Soaring through the Archives of Air and Space with Transcription Center

Have you ever wondered what you should pack for a trip to the moon? Or what female aviator clubs were like in the 1930's? How about the history of grape soda and its relationship to America's first transcontinental flight?

                             Inflight Coverall Garment, Jacket, Apollo,                     Items taken aboard Apollo 11, NASM Archives.
                                 D19791187000, National Air and Space Museum.

Well you're in luck! The answers to these questions -- recorded in the pages of diaries, letters, and scrapbooks held in the Archives of the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) -- are now more easily discoverable thanks to volunteer transcription.

Vin Fiz Art Poster, Armour & Co., 1911,  A1935044000, National Air and Space Museum.

Since 2015, staff in the NASM Archives have launched (pun intended) over 200 projects in the Smithsonian Transcription Center--including stowage lists from six different Apollo missions, records from Calbraith (Cal) Perry Rodgers' 1911 transcontinental flight (which was sponsored by the makers of the popular grape soda, the Vin Fiz), and the scrapbook of female pilot, Manila Davis Talley, containing multiple photographs and  news articles on twentieth century women's aviation clubs and flying competitions. 

Page from Scrapbook of Manila Davis Talley, NASM.XXXX.0041, National Air and Space Museum.

The Archives' collections span the history of flight, from ancient times to the present day, and include materials from military officers and personnel, NASA astronauts, Smithsonian staff, civilian pilots and engineers, astrophysicists, nineteenth-century balloonists, flight attendants, and more. Over the past four years 1,062 volunteers (or 'volunpeers' as we say here in TC) have transcribed close to 13,000 pages from the archival collections at NASM. These TC projects only constitute a small portion of NASM's archival collections, yet the work of digital volunteers transcribing and reviewing these materials increases accessibility and awareness of the rich information held within every page. (Want to learn more about how volunteer transcription makes Smithsonian collections accessible and text-searchable? Head to our About page and follow us on Twitter for ongoing updates, discoveries, and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks!)

Here's some highlights from NASM TC Projects:

Apollo 11 Flight, Crew, Training, NASM Archives.

• Sound recordings from the Apollo 11 launch. 
• Correspondence, flight logs, and notes from Orville and Wilbur Wright. 
• Materials from the Papers of General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.- Commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron, the first unit of the "Tuskegee Airmen" during WWII and the first African American General in the U.S. Air Force (1954). 
• The World War I diary of U.S. Army Air Service Officer Arthur Raymond Brooks
• William J. Eck's scrapbook, "To Europe By Air," documenting his trip on Pan American Airways' (PAA) first transatlantic passenger flight in 1939.
• Scrapbook of Velma Maul Tanzer, Stewardess and Chief Stewardess for American Airlines, 1933-1936.

Velma Maul Tanzer, NASM.2005.0036, NASM Archives.

• World War II diaries and scrapbooks from Harold Raskin (Army Airways Communications System, 7th AACS Wing Ground Control Approach (GCA) unit), William Jones (aerial photographer in the Army Air Corps), and a Japanese man named Yamada (much information on him is still unknown). 

                           General Benjamin O. Davis,                                   William Jones, NASM.2006.0067,  NASM Archives.
                          NASM.1992.0023, NASM Archives.                                              

Click here to explore all of the completed and ongoing Transcription Center projects from NASM. And keep an eye out for more projects coming soon, including a letter from astronaut John Glenn, Jr., diaries from WWI Pilot Zenos Miller, and collections documenting the groundbreaking work of female aviators Rubye Berau, Mary Charles, and Helen Richey.

-Caitlin Haynes, Transcription Center Coordinator

Transcribe with Style: Tips from a Smithsonian Transcription Center Volunteer

If, like me, you do lots of transcribing within a single Smithsonian Institution project, you may find it challenging to try to remember all the little things. That guy’s last name: Is it Buckwalter or Buchwalter? What’s the deal with that lowercase F that keeps cropping up in handwritten documents? How do I transcribe the numeral one half so it appears as ½ instead of as 1/2? There are just too many things to keep track of!

Never fear! As a former librarian, I’m here to assure you that you don’t have to keep all those nitpicky details in your head – that’s simply impossible! Rather, you just need to know where to look to find what you need, when you need it. And that’s where a style sheet comes in.

