Engaging Smithsonian Objects Through Science History And The Arts

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Engaging Smithsonian Objects through Science, History, and the Arts

Mary Jo Arnoldi
Engaging Smithsonian Objects through Science History and the Arts Book PDF

Author : Mary Jo Arnoldi
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2016-01-05
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN : 9781935623731

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Engaging Smithsonian Objects through Science, History, and the Arts by Mary Jo Arnoldi Pdf

How do we come to know the world around us? What about worlds apart from our own—outer space, distant cultures, or even long-past eras of history? Engaging Smithsonian Objects through Science, History, and the Arts explores these questions and suggests an answer: we come to know our world and worlds apart through the objects that represent them. Objects are a window, and by looking through them we can learn and understand more about the people who made them and the time and place they came from. In the pursuit of this understanding museums are invaluable; they are repositories not just of things but also of past, present, and future knowledge. Engaging Smithsonian Objects puts these ideas into practice, using objects to bring us to new knowledge and showing how museums support us in the endeavor. The book is organized around ten objects from the Smithsonian’s vast collections. Some of the objects are iconic—the Ruby Slippers from the The Wizard of Oz or three Stradivarius string instruments—while others are more ordinary, though no less interesting—an Iron Lung or a Hawaiian gourd drum. Two different authors with expertise in different academic disciplines write about each object from their unique professional and personal perspective. Both the authors and the ten featured objects represent a range of academic disciplines, from art to anthropology to geology. Taken together, the twenty essays in the book demonstrate just how much we can learn from objects by considering their kaleidoscopic meaning and significance from a variety of viewpoints. The book’s interdisciplinary engagement with objects was inspired by the Smithsonian Material Culture Forum, now in its twenty-sixth year. For students of material culture and museum studies, this book illustrates the vitality and value of exploring material culture through the lens of intersecting disciplinary perspectives. For students of curiosity and lifelong learning, this book offers a lively and thoughtful look into the Smithsonian’s collection and the many vibrant worlds it represents. Richly illustrated with color plates and photographs throughout, Engaging Smithsonian Objects through Science, History, and the Arts is a beautiful and stimulating answer to the question, “How do we know our world, and how can we know more?”

The Object at Hand

Beth Py-Lieberman
The Object at Hand Book PDF

Author : Beth Py-Lieberman
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2023-09-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9781588347503

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The Object at Hand by Beth Py-Lieberman Pdf

From Dorothy's ruby slippers to a speech that saved Teddy Roosevelt from assassination, this authoritative guide delivers in-depth reportage on the history of remarkable objects from the Smithsonian's collections For American history, pop culture, and museum enthusiasts With charm and exuberance, The Object at Hand presents a behind-the-scenes vantage point of the Smithsonian collections. Veteran Smithsonian magazine editor Beth Py-Lieberman weaves together adaptations of the magazine's extensive and compelling coverage and interviews with scholars, curators, and historians to take readers on an unforgettable journey through the Smithsonian museums. Objects are grouped into the themes audacity, utopia, fierce, haunting, deception, lost, desire, triumph, scale, optimism, playful, rhythm, and revealing to engage with the emotional dimensions of each object, how they relate to each other, and how they fit into the larger American story. A sampling includes: The Star-Spangled Banner Frida Kahlo's love letter to Diego Rivera Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5B Nat Turner's Bible An AIDS quilt panel honoring Roger Gail Lyon A signpost from the Standing Rock protest A glass-plate portrait of Abraham Lincoln Life-sized model of a Megalodon The Hope Diamond Chuck Berry's Cadillac Portrait of Henrietta Lacks Py-Lieberman reflects on the profound connections between even outwardly dissimilar objects, and offers insight and stories from Smithsonian experts. The book explores artworks, scientific specimens, historical artifacts, airplanes, spacecraft, plants, and so much more, contemplating how each item represents different facets of humanity and resonates with cultural meaning in surprising ways. Whimsical, affecting, and insightful, The Object at Hand offers an intimate and exclusive tour of the Smithsonian collections.

