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The Bigger Picture: Visual Archives and the Smithsonian

Smithsonian Digitization Update

by Effie Kapsalis on April 14, 2009

Even if you have visited the Smithsonian in person, you probably don’t know that it’s comprised of 19 museums and 9 research centers. You can’t see it all by visiting the Mall in Washington D.C. since there are museums in New York and research centers in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Panama. Each museum and research center researches and collects around different topics, from African Art to Zoology.

Dancers in the Backyard, New Orleans, by Ralston Crawford, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The Smithsonian’s digital collections reflect this diversity. For several years, the Smithsonian Office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has been working to provide the public with a way to search across the Smithsonian’s diverse systems that house the Smithsonian’s digital collections (this effort was recently boosted by a Getty Foundation grant received by OCIO and the Smithsonian Photography Initiative). To date, you can search across 1.9 million records which include 195,000 images, video and sound files, mostly representing the disciplines of art, history, and culture. Most recently, the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden was added to the mix and you can now view artworks by Ralston Crawford across SI.  Search now.

Categories: Collections in Focus
Tags: Digitization
Comments: View 1 comments, or Give us yours!
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Comments (1) – Leave a comment

Justin Keller

Wow. I wish I could visit sometime soon. I bet you can get an amazing look into our country's history.

Justin Keller April 15, 2009 at 2:34 am
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