A “Cheat Sheet”? More Like a Neat Sheet!

In essence, a style sheet is a “cheat sheet” that professional editors and proofreaders use so that they make consistent changes when they mark up documents. These wordsmiths develop style sheets to establish the conventions for the document they’re working on, such as its grammatical style. Then they refer to their guide as they work to ensure that they always follow the typographical and grammatical “rules” of the document.

When I was a proofreader for a prominent Canadian advertising agency, I was responsible for proofreading material from over 30 companies, and without my style sheets I’d have been sunk. Some companies used American spelling; some used Canadian (or British) spelling. Some used Oxford commas; some hated them. And each had their own particular rules about when to use trademark symbols and how represent other legal information. My style sheets made my job a whole lot quicker and easier – they eliminated much of the guesswork right off the bat, giving me confidence that I was adhering to the company’s wishes as I reviewed its documents.

If you decide to concentrate on a particular area of SI transcription, you may find it helpful to put together your own handy road map. Use it to note anything that is helpful to you as you work.

What follows is the format I use, which includes sections for items I need to keep track of. You might find it more logical to organize your style sheet differently, and that’s perfectly fine. Your style sheet is a very personal document – and it should be a work in progress. This is your tool, so make it your own.

Here’s how I’ve been organizing my style sheet for documents within the Freedmen’s Bureau Transcription Center projects. (We’ve currently just started to work on the state of Mississippi, so I’ve been adding things as I find them.)

Usage

Here’s where I put the “big stuff” about SI preferences, such as not inserting returns at the ends of lines. I also might note things like unusual handwriting conventions (the dreaded “long s”*) or any major thing that crops up again and again in the project I’m working on.

* In handwriting from the 19^th century and earlier, authors often handwrote double-s (“ss”) as what looks like “fs”; that f-looking letter is called a long s. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s)

Dates and Numbers

This part of my style sheet includes whatever I notice about how dates and numbers are represented in original documents. (For example, letters written by Quakers within the North Carolina section of the Freedmen’s Bureau Project used a different style of dates.) I also use this section to keep track of SI Transcription Center preferences for dealing with numbers in transcriptions.

Punctuation and Typographical Style

I use this section to note punctuation anomalies – things to watch out for. For example, “&c.” is commonly used for “etc.” in Freedmen’s Bureau documents.

Permitted Double-Bracketed Notations

In this area I put all information about “tags,” those double bracketed bits, in one place so that I use them consistently.

Alt Codes for Special Typographical Characters

Alt-codes are useful for inserting special characters into transcriptions, such as ½, or long dashes (—), or the “pipes” (|) that separate columns within tables. Here I note the ones I use most often.

Useful Web Sites

I list the URLs of web sites I often refer to in this part of my style sheet. (I also bookmark these URLs in my browser for even quicker access.) As part my reviewing process I often try to verify the spellings of place names and personnel, so I like to have good reference sources at my fingertips. (Note: If you discover anything really unusual, make sure to contact SI staff so that they’re know about it and can pass along the information to the rest of us.)

Still Up a Stump? An Alphabetical List of Words and Phrases Is Handy

I list things like unusual spellings of words, surnames that have the potential of being misspelled, abbreviations, or unfamiliar expressions alphabetically. (“Up a stump”? Huh?)

So, are you ready to add some style to your transcriptions? Give my cheat sheet idea a try and let us know if it helps your process. And be sure to use the notes field of the transcription pages to share your discoveries with other volunpeers. #WeAllLearnTogether.

-Beth Graham, Smithsonian Transcription Center Volunteer

The label "lifelong learner" describes Beth Graham best. She thrives on new challenges, and has held positions as varied as children's librarian, advertising agency proofreader, crochet pattern designer, and Crafty/Bluprint Instructor. Currently, Beth keeps busy by volunteering on the Freedmen's Bureau Project in the Smithsonian Transcription Center, knitting ever more socks for her overflowing sock drawer, and playing clarinet in the local New Horizons band. A native of California, Beth lives in Ontario, Canada.

