, blog of Smithsonian Affiliations

Smithsonian Institution affiliate blogs including:
Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, an Affiliate in Clewiston, Florida
Telluride Historical Museum, in association with the Pinhead Institute, an Affiliate in Telluride, Colorado
Montana History Revealed Blog, from Affiliate, the Montana Historical Society Research Center 

Read them regularly for behind-the-scenes information and visuals of what an Archives is, what we do, and how we do it. 

ABOUT US

The Smithsonian’s archival units support program areas ranging from art and culture to history and science, and maintain the records documenting the history of the Institution itself.  These repositories preserve and make available meaningful documentation in the form of photographs, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, rare printed materials, business records, maps, drawings, films, video and audio recordings, data, research files, and other documents.

Archives preserve memories, tell stories, and solve mysteries every day.  Without them, questions would go unanswered, histories would remain untold, and new discoveries would be difficult to uncover.  You don’t need to wait for American Archives Month each October to celebrate what the Smithsonian’s archives are all about. Check them out at www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/siasc, search Smithsonian Collections at http://collections.si.edu.

Please share this invitation with all interested parties.  Tweet us! #archivesmonth

To quote my favorite musical, Meet Me in St. Louis: "Meet me at the fair!"

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archivist

We Love Libraries too

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries has an amazing collection of not just books!  (Although the books are pretty darn amazing too).  Make sure you continue to check out their latest as they lovingly blog about all things paper.

Rachael Cristine Woody
Freer Sackler Archivist

Then and Now - Photos identified at THE BIGGER PICTURE

Sister Blog sends a thank you as they reveal 10 photographs newly identified with a little help from their social media friends. Read more for the details and some gorgeous before and after shots!

http://blog.photography.si.edu/2010/10/06/a-huge-thank-you/

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer Sackler Archivist

Processing a New Donation: The Boehmer Collection

In honor of  American Archives Month the staff at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum would like highlight once again one of their most exciting collections in our permanent archival collection.  So please read and enjoy a post from our Sister Affiliate!

Teaser:

The archives here at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum house over 6,000 items including books, documents, maps, letters, newspapers, postcards, photographs, and much more.  A recent acquisition to the museum is going to raise that number of items by at least 3,000 more.  In August of 2009 the museum received the Boehmer Collection of Photographs.  This unique and unprecedented collection of photographs is quite possibly the most exhaustive record of the Seminole Tribe for the time period of the 1930s thru the 1960s. 

Read More here.

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archives

What is an Archives?

Check out Sister Blog THE BIGGER PICTURE as they unveil the mystery surrounding the Archives!

Rachael Cristine Woody

Freer|Sackler Archives

Sign Up for a Blogathon Feed!

Be sure not to miss a minute of the October is American Archives Month Blogathon!  Sign up with us and our participating Sister's blogs:

• Archives of American Art Blog [subscribe to this blog’s feed]
• The Smithsonian Collections Blog [subscribe to this blog’s feed]
• The Affiliate (a blog of Smithsonian Affiliate institutions) [subscribe to this blog’s feed]
• Montana History Revealed, a blog from the Smithsonian’s affiliate, the Montana Historical Society Research Center [subscribe to this blog’s feed]

AND THE BIGGER PICTURE OF COURSE!*
THE BIGGER PICTURE, the Smithsonian Institution Archives' blog is also participating in the blogathon. Subscribe here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/si/vrZU

*My apologies for the egregious error - that's what I get from copying and pasting your post on RSS feeds.

Happy Archiving,

Rachael Cristine Woody | Archivist
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery 

Blogathon: October is American Archives Month!

October is American Archives Month across the nation and the Smithsonian is celebrating in style! 

The Smithsonian Collections Blog is hosting a 31-day Blogathon for October to mark the occasion.  We are teaming up with sister blogs: THE BIGGER PICTURE,  Archives of American Art, and The Affiliate repositories like Montana History Revealed to bring to you behind-the-scenes information and visuals of what an Archives is, what we do, and how we do it.  Each day, archives care-takers will blog about what happens in their archives, describe projects they are working on, and tell stories about particular holdings.

You can look forward to posts on: researcher perspectives, collections care, the day in the life of a cataloger, digitization, new media, oral history, 3d digitization, moving collections, and what every good conservator carries in her purse!

In conjunction with the Blogathon the Smithsonian Institution Archives and Special Collections council are also presenting a first-ever Archives Fair Friday October 22nd, from 10am-5pm in the  S. Dillon Ripley Center (on the National Mall - see Mall Map). The event is free and open to the public.

Please join us for the Archives Fair, which will feature a Lecture Series on projects and research based on Smithsonian collections, informational displays from more than a dozen archives at the Smithsonian; and an “Ask the Smithsonian” program that features hands-on consultations and preservation tips from archivists, librarians, historians, and conservators to teach local-area residents about how to care for items they have tucked away in attics, closets, and basements of their homes.  See the "Ask the Smithsonian" link for more details on how you can bring in your most beloved archival treasure.

If you can't make the Archives Fair in person, don't worry - we'll come to you!  Check in with the Archives Month website to see a live stream cast and archived version of our Lecture Series!  If it is Smithsonian expertise you're after, check out, "Ask the Smithsonian" on Facebook on Thursday, October 21 from 10am-5pm, for an online Q&A with a Smithsonian paper conservator and electronic records conservator. These experts will be available live on the main Smithsonian Facebook page to answer any questions that you might have about your own paper and electronic archival items.

See our Press Release and Archives Month website for more information. Tweet us: #archivesmonth

We look forward to meeting you online or in-person!

Rachael Cristine Woody
Archivist
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
woodyr@si.edu