Smithsonian Libraries

New Arrivals in the History, Art, and Culture Digitization Project!

Greetings once again from the world of the History, Art, and Culture (HAC) Digitization Project! Over the last couple of months, I’ve highlighted digital selections from the Warren M. Robbins Library of the National Museum of African Art as well as the Vine Deloria, Jr. Library at the National Museum of the American Indian, here and here, respectively.

This month, we take a look at SILRA. By any definition, the centerpiece of our digitization efforts at SILRA are the bicycling-related serials. To date, we’ve scanned over 100 items spanning titles like “The Wheel World,” "The Bearings,” and “The Bicycling World and Motorcycle Review.”

Bicycling was at the center of a craze which hit its zenith in the 1880’s. These titles are replete with fascinating contributions from enthusiastic lovers of the sport. These magazines have it all. Everything from cycling themed prose and poetry, to cartoons, to announcements and minutes of conferences and meetings. Even the advertisements for the “latest” technological advances in bicycle engineering provide clues to the intensity of the bicycling craze of the era.

And contemporary interest in these titles is just as fervent, if not as widespread. The Libraries holds the most comprehensive runs of serials on the subject and according to Mike Hardy, Branch Chief at SILRA, “these are the most heavily used titles in the collection.  Nearly every visitor wants to use one or more of these titles.” I asked him about why researchers were interesed in these titles, here's what he had to say:

"The first visitor I had at our new location was a 72-year-old retired Canadian naval officer from Nova Scotia, whose specialty was training helicopter search and rescue teams from both the U.S. and Canada. His hobby, since age 14, is collecting head lamps from turn of the century bicycles. He was writing an encyclopedia on the subject, and had collected two of every type/model of these lamps ever made in North America — except one, he was still searching for one more of a particular lamp. He spent the better part of week with the serials.

I had another visitor, a retired gentleman from St. Louis, who was researching bicycle seat designs of the 19th and early 20th century. According to him, importance of seat designs went beyond ergonomics to include cultural aspects considered equally important. Cycling was a popular activity for both men and women in the late 19th century. The seat designs for women were considered critical: no one wanted a women to be ‘injured’ as a result of poor seat design – nor to have seat design be considered as an excuse for the loss of virginity!"

Very proper indeed!

—Erin Thomas

Spotlight on...Mike Hardy

Mike Hardy is truly a jack of all trades. Before joining the Libraries, Hardy worked as a greens keeper at a private golf course, delivered furniture, carried groceries to shut-ins, managed a gas station, worked as part of a surveying crew for the communications cables between Atlas sites, had a long career in the Navy (24 years), served as an organization development consultant, and taught English in Taiwan. Phew! Hardy currently manages the collection at the Libraries' Research Annex (SILRA), and before this post was the serials manager at the National Museum of American History Library for three years.

Hardy is a native of Illinois and graduated from the State University of New York with a B.A. in geography. His hobbies include reading science and history non-fiction, and listening to several musical genres: rock, soul, blues, jazz and, as he describes, “a lot of weird world music!”

Hardy is truly a Smithsonian enthusiast; his favorite destinations in the DC area are the Smithsonian museums. He also likes to go to the U.S. Botanic Garden and the National Arboretum, and visit local national wildlife refuges. Upcoming excursions for Hardy include going to the International Spy Museum and the upgraded National Aquarium, located in the Department of Commerce building. A seasoned world traveler, Hardy has either lived in or visited the following countries: Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kenya, Bahrain and Mauritius. He can speak, read and write Chinese, and has also been to 40 of the 50 U.S. states.

Hardy’s job at SILRA is complex. He performs all of the usual library duties (ie: circulation, interlibrary loan, inter-branch transfers, reference) yet also deals with a heavy traffic of acquisitions and withdrawals. In fact, since starting his position at SILRA six years ago, Hardy has shipped over 4700 feet of materials to federal and other non-profit libraries. Hardy receives new donations and inspects them for insect, mold or other types of trauma. He is currently sorting and shelving a 10,000+ piece collection of mail order catalogs. SILRA also serves as a clearing house for placing the items in the correct library branches, in particular those shipped out of the DC area, to the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library in New York, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Library in Panama, and the National Museum of American Indian Library, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Library, both in Suitland, Md.—Liz O'Brien

photo by Lu Rossignol

Buon Compleanno Leonardo

Leonardo da Vinci was born today in Vinci, Florence in 1452. The Libraries has books throughout  its many locations featuring this unique artist and inventor's interests in art, science, architecture and anatomy - just to name a few of his passions:

Leonardo da Vinci : the artist, inventor, scientist in three-dimensional, movable pictures / / by A. & M. Provensen. Paper engineering by John Strejan.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library, New York, New York (image above)

The curves of life : being an account of spiral formations and their application to growth in nature, to science, and to art : with special reference to the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci / / by Theodore Andrea Cook.
National Museum of Natural History Library, Washington, D.C.

Man with wings; the story of Leonardo de Vinci, / by Joseph Cottler.
National Air and Space Museum Library, Washington, D.C.

The inventions of Leonardo da Vinci / / Margaret Cooper.
National Museum of American History Library, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo da Vinci on plants and gardens / / William A. Emboden ; foreword by Carlo Pedretti.
Botany and Horticulture Library, Washington, D.C.

Visualized knowledge : an interpretation of Leonardo's Madrid Codices / / by Professor Ludwig H. Heydenreich ; A special address given to commemorate a preview of original folios from The Madrid manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci.
John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology, Washington, D.C.

Mona Lisa : inside the painting.
Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo da Vinci, anatomical drawings from the Queen's Collection at Windsor Castle.
Museum Studies Reference Library, Washington, D.C.

I Leonardeschi ai raggi x / / Mostra a cura della Direzione civiche raccolte d'arte. Milano, Castello Sforzesco, 23 novembre-31 dicembre 1972.
Museum Support Center Library, Suitland, Maryland

Reonarudo da Vinchi no sekaizō / / Tanaka Hidemichi cho = Leonardo da Vinci's vision of the world / by Hidemichi Tanaka.
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library, Washington, D.C.

Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studj, e le opere di Lionardo da Vinci / / scritte da Carlo Amoretti ...
Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo's rules of painting : an unconventional approach to modern art / / James Beck.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library, Washington, D.C.

L'architettura fortificata negli studi di Leonardo da Vinci : con il catalogo completo dei disegni / / Pietro C. Marani.
Research Annex, Landover, Maryland

—Elizabeth Periale