* This is the second post in a series of blog posts from long-time volunpeer Beth Graham (see her first post here). While transcribing and reviewing over 4,000 pages of TC projects, Beth has gained insight & knowledge, and uncovered fascinating historical details. Follow along in this series to learn from Beth as she shares her personal motivations, expert tips, and transcription discoveries! 

Uncovering History with the Smithsonian Transcription Center

Since the Smithsonian Transcription Center launched in June of 2013, dedicated volunteers around the world have helped the Smithsonian transcribe more than 322,000 pages of materials like journals, logbooks, botanical specimens, and photographs. If you’re familiar with the Transcription Center, you may have noticed we like to use the word “volunpeer” to describe the more than 9,300 volunpeers who contribute. The idea is that we all help one another to get the most accurate, usable transcriptions. As a result, we not only make knowledge more accessible but we preserve and promote cultural heritage.

Some of the most rewarding moments with the Transcription Center occur when volunpeers share what they uncover. Recently, while transcribing U.S. naturalist Vernon Bailey’s field books from an 1890 expedition, volunpeers were caught by surprise when they read in his field book that he had captured and eaten a golden eagle. Volunpeers following our Twitter account engaged in a lively discussion and even got the Smithsonian Institution Archives to chime in. Check it out:

In some journals, authors' personalities seem to leap right from the page. Take, for instance, Robert Kennicott's colorful telegrams to Spencer Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian at the time, from 1865-1866.

Baird appointed the young Kennicott as the lead naturalist for the 1865 Western Union Telegraph Expedition in search of a suitable route for a telegraph cable across the Bering Strait. Even before embarking on the voyage, however, Kennicott's relationship with the expedition’s leader, Colonel Charles Bulkley, was strained. In one telegram transcribed by volunpeers, Kennicott writes to Baird in hopes that his reputation will be cleared should he die or possibly be killed on the voyage. In the image below, you can see his handwritten letter beside the transcription form used by volunpeers.

In this telegram to Spencer Baird, Robert Kennicott writes: "Should I die I fear [Bulkley] might not find it for the company's interests to take any special pains to make my true record clear. This [is] because some of his subalterns are jealous of me."

Kennicott would die the next year at age 30, and his death remained a mystery until only recently. Read this blog post by the Smithsonian Institution Archives to find out more.

"I've some pleasant memories to take to the arctics with me, and am keeping one little soft spot in my heart despite the general hardening of that organ. Such is life." - Robert Kennicott.

What's Next for the Transcription Center?

In September, the National Air and Space Museum's archives department put up their own project for transcription: the Joseph Mountain collection. The collection follows Joseph D. Mountain’s career as a U.S. Air Service pilot who served as an aerial survey photographer for a 1934-1935 expedition to Saudi Arabia. It captures a snapshot of traditional Saudi Arabian life and it has proven to be popular among volunpeers. In just 7 days, 411 pages were transcribed and reviewed! There are more pages available to transcribe, although we're certain they won’t last long. But don't worry -- we have more projects in the pipeline. Stay tuned.

An image from the Joseph Mountain collection.

On Saturday, September 23, 2017, we spent the day at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum for the DC History for All: Volunteer Fair event where we joined local cultural heritage institutions to share how residents can help preserve local history. You can read a summary of the event here in this blog post by the Library of Congress.

If you missed us and happen to be in Washington, D.C. throughout October, say, "Hello," to us at the 2017 Smithsonian Digitization Fair from October 18-19 and at the 2017 Archives Fair on October 21.

We’re grateful to our more than 9,300 volunpeers who make the Transcription Center possible, not to mention the 15 Smithsonian galleries, libraries, archives, and museums who provide us with content to transcribe.

Want to help preserve history with the Smithsonian? Visit us at www.transcription.si.edu and let's see what you uncover.

Andres Almeida, Coordinator

Smithsonian Transcription Center

Tribulus Troubles: Wildflowers in the Edward Palmer Papers at the National Anthropological Archives

Although archives are best known for their well-organized and carefully-described materials, this TV-ready appearance belies a wealth of intellectual and physical labor by archivists. Behind the scenes are records which defy description, papers for which no particular order seems better than another, collections of questionable or wholly unknown provenance. Archives are full of trouble. So it's no surprise that archival records for a flower which was once categorized as part of the genus Tribulus - deriving its name from spiky weapons and multi-pronged threshing boards - should provide some poetic archival entertainment.

Image by Max Licher,
courtesy of SEINet Arizona-New Mexico Chapter.

Kallstroemia grandiflora, the plant formerly known as Tribulus grandiflorus and commonly referred to as the "Arizona poppy," is a low, creeping plant with a show of bright orange flowers during and after the monsoon in the Sonoran desert. Samples of K. grandiflora were collected on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by self-trained ethnobotanist Edward Palmer. Many of Edward Palmer's papers were retained by William E. Safford, who wrote a biography on Palmer, and William Andrew Archer, a former chair of the National Museum of Natural History's (NMNH) Department of Botany. Documents by Palmer, Archer, and Safford coalesced and were eventually transferred to the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) as the "Edward Palmer Papers."

Other materials by Palmer exist elsewhere in the archives, including photographs, maps, and vocabularies. William Safford was himself a US Naval officer who collected for the U.S. National Museum, and some of his photographs were donated to the NAA by his wife. Within the Palmer collection are folders which contain both handwritten notes by Palmer and typewritten duplicates of Palmer's notes by Safford or Archer - sometimes with additional unsigned, handwritten corrections or queries. In the end, at least five individuals contributed content to the collection, representing a confluence of interests, careers, and experiences among many people and across many decades at NMNH. From among this particular multi-vocal tangle emerges K. grandiflora.

Palmer's earliest sample of K. grandiflora still within the NMNH Botany Department holdings comes from the city of Guaymas, Sonora in the year 1887 - Palmer Sample 177(1),(2). Yet Palmer's notes from that year are scant and make no mention of this plant, despite noting the bloom times of chrysanthemum, rose, and tuberose in the region (3). His 1887 specimen of K. grandiflora finally reappears over 60 years later when William Andrew Archer compiled Palmer's collection notes into a series of index cards.

Notecard for Tribulus grandiflorus, 1887, Edward Palmer Papers 1869-1920,
Box 11, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. 

The unsigned handwritten corrections point to ongoing name confusion. The plant is commonly referred to in English as "Arizona poppy," despite not being part of the poppy family Papaveraceae but rather the caltrop family Zygophyllaceae. In the Mexican Spanish spoken during Palmer's time, the plant was referred to as "mal de ojo" (in English, “the evil eye”) or "abrojos" but these two terms can also refer to two other plants: desert globemallow (Sphaerlacea ambigua) and puncture vine (Tribulus terrestris) - the latter plant being known for distributing its thorns into passersby's clothes, shoes, and - most painfully - feet (5),(6).

Notecard for Kallstroemia grandiflora, 1898. Edward Palmer Papers 1869-1920.
Box 11, National Anthropological Archives, ,Smithsonian Insitution.

Yet the lack of original documentation for Palmer Sample 177 is actually fitting for a plant sample: emphasis on sample. K. grandiflora produces flowers which are likely cross-pollinated by a regional wasp, Campsoscolia octomaculata (7). Later, the flowers become self-pollinating. In either case, another agent becomes involved: C. octomaculata, the vibrations from another insect shaking the pollen onto the stigma, or even wind moving the plants around and shaking pollen onto the stigma. Beyond pollination, K. grandiflora is part of a larger ecosystem. The plant roots itself in sandy, alkali soils which are unacceptable to many plants and absorbs monsoon floodwaters. For two other non-pollinating wasps (Bembix u-scripta and Myzinum Navajo) K. grandiflora provides a source of nectar. As Archer mentions on a notecard for a later sample of the plant, residents of Saltillo used the tops of the plants to treat rheumatism and K. grandiflora is often spotted in 'wasteland' (8). Using the documentation in the Edward Palmer papers, the plant can be seen as a part of our bodies, our economies, our visual landscape, and our understanding of space.

Much like K. grandiflora, the Edward Palmer Papers reflect the involvement of many agents, not all of whom were working at the same time or on the same projects. The 60+ year gap between Palmer’s trip to Sonora and the creation of Archer’s notecards reflects the fits and stops which characterize scientific discovery, and science within a natural history museum. The collection is a snapshot, or a sample, of some of the ongoing processes in the careers of ethnobotanists, the administrative staff behind them, politics, and infinitely deep ecologies around the globe – all at particular times. Upon being transferred to the NAA the records were re-organized, meaning they are also representative of archival theory in practice.

