#Smithsonian Libraries

[histsciart]

Great Eared Nightjars

Lyncornis macrotis.

These wonderful birds, who resemble dragons, live in Southeast Asia, and they are masters of camouflage by blending in seamlessly with their arboreal environs during their daytime respite. At night, they begin their hunt for insects, catching them on the wing.

SciArt by Elizabeth Gould and John Gould for John Gould's Icones Avium (c.1837). View more beautiful bird illustrations from this publication in Biodiversity Heritage Library's Flickr album.

[thebotanicalarcade]

n19_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: Paxton's magazine of botany London;Orr and Smith [etc.]. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48360846

[golgafrincham]

Written and compiled by Robert Ridgway, the first full-time curator of birds at the Smithsonian. He described and named many new species but was conscious that color terms used by other ornithologists' could be difficult to interpret and visualize. He published two books to standardize the vocabulary of colors for naturalists and they are still widely used.

Check out the full book digitized from the Smithsonian Libraries' collection at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Image from page 174 of “A nomenclature of colors for naturalists : and compendium of useful knowledge for ornithologists.” (1886)

[monkeyssalad-blog]

n262_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: A companion to Mr. Bullock's London Museum and Pantherion [London] :Printed for the proprietor,1812. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28995358

[spearxwind]

I mentioned a while ago that ive been working out at home with random junk including a toolbox, I think I should let you guys know that another of the things i use for weight lifting is a heavy book about the ocean

[dix-a-la-proprietaire]

Glass

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Playing

Smithsonian Ethnic Folkways Library PALESTINE LIVES! SONGS FROM THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE

[folk-enjoyer]

[rogerriddle]

Albert Racinet - L’Ornement Polychrome

PLATE III EGYPTIAN ART. JEWELLERY.

"TOMBS,'' says M. Auguste Mariette, "sometimes become historical monuments from the variety of articles placed by the side of the dead. In them are often found the objects which form the groundwork of all collections: amulets, statuettes of the gods, jewels, papyri, etc."

Most of those perfect specimens of Egyptian jewellery which are so invaluable to those engaged in ornamental work have been obtained from the abodes of the dead. The broad and inflexible character of Egyptian design, so often admirably expressed m metal, is especially suited to the work of the lapidary, and we ought to congratulate ourselves on the custom which required that every deacl body should be adorned with at least one necklace.

No. l.-Naos or breastplate of cloisonne enamel, with a tablet below the frieze bearing the name ofRameses II., XIXth Dynasty.-Louvre. No. 2.-Framework of gold, filled in with glass.-Louvre. Both these articles are from the Serapeum of Memphis. (The Serapeum is the mausoleum of A.pis. Thus the god of the Serapeum, that is to say Serapis, is merely A.pis dead.-A.ug. Mariette.) No. 3.-Scarabams of lapis-lazuli with wings of glass beads. (The scarabams, among the Egyptians, was the symbol of immortality.) No. 4.-Necklace from the head of A.pis. Nos. 5, 6, 7 -Bracelets of cloisonne enamel. Nos. 8, 9,-Rings opened out. Nos. 10 to 26.-Ear-rings, necklaces, and amulets. No. 27 .-Sphinx near a stela, composed of the androcephalic lion. (The symbolism of the sphinx has not yet been sufficiently elucidated. According to the Greeks it signified strength, both physical and intellectual.) Nos. 28 to 33,-Jewellery after paintings at Thebes. From the publication of the French Egyptian Commission and 1I. Prisso d'Avesnes. (Monuments egyptiens, 4 vols. folio; Paris, Diclot.)

[lesterpubliclibrary]

StoryWalk® at LPL by Lester Public Library Via Flickr: StoryWalk® on the Patrick Gagnon Memorial Trail through the library gardens features - "We are All Under One Wide Sky" - and runs during World on the Move: 250,000 Years of Human Migration. Lester Public Library is one of 15 libraries across the United States awarded to host this important exhibit. Learn more about the exhibit here: understandingmigration.org/ Lester Public Library, Two Rivers, Wisconsin

[histsciart]

🦋 Butterflies 🦋

SciArt by William Purkiss for the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, Vol. 17 (1903-6).

View more in the Biodiversity Heritage Library with thanks to the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives for digitizing.

[thebotanicalarcade]

n158_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: Icones plantarum selectarum Horti Regii Botanici Berolinensis cum descriptionibus et colendi ratione /. Berolini :[Decker],1820-1828.. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35991326

[skywarpie]

Not to be gay on main but I got a date next week with a person that seems like an exact copy of me. We're both American history majors, want to live in DC and work at the Smithsonian, want to work in the archives at some point.

What the fuck

[monkeyssalad-blog]

n15_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique /. A Paris :Chez J.J. Fuchs, libraire ...,7, 1799-1808. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41411837

[govpubsfinds]

The Smithsonian Institution, Eighth Annual Report

"Every city has its library, so has almost every village, and so have a large number of our common schools. Familiar as this fact is to many of us, it presents a new phase of society, and one indicative of mighty influences. The library is the necessary complement of the school. To teach children to read, and then to give them nothing to supply the desire awakened, is mockery."

The Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution gives an account of the operations, expenditures, and the condition of the Institute up to the time of this publication in 1854, as well as the previous annual reports going back to the founding of the Institution and the will of its benefactor, James Smithson.

The report of the Assistant Secretary in charge of the Library, Charles C. Jewett, reports the additions to and total numbers of the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Library in 1854. Jewett emphasizes the value of the exchange and donation of material, as opposed to purchasing items. He also reports to the Board the nation-wide need for libraries, and proposes one central, "voluntary yet harmonious" library system.

Smithsonian Institution. Board of Regents., Smithsonian Institution., United States National Museum. (1965). Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Full text available on HathiTrust

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 385

Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan

Peabody Essex Museum / Smithsonian American Art Museum / Yale University Press 2007

Published to accompany a traveling retrospective of Joseph Cornell’s (1903-1972) work in 2007 and 2008, this book is a beautiful tribute to an artist whose work defies easy categorization. Of the two large-format books I own about Cornell, I would have to give the edge to this one in terms of which is the better book. First off, this one is beautifully bound in full red cloth. Secondly, it offers much more of Cornell’s illuminating source material, some rarer pieces that are not usually reproduced, and even includes some previously unpublished art.