The Science of James Smithson

Steven Turner
The Science of James Smithson Book PDF

Author : Steven Turner
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2020-11-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781588346902

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The Science of James Smithson by Steven Turner Pdf

Accessible exploration of the noteworthy scientific career of James Smithson, who left his fortune to establish the Smithsonian Institution. James Smithson is best known as the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, but few people know his full and fascinating story. He was a widely respected chemist and mineralogist and a member of the Royal Society, but in 1865, his letters, collection of 10,000 minerals, and more than 200 unpublished papers were lost to a fire in the Smithsonian Castle. His scientific legacy was further written off as insignificant in an 1879 essay published through the Smithsonian fifty years after his death--a claim that author Steven Turner demonstrates is far from the truth. By providing scientific and intellectual context to his work, The Science of James Smithson is a comprehensive tribute to Smithson's contributions to his fields, including chemistry, mineralogy, and more. This detailed narrative illuminates Smithson and his quest for knowledge at a time when chemists still debated thing as basic as the nature of fire, and struggled to maintain their networks amid the ever-changing conditions of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

Learning Things

Doug Blandy,Paul E. Bolin
Learning Things Book PDF

Author : Doug Blandy,Paul E. Bolin
Publisher : Teachers College Press
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2018-06-08
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780807759196

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Learning Things by Doug Blandy,Paul E. Bolin Pdf

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Lumia

Keely Orgeman
Lumia Book PDF

Author : Keely Orgeman
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 173 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2017-04-11
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780300215182

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Lumia by Keely Orgeman Pdf

A long-overdue publication that restores Wilfred to the art-historical canon Lumia presents a long-overdue reevaluation of the groundbreaking artist Thomas Wilfred (1889-1968), whose unprecedented works prefigured light art in America. As early as 1919, many years before the advent of consumer television and video technology, Wilfred began experimenting with light as his primary artistic medium, developing the means to control and project unique compositions of colorful, undulating light forms, which he referred to collectively as lumia. Manifested as both live performances on a cinematic scale and self-contained structures, Wilfred's innovative displays captivated audiences and influenced generations of artists to come. This publication, the first dedicated to Wilfred in over forty years, draws on the artist's personal archives and includes a number of insightful essays that trace the development of his work and its relation to his cultural milieu. Featuring a foreword by the celebrated artist James Turrell, Lumia helps to secure Wilfred's rightful place within the canon of modern art.

A Distinctive Voice in the Antipodes

Kirsty Gillespie,Sally Treloyn,Don Niles
A Distinctive Voice in the Antipodes Book PDF

Author : Kirsty Gillespie,Sally Treloyn,Don Niles
Publisher : ANU Press
Page : 519 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-17
Category : Music
ISBN : 9781760461126

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A Distinctive Voice in the Antipodes by Kirsty Gillespie,Sally Treloyn,Don Niles Pdf

This volume of essays honours the life and work of Stephen A. Wild, one of Australia’s leading ethnomusicologists. Born in Western Australia, Wild studied at Indiana University in the USA before returning to Australia to pursue a lifelong career with Indigenous Australian music. As researcher, teacher, and administrator, Wild’s work has impacted generations of scholars around the world, leading him to be described as ‘a great facilitator and a scholar who serves humanity through music’ by Andrée Grau, Professor of the Anthropology of Dance at University of Roehampton, London. Focusing on the music of Aboriginal Australia and the Pacific Islands, and the concerns of archiving and academia, the essays within are authored by peers, colleagues, and former students of Wild. Most of the authors are members of the Study Group on Music and Dance of Oceania of the International Council for Traditional Music, an organisation that has also played an important role in Wild’s life and development as a scholar of international standing. Ranging in scope from the musicological to the anthropological—from technical musical analyses to observations of the sociocultural context of music—these essays reflect not only on the varied and cross-disciplinary nature of Wild’s work, but on the many facets of ethnomusicology today.

Remaking the Human

Alvaro Jarrín,Chiara Pussetti
Remaking the Human Book PDF

Author : Alvaro Jarrín,Chiara Pussetti
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2021-04-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781800730328

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Remaking the Human by Alvaro Jarrín,Chiara Pussetti Pdf

The technological capacity to transform biology - repairing, reshaping and replacing body parts, chemicals and functions – is now part of our lives. Humanity is confronted with a variety of affordable and non-invasive 'enhancement technologies': anti-ageing medicine, aesthetic surgery, cognitive and sexual enhancers, lifestyle drugs, prosthetics and hormone supplements. This collection focuses on why people find these practices so seductive and provides ethnographic insights into people’s motives and aspirations as they embrace or reject enhancement technologies, which are closely entangled with negotiations over gender, class, age, nationality and ethnicity.

The Smithsonian Experience

Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Experience Book PDF

Author : Smithsonian Institution
Publisher : Smithsonian Books (DC)
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1977
Category : Reference
ISBN : UCR:31210003248471

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The Smithsonian Experience by Smithsonian Institution Pdf

The seven sections of the book focus on places and people where the Smithsonian is particularly active: Up front with the exhibits, behind the scenes with the objects and the collections themselfes, in the laboratories and out at the zoo with natural history scientists, looking at the human condition with anthropologists & etc.

Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street

Kylie Message
Collecting Activism Archiving Occupy Wall Street Book PDF

Author : Kylie Message
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 139 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2019-09-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9781315294070

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Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street by Kylie Message Pdf

Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street explores the material collections produced by participants of Occupy Wall Street in 2011 that bear witness to the experience and agency of ‘the 99%’. Examining processes of collection development as a lens through which to investigate the sociology of protest and reform movements, the book questions what contribution a dual study of the material culture of dissent and the production of a collection hosting the material culture of dissent might offer to a range of disciplines and practices. It asks if and how a collections-based study can test the propositions, tactics, and limits of activism from archival, museological, and political perspectives. Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street draws from interdisciplinary fields, including museum studies, collection studies, archive studies, cultural studies, and public history. It will be a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners engaged with contemporary cause-based collecting, activist archiving, public history, and the cultural politics and sociology of social reform movements. It models strategies for ‘activating’ historical archives and collections-based data, and for engaging with autoethnographic records to represent and analyze the material residue of protest and reform movements today.

Best of Both Worlds

G. Wayne Clough
Best of Both Worlds Book PDF

Author : G. Wayne Clough
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
Page : 78 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2013-09-17
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780981950013

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Best of Both Worlds by G. Wayne Clough Pdf

Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, asks “How can we prepare ourselves to reach the generation of digital natives who bring a huge appetite—and aptitude—for the digital world?” He explains how the Smithsonian is tackling this issue in Best of Both Worlds: Museums, Libraries, and Archives in a Digital Age. Libraries and archives have already made many documents available through the Internet. The digital world presents a bigger challenge for museums; producing images of 3D objects is more complicated, and collections are built with exhibitions in mind rather than open access on computers. In 2009, the Smithsonian began digitizing its vast collections to make them accessible to the millions of people who do not visit the museums in person. “Digital access can provide limitless opportunities for engagement and lifelong learning.” Clough sees museums gradually moving beyond showcasing collections to engaging the public online so “visitors” can access the objects they find most interesting. Education has always been at the core of the Smithsonian. Today, the Smithsonian offers materials and lesson plans that meet state standards for K–12 curricula; online summits on many diverse subjects; the Collections Search Center website; and apps. The Smithsonian’s website, www.seriouslyamazing.com, draws people in with fun questions and then takes them deeper into the subject. The question “What European colonizer is still invading the U.S. today?” reveals not only the answer—earthworms—but also in-depth info on worms from environmental researchers. Clough concludes with this thought: “While digital technology poses great challenges, it also offers great possibilities.”

Things New and Strange

G. Wayne Clough
Things New and Strange Book PDF

Author : G. Wayne Clough
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2019-05-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780820355238

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Things New and Strange by G. Wayne Clough Pdf

Things New and Strange chronicles a research quest undertaken by G. Wayne Clough, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution born in the South. Soon after retiring from the Smithsonian, Clough decided to see what the Smithsonian collections could tell him about South Georgia, where he had spent most of his childhood in the 1940s and 1950s. The investigations that followed, which began as something of a quixotic scavenger hunt, expanded as Clough discovered that the collections had many more objects and documents from South Georgia than he had imagined. These objects illustrate important aspects of southern culture and history and also inspire reflections about how South Georgia has changed over time. Clough’s discoveries—animal, plant, fossil, and rock specimens, along with cultural artifacts and works of art—not only serve as a springboard for reflections about the region and its history, they also bring Clough’s own memories of his boyhood in Douglas, Georgia, back to life. Clough interweaves memories of his own experiences, such as hair-raising escapes from poisonous snakes and selling boiled peanuts for a nickel a bag at the annual auction of the tobacco crop, with anecdotes from family lore, which launches an exploration of his forebears and their place in South Georgia history. In following his engaging and personal narrative, we learn how nonspecialists can use museum archives and how family, community, and natural history are intertwined.

The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects

Richard Kurin
The Smithsonian s History of America in 101 Objects Book PDF

Author : Richard Kurin
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 784 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2013-10-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781101638774

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The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects by Richard Kurin Pdf

The Smithsonian Institution is America's largest, most important, and most beloved repository for the objects that define our common heritage. Now Under Secretary for Art, History, and Culture Richard Kurin, aided by a team of top Smithsonian curators and scholars, has assembled a literary exhibition of 101 objects from across the Smithsonian's museums that together offer a marvelous new perspective on the history of the United States. Ranging from the earliest years of the pre-Columbian continent to the digital age, and from the American Revolution to Vietnam, each entry pairs the fascinating history surrounding each object with the story of its creation or discovery and the place it has come to occupy in our national memory. Kurin sheds remarkable new light on objects we think we know well, from Lincoln's hat to Dorothy's ruby slippers and Julia Child's kitchen, including the often astonishing tales of how each made its way into the collections of the Smithsonian. Other objects will be eye-opening new discoveries for many, but no less evocative of the most poignant and important moments of the American experience. Some objects, such as Harriet Tubman's hymnal, Sitting Bull's ledger, Cesar Chavez's union jacket, and the Enola Gay bomber, tell difficult stories from the nation's history, and inspire controversies when exhibited at the Smithsonian. Others, from George Washington's sword to the space shuttle Discovery, celebrate the richness and vitality of the American spirit. In Kurin's hands, each object comes to vivid life, providing a tactile connection to American history. Beautifully designed and illustrated with color photographs throughout, The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects is a rich and fascinating journey through America's collective memory, and a beautiful object in its own right.

Behind the Scenes: Science and Education at the Smithsonian Institution

Science And Technology Committee,House of Representatives of the United States Staff,Research and Science Education Commitee
Behind the Scenes Science and Education at the Smithsonian Institution Book PDF

Author : Science And Technology Committee,House of Representatives of the United States Staff,Research and Science Education Commitee
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 52 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2010-07-21
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1477522859

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Behind the Scenes: Science and Education at the Smithsonian Institution by Science And Technology Committee,House of Representatives of the United States Staff,Research and Science Education Commitee Pdf

The Smithsonian Institution (SI) was founded in 1846 by the United States Congress in response to a bequest of $500,000 by British scientist James Smithson, donated "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." The original Smithsonian 'Castle' contained a library, lecture halls, exhibits and demonstrations, laboratories, and scientific artifact collections. In the last 160 years, SI has expanded to include 19 museums and galleries and nine research facilities, and 168 other museums around the country are now affiliated with the Smithsonian. SI employs over 6,000 people and has as many volunteers, and publishes Smithsonian and Air & Space magazines in addition to other scholarly works. The Smithsonian collections include over 137 million objects, specimens, and works of art. In 2009, SI museums and the National Zoo welcomed over 30 million visitors, while Smithsonian websites had over 188 million hits. The Smithsonian is currently the largest museum and research complex in the world.

Life on Display

Karen A. Rader,Victoria E. M. Cain
Life on Display Book PDF

Author : Karen A. Rader,Victoria E. M. Cain
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 482 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2014-10-03
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780226079660

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Life on Display by Karen A. Rader,Victoria E. M. Cain Pdf

Life on Display traces the history of biological exhibits in American museums to demonstrate how science museums have shaped and been shaped by understandings of science and public education in twentieth-century society. Karen Rader and Victoria Cain document how public natural history and science museums’ ongoing efforts to create popular educational displays led these institutions to develop new identities, ones that changed their positions in both twentieth-century science and American culture. They describe how, pre-1945, biological exhibitions changed dramatically--from rows upon rows of specimen collections to large-scale dioramas with push-button displays--as museums attempted to negotiate the changing, and often conflicting, interests of scientists, educators, and the public. The authors then reveal how, from the 1950s through the 1980s, museum staffs experimented with wildly different definitions of life science and life science education, and how, in the process, natural history and science museums and science centers faced significant public and scientific scrutiny. The book concludes with a discussion of the ways corporate sponsorship and contemporary blockbuster economics influenced the content and display of science and natural history museums in the century’s last decades. As a dynamic historical account of how museums negotiated their multiple roles in science and society, Life on Display will attract a diverse audience of cultural historians, sociologists, and ethnographers of science, as well as museum practitioners.

Museums, Children and Social Action

Sharon E. Shaffer
Museums Children and Social Action Book PDF

Author : Sharon E. Shaffer
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 122 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2023-12-15
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781003834007

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Museums, Children and Social Action by Sharon E. Shaffer Pdf

Museums, Children and Social Action examines the role that museums play in reaching, teaching and inspiring children as global citizens of the world and, looking to the future, argues that the sustainability of museums will come from strengthening relationships with young visitors. Presenting a diverse range of programs, exhibitions and outreach from museums across five continents, Shaffer highlights how museums are already serving children and making a difference in their lives. Arguing that museums have a unique responsibility to connect this audience with relevant social issues and challenges, such as social injustice, racism, climate change and poverty, Shaffer simultaneously acknowledges that a large number of children are still on the margins of the institution and its mission. Recognizing the ways in which museums are currently serving children, the book also considers what museums could and should be doing as they plan for the future, raising critical questions about core values, community partners and social agendas. Museums, Children and Social Action is essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of museums, social justice and childhood. It encourages museums to make it their mission to educate and serve this audience and their families for the good of children, as well as museums, while also considering what their institutions can do to make a lasting impact on children and their families.