Together, the NMNH Botany collection and Edward Palmer Papers provide us with two complementary samples. While the dried sample of K. grandiflora can give us structural information on the species, it tells us little about the ecology from which it emerged and can only tell so much about the collector. For instance, Palmer's existing 1887 notes touch on other interests which took up his time: local market offerings, politics, racial ideologies, and a woodpecker pecking on a tin can. Without the archival records we're left with an incomplete picture of how the sample arrived at the Smithsonian and how it fit into Palmer’s complete life in Guaymas. Without Palmer Sample 177, we have no way to experience the materiality and physicality of K. grandiflora in Guaymas 130 years ago. Palmer’s missing notes remind us that no record is complete within itself, which is why interconnected collections – like those found at the Smithsonian Institution – are so invaluable. While this kind of documentary 'trouble' might not be what most researchers hope for, it hints at the complexity of all archival collections and the ways that botanical and archival collections are involved in one another.

Dani Stuchel, Reference Intern
National Anthropological Archives

Sources 

(1) "Palmer Sample 177" is only meant to indicate that this was the 177th sample from Guayamas in 1887, not that it was the 177th sample from Palmer's career or the year 1887.

(2) Kallstroemia grandiflora. Catalog number 14164. Botany Department, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. EZID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/363a7966f-bf47-414f-83a9-196d5a305bd8.

(3) Notes on Plants from Guaymas 1887, Journal Notes 1880-1889, Box 3, Edward Palmer Papers 1869-1920, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

(4) Notecard for Tribulus grandifloria, 1887. Box 11. Edward Palmer Papers 1869-1920, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

(5) Wolf, M. and B. Evancho. 2016. Plant Guide for desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua A. Gray). USDA-NaturalResources Conservation Service, Tucson Plant Materials Center. Tucson, AZ. 

(6) Washington State University Extension Office. Control de abrojo o cadillo. URL: http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/pdfs/puncturevine_spanish.pdf

(7) O'Neill, Kevin M. Pollen foraging and pollination, in Solitary Wasps: Behavior and Natural History. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 2001.

(8) Notecard for Kallstroemia grandifloria, 1898. Box 11. Edward Palmer Papers 1869-1920, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Betsy’s Travels through India

In the Freer | Sackler Archives our best volunteer is a woman named Betsy.  Betsy has been working in the archives since 2001.  Fifteen years of detailed and focused attention that has led to the creation and availability of the Smith and Pope collections.  She is the quintessential no-nonsense woman with a heart of gold.

Sometimes I think that the hard work that goes into making a collection available (doing basic preservation, creating the finding aid, organizing the materials, etc.) is overlooked.  Making a collection accessible to the public is a monumental task.  Collections generally do not arrive ready to be put online, with digital surrogates and finding aids.  Often collections are literally a palette of boxes pulled out of someone’s basement or an unorganized hard drive of materials.  The person who is tasked with organizing a collection for access to the public has to preserve the thought processes of the collection's creator and at the same time ensure that the materials are organized in such a way that they can be combed through by eager researchers.

Betsy hard at work in the Freer | Sackler Archives

This past year Betsy has been working hard on the papers of Dr. Prince Aschwin de Lippe-Biesterfeld, PhD (1914-1988).  Lippe was curator in the Far Eastern Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1949 until 1973. He specialized in Chinese Classical Paintings.  The subject matter of this collection was a bit out of Betsy’s wheelhouse of knowledge, but she is more than capable of working through a collection regardless of subject matter expertise.

from Left to Right): James Cahill, Aschwin de Lippe, H. Bevil, and John Pope.  Taken at National Gallery of Art, 1961. 

There were, of course, some bumps along the way.  The biggest speed bump came with trying to identify locations in the countless photograph slides that Lippe had taken during his travels and study of India.  Betsy has a lot of experience with photographs and she first approached this problem from the angle of making all the negative and slide numbers match to at least give these photographs a sense of order for researchers. Secondarily, she made note of any writing on slides photographs and added those to the finding aid she was building in tandem with her physical overhaul of the Lippe collection.

Some of these notes had difficult to read hand writing.  One particular slide note was hard to read and Betsy asked me if I could make it out.  I starred at it for a while, afraid to verbalize my answer.  She jumped in and said it looks like the second word looked like Butterball, but I can’t make out the first word.  I felt better that I was not the only one who thought it said Butterball.  After a little time we determined that the first word was Krishna.  Since neither of us are subject matter experts, I did a search online and low and behold we discovered that Krishna’s Butterball is a real rock in India.

Krishna’s Butterball in Mahabalipuram, India. Prince Aschwin de Lippe Papers 1940-1988,FSA A2012.01 Box 11, Folder 33

Krishna’s Butterball is one small example of the amount of research and time that goes into making materials clear and organized. Betsy had to check out several books from the library to cross check and confirm locations in India.  She had to completely read through and then figure out a way to order Lippe’s research notes and notebooks so that they both preserved Lippe’s thought processes and could actually be accessed by scholars.

Working on an archival collection is always a long game.  Sometimes you only organize a few folders due to the complexity of the materials. Other days you have epiphanies about connections between various scattered materials and can go through several boxes. We are lucky to have someone as intelligent, tenacious, and dedicated as Betsy working in the Freer |Sackler Archives.

Collections Betsy has Organized:
Myron Bement Smith Collection
John Pope Papers
Prince Aschwin de Lippe Papers

Lara Amrod
Freer | Sackler Archives

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

Flash Forward Friday: Celebrating New Beginnings in an Archive

While many people visit an archive to delve into the past, the people working within them often spend just as much time thinking about the future. Archivists grapple with questions like ‘how can these records be available in 100 years? In 500?’ every day. And, once in a while, we get to celebrate new beginnings as well as moments past.

National Museum of African American History and Culture in Spring 2016, by Michael Barnes, ID#2016-01480.

The Smithsonian Institution Archives just had once such chance with the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. As we followed the news articles and press releases looking forward to the new museum along with everyone else, we also took a look what we could contribute to the celebrations.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Webpage, Smithsonian Institution Archives

First and foremost, we documented the history of this new museum as it joins the ranks of Smithsonian buildings. The Smithsonian Institution Archives website features a history page for each of the Smithsonian museum buildings, and National Museum of African American History and Culture is no exception. While the building is just opening, the museum has been hard at work for years creating public programs, exhibits, and documenting American history. In pulling together this webpage, it is clear that, though the building is just opening, the museum has been creating dynamic programming and engaging exhibits for years. Programs like Save our African American Treasures gave communities and families resources for preserving their own treasures, doing the important work of documenting local history.  Beginning with Let Your Motto Be Resistance, the National Museum of African American History and Culture has been creating exhibits in partnership with other Smithsonian museums.  Documenting these projects, we are looking forward to the many new initiatives they will inspire, while tracing the steps that brought the dream of this museum to reality.

African American Smithsonian Staff featured in African American Contributions to the Smithsonian. Clockwise from bottom left:  Lonnie Bunch, Solomon Brown, Jeannine Smith Clark, and Michael Barnes. Negative numbers SIA2011-0114, SIA2015-0026, SIA2016-0114, and NHB2011-01149. 

We also looked for where our own mission and collections reflected the goals and mission of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and built a project celebrating both.  As the institutional archives of the Smithsonian, charged with documenting and preserving the history of the museums and their staff, we explored African American contributions to the Smithsonian over the years through oral history interviews and a website.  African Americans were among our earliest employees and have been a consistent presence throughout our history, making critical, substantive contributions despite the challenges they faced. From Solomon Brown to National Museum of African American History and Culture Director Lonnie Bunch, we explored our holdings highlighting the stories from our past that will hopefully contribute to a bright future for our newest museum.

Check out the web exhibit to learn more: African American Contributions to the Smithsonian

Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant

Smithsonian Institution Archives 

The Saga of a Battle Ready Volunteer: AKA A Diamond in the Rough

Places of business go through a lot of changes.  Archives are no different.  Seasons and interns come and go.  You have some volunteers for a year or two and others are around forever, becoming part of your work family.  They are indispensable.  The Freer|Sackler Archives has such a volunteer in Betsy.  She has been working here for fifteen years and rarely misses a week, unless she is off traveling the world.  Betsy is an extremely intelligent, quiet, and dedicated volunteer.  She volunteers several places in the region and the Smithsonian is very lucky to have her.  

Bonfil's photograph of Palmyra found in Smith Collection.

Betsy has worked on many collections for us, but none was bigger or more important than the Myron Bement Smith Collection.  Smith was a classical archaeologist, architect, and art historian from New York who had a lifelong devotion to West Asia, accumulating some 87,000 items documenting Islamic art and culture from Spain to India, with an emphasis on architecture.  Smith, like so many scholars of this era, was a methodical man who kept records of everything. This has ended up making his collection even more invaluable to researchers.  For example, some items, such as Félix Bonfils’ 1860s photographs of Palmyra have recently become invaluable because they are the only representations of these important sites.

A few years ago we hit a snag with the Smith Collection, which we thought was done.  We were immensely lucky to have Betsy as our wing woman. We had a researcher, who had worked with the Smith collection before, request something from the finding aid and we went to retrieve it.  Then something odd happened - we could not find the materials. It was not Betsy’s day in the archives, so we requested the researcher come back the next day.  We were hoping it was us just not looking in the right place, rather than something missing.

Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine.

Some of the recovered Smith materials.

The next day rolled around and Betsy looked for the materials as well, but, sadly, she could not find them either.  It was decision making time.  My boss, Betsy, and I talked it out and we came to the decision that all the physical locations in the finding aid needed to be checked.  Was Betsy willing to do this?  Thankfully, she was willing.  During this time, my boss and I were relocating some collections to better utilize the space in the archives.  We were moving glass plates and adjusting shelves when low and behold there, under a shelf, were the missing items from the Smith collection. 

There was another powwow about the Smith Collection and we all decided that Betsy’s check of the Smith collection should expand to the entire finding aid.  The ever hard working Betsy agreed because she wanted the collection to be accurate and as useful to researchers as possible.  She and I worked together even going so far as to re-label a good chunk of the boxes.  Wonderful things have come from overhauling this collection and finding aid, researchers from different areas of study have used this collection and we continue to get requests for this collection on a weekly basis.  All of Betsy’s hard work was worth it.  As she has said, she just wants the collection to be of use and it very much is.

This was a large, important project and Betsy had been working on it for years. So she knuckled down and went through it to make it better, to make it shine. Working with Betsy on this project was educational, meaningful, and wonderful.  I had the honor of getting to know this brilliant woman who volunteers for the Smithsonian and I got to hone my skills as an archivist.

Read more about overhauling this finding aid in Excavating a Finding Aid in Archival Outlook.

Lara Amrod, Archivist

Freer | Sackler Archives


Flashback Friday: The Smithsonian's First Computer

Blogs across the Smithsonian will give an inside look at the Institution’s archival collections and practices during a month long blog-a-thon in celebration of October’s American Archives Month. See additional posts from our other participating blogs, as well as related events and resources, on the Smithsonian’s Archives Month website.

Fred Collier and Jann Thompson with Data Entry Machine, Smithsonian Institution Archives. SIA2013-03885

In this photo you can see Jann W. Thompson seated at a data entry machine looking at printouts from the Smithsonian's Honeywell mainframe computer with Fred Collier, the collection manager in the Department of Paleobiology in the National Museum of Natural History. In 1975, when this photo was taken, the Smithsonian had only a single computer - the Honeywell. Unlike the desktops and laptops of today, this mainframe was a general purpose computer for data processing applications across the Smithsonian.

The data entry machine Jann is working at created a paper tape with holes punched in it.  This paper tape was fed into the mainframe computer for data processing. You can tell just how noisy the data entry machine was from the earmuffs Jann is wearing and the ‘Acoustinet’ surrounding it.

The Smithsonian continued to experiment with new technologies throughout the years, launching our first website in 1995 and experimenting with early email systems across the Mall. To learn more about these developments, check out blog posts by David Bridge, a Smithsonian Institution Archives volunteer:

From a Humble Beginning: The Smithsonian's First Internet Domain

The History of Email at the Smithsonian 


Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant
Smithsonian Institution Archives

Heartland Activists

The Bil Browning and Jerame Davis Papers (Collection AC1334) are among some of the newer acquisitions of the Archives Center in the National Museum of American History. Mostly unassuming and full of things that would not look out of place pinned up to a corkboard above a desk, it will indubitably become a valuable resource to historians of the LGBT rights movement.

When we think of LGBT activism, our thoughts turn to the overcrowded streets where televised Pride parades and festivals are held in cities along the east and west coasts. Yet, Bil Browning and Jerame Davis both hail from two small, largely obscure towns in rural Indiana. Their collection – which is comprised of various documents, photographs, home videos, and even a scrapbook – provides a rare glimpse into LGBT activism as it unfolded in the Midwestern United States and the struggles that accompanied it.

Photograph by Perry Bidelf.  Left to right: Phil Reese, Anthony Niedwiecki, Wayman Hudson, Bil Browning, and Jerame Davis at National Equality March, 11 October 2009.
From the Bil Browning and Jerame Davis Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

I had the rare opportunity to speak with Browning and Davis about the materials they had donated to the Archives Center. While my primary objective was to have them identify photographs that were lacking names or dates, I was also able to talk to them about the events depicted in their collection. It was one thing to spend my day processing the photos and documents, pulling individual papers out of their messy arrangements in cardboard boxes and then sorting them into crisp legal folders. It was another thing entirely to sit down and talk face-to-face with the people who lived the events that I was merely a spectator to, ten or twenty-some-odd years after they took place.

It’s impossible for thoughts to be conveyed through static items, so my interview managed to add a distinctly human element to a process that evokes, at some times, a sense of disconnect. In our discussion, I heard about the discrimination lawsuit that catapulted Davis into activism, and in his own words, “changed the course of [his] life”, listened to Browning discuss his experience running his blog, The Bilerico Project, and learned about why the two of them wanted to include anti-LGBT materials in their collection (the answer to that, as I learned from Davis, was that “future generations need to know all the nasty, horrible things those [expletive deleted] said about us”).

My conversation with the two LGBT activists was truly an incredible experience and helped to flesh out the collection more so than it had already been. I hope that future historians, researchers, and even the general public, will one day take advantage of the rich materials within it and educate themselves about the struggles that members of the LGBT community have faced and continue to face on their journey to achieve equality.

Sara Dorfman, Intern, NMAH Archives Center

Message in a Box

The Freer | Sackler Archives is blessed to have many wonderful volunteers.  Many have been working for the archives for years. They all have collections that they come in every week to work on and care for.  One volunteer, the lovely Charlene, has been work on the Pauline B. and Myron S. Falk, Jr. Papers for several years. She is currently organizing all of the Falk correspondence. Recently, she stumbled upon some truly wonderful letters both sent and received by the Falks.  

They are filled with humor, life, and wonderful use of language.  One can’t help but stop to hear what neat letter Charlene has found on a particular day.  You get the impression that the Falks were warm, intelligent, and entertaining people to be around.

Pauline Falk worked with the Lincoln School for many years.

These letters have given us something more precious that a window into the Falks lives.  They have given us an idea of how diversely and uniquely individuals expressed themselves to one another. You can picture the people writing these letters as if they are in the room.  Furthermore, it reminds us how fun, complex, and different the English language can be.  

Excerpt from Mrs. Pauline Falk's 50th High School Reunion.   It took place in 1978 for the class of 1928.  Several of the classmates could not attend the reunion, but then sent delightful notes to be read at the reunion.

In yet another way, it makes us more aware that the art of letter writing is dying. We have email. We have Facebook. We have Twitter.  We have an endless amount of devices to keep us connected.   We communicate instantly and uniquely, but in a different more abrupt way.

The written word seems to be fighting a losing battle in the war of communication.   This is an era of abbreviated thought, where pausing to contemplate and write a personal letter and send it seems as foreign as an alien planet.

Letter thanking Pauline Falk for all her dedicated service to the Lincoln School, 1953.

Of course, email can be and is used to write thoughtful letters, but more often than not, the language of email seems to have given way to short perfunctory business sentences.  The idea of allowing one’s thoughts to wander deeply before putting words down is almost lost.

Perhaps we should all take the time to pause and breathe before we write and send our next email (or, perhaps, even a physical letter) to a friend.

Lara Amrod
Freer|Sackler Archives