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The Bigger Picture: Visual Archives and the Smithsonian

6 Questions Answered at the Archives

by Effie Kapsalis on December 27, 2012

A couple of months ago, the Smithsonian launched a national advertising campaign to highlight the “Seriously Amazing” research, discoveries, and stories across the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo. Brightly colored billboards posed quirky questions whose answers can be found at the Smithsonian. Answers to some of the questions can be found hidden in the collections of the Archives.  

See what you know and if you get stuck, search in the collections for clues!

1.  Which Smithsonian museum also served as a bachelor pad for rowdy young scientists?

Smithsonian Explorers, The Megatherium Club

Tell me! 

2.  What would my great-grandfather have seen at the Smithsonian in 1855 when it first opened?

Apparatus Room in the Smithsonian Institution Building, 1857

Tell me!

3.  What did Alexander Graham Bell know about the dead body in the Smithsonian Castle?

Tomb of James Smithson in Italy

Tell me!

4.  What is one secret the Smithsonian might never uncover?

Exterior View of Castle

Tell me!

5.  What real-life monster mystery was solved at the Smithsonian?

“The body measures 18 feet in length by 10 feet in breadth…"

Tell me!

6.  What cutting-edge 19th Century military intelligence technology did the Smithsonian help pioneer?

Thaddeus Lowe's Balloon Ascent

Tell me!

Related Resources

  • Marketing and the Smithson Bicentennial, The Bigger Picture Blog, Smithsonian Institution Archives
Categories: Smithsonian History
Tags: American History, Archive
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