Curious about a portrait of “Old Yarrow” by James Alexander Simpson that hangs in the Peabody Room of Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown public library, James J. Johnston a journalist and attorney decided he wanted to know more and eventually ended up writing a book From Slave Ship to Harvard. The portrait “Old Yarrow” was of Yarrow …
Did you know that there are frozen volcanoes that spew icy particles and water vapor, instead of fiery molten rock? You’ll have to travel millions or billions of miles into the outer solar system to find icy volcanism, also known as cryovolcanism. Many of NASA’s missions to the far-reaches of our solar system have provided evidence …
Today’s post is guest authored by Julie Miller, historian of early America in the Library’s Manuscript Division. Julie has written for Inside Adams before- see her post on “The President and the Parsnip: Thomas Jefferson’s Vegetable Market Chart (1801-1808).” Thomas Jefferson, who liked to count and measure everything, coveted an odometer. While in Paris as …
Today’s post is from Carlyn Osborn, a Library Technician in the Geography and Map Division. Carlyn has a B.A. in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from Johns Hopkins University and is currently a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. With high-resolution images of Pluto and the search for …
When we think of natural disasters, earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires and floods often come to mind, but landslides are one of the most prevalent hazards that exist. NASA scientists study all of these, and the next speaker in our NASA/Goddard lecture series, Dalia Kirschbaum, specializes in the remote sensing and modeling of landslides. Dr. Kirschbaum will …
Today’s post is guest authored by Michelle Cadoree Bradley, a science reference specialist in the Library’s Science, Technology, and Business Division. She is also the author of the blog posts Marie Curie: A Gift of Radium, George Washington Carver and Nature Study and Stumbled Upon in the Stacks, or the Chimp in my Office. It was a …
A new exhibit at the Smithsonian – American Enterprise in the Innovation wing of the National Museum of American History – is telling the history of American business and innovation. According to the Smithsonian, this exhibit “chronicles the tumultuous interaction of capitalism and democracy that resulted in the continual remaking of American business–and American life.” …
The exterior bronze doors of the John Adams Building Building depict figures that brought learning, knowledge, and communication to the world. We have done individual posts on several already, but this post features two that are paired together – Nabu and Tahmurath. Nabu was the scribe for Marduk (often referred to as Bel), who was …