The AA/PG Library Collections To support the research of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Archives of American Art, the AA/PG Library collection of 180,000 books, exhibition catalogs, catalogues raisonnes, serials and dissertations is concentrated in the area of American art, history, and biography with supportive materials on European art. The Library also contains artists’ books, ephemeral materials, auction catalogs, scrapbooks, microforms, and A/V material. All can be located through the Smithsonian Libraries’ online catalog (http://siris-libraries.si.edu/). Specific information for using AA/PG Library resources can be found on the Using the AA/PG Library page. Special Collections ...
One of 21 libraries in the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives system, the Anacostia Community Museum Library was created in 1991 to support the research, exhibitions, and public programs of the Smithsonian’s first neighborhood museum, as well as the research needs of the Smithsonian and researchers at large. The Anacostia Community Museum is now the institution’s only museum with a particular focus on documenting community history and culture, and over the years, the library has adjusted the collection to best reflect the new mission of the museum. As a result, the library collection has grown to over 8000 volumes, with a ...
The Botany Library was established in the winter of 1965-1966 when the Botany Department moved into the newly-built West Wing of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) building. The library provides research support for the Department of Botany, NMNH and the large number of botanists world-wide, who use the collections and resources. The Horticulture Branch Library was established in 1984, to provide research support for the Horticulture Services Division, now Smithsonian Gardens. Smithsonian Gardens is responsible for the management of the gardens, grounds, greenhouses, and interior plantscaping at the Smithsonian Institution. The Library evolved from a small office collection that ...
The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library is the major resource in the United States for books, trade catalogs, serials, pictures, and archival material covering design and decorative art from the Renaissance to the present. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Library explore the theory, history, process, material, pattern, use, and social aspects of designed objects (ranging from stained glass to computers) as well as the design of gardens, buildings, interiors, theater sets, and cities. The Library also features more than 15,000 Rare and Restricted Use treasures including several 16th century lace patterns guides, rare 18th century brass and furniture trade catalogs, ...
The approximately 11,000 volumes of rare books and the 1,600 manuscript groups in science and technology donated by the Burndy Library in 1974 form the core of the Dibner Library's collection. Over the years the collection has been supplemented by the Smithsonian's own holdings and gifts from individuals and institutions and now numbers some 35,000 rare books and approximately 2,000 manuscript groups. The Library's holdings are contained within and searchable via the Smithsonian Libraries' online catalog, SIRIS. Heralds of Science The most widely recognized portion of the Dibner Library are the "Heralds of Science:" 200 works selected by Bern Dibner as the most ...
The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Library supports the research and exhibition program of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and is the only library within Washington, DC dedicated solely to modern and contemporary art. The library is located on the 4th floor of the museum at Independence Avenue, SW & 7th Street, SW in Washington, DC. It is open to the public by appointment Monday-Friday, 10 am – 5 pm, with the exception of federal holidays, delays, and closures by calling 202-633-2773 or e-mailing us at HMSGLibrary@si.edu. Materials must be used onsite. The Library participates in remote reference, interlibrary loan, the museum ...
The Anthropology Library, officially known as the John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology, is located within the Anthropology Department of the National Museum of Natural History. Its collection reflects the important role that the Smithsonian Institution played in the development of anthropology as a formal discipline in the United States. The Anthropology Library was established in 1965 with the merger of two principal Smithsonian collections--the library of the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE;1879-1965) and the divisional collections of the Department of Anthropology. The former supported "anthropological researches" among the indigenous people of the Americas and was considered one of the ...
The Cullman Library holds the Smithsonian's collection of rare books in anthropology and the natural sciences. Its world-class collection contains approximately 20,000 volumes published before 1840 in the fields of physical and cultural anthropology, ