Smithsonian Libraries

1/4 Wild Blood!

An image from a 1901 seed catalog back cover, featuring some Bronze Turkeys with "1/4 wild blood."

These images are also part of the Libraries online exhibition, Seed Catalogs.

Happy Thanksgiving from Smithsonian Libraries!—Elizabeth Periale

Harris' Rural Annual, Joseph Harris Co., Coldwater, NY, 1901. 

The Power of Advertising

The Libraries exhibition, Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration is still on exhibit at the National Museum of American History, through the end of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. If you are strolling around the National Mall, you may see some colorful signage for the show, which will hopefully lead you to the exhibition and our wonderful books.—Elizabeth Periale, photos by Liz O'Brien

Installing signage near the Hirshhorn Museum

Near the Smithsonian Castle

Near the Smithsonian Castle

Darwin’s On the origin of species was Published Today, in 1859

“The most important single book in science”—Bern Dibner, Heralds of Science 

One hundred fifty years ago, in November 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the origin of species was published. The 1,250 copies of that first edition sold out in a single day. Oddly, the exact date is not entirely clear: Darwin’s diary says the book went on sale on November 24, but the publisher’s records say that it was November 22. (A second edition of 3,000 copies came out just a month and a half later on January 7, 1860.) Whatever its birth date, the book took both the scientific and popular worlds by storm. The theory of evolution was not new even in Darwin’s time, but he identified the natural forces acting on species of plants and animals (for example, geographical isolation and sexual selection) that resulted, over enormous spans of geological time, in new species.

The idea was immensely controversial, considered by many to challenge Biblical teachings about the creation of the world and even the existence of God. Though rejected to this day by Christian literalists, the scientific evidence for natural selection is irrefutable and indeed growing through modern genetic and other biological studies. On the origin of species has been published in more than 250 editions in English and translated into at least 29 other languages—from Armenian to Chinese, Greek, Hindi, and Turkish. the Libraries holds over 30 different editions of the book, including the first two London editions, which will take turns on display in our exhibition Darwin’s Legacy, in the National Museum of Natural History until Sept.12, 2010. Additional photos of the exhibit case can be viewed on the Libraries flickr page.—Leslie Overstreet, photos by Liz O'Brien

From Beowulf to Libraries and beyond...

The Libraries has been working with the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center's Kindergarten class this year on a variety of educational activities. A visit earlier this year was featured in Smithsonian online newsletter The Torch.

Most recently, afternoon enrichment teacher Josh Beasley invited Elizabeth Periale from the Libraries to share a book from her personal collection—a reproduction  of the Bayeux Tapestry—with the children. Beasley tied the Bayeux Tapestry to themes from stories like Hamlet and Beowulf that he had adapted for the children, along with concepts like the "Everywhere Library" as well as great libraries that hold treasured books, such as the Cotton Library, Bodleian Library and our own Cullman Library. The children effortlessly found related images and themes throughout the truly enriching lesson.

The adventures will continue . . . —Elizabeth Periale, photos by Liz O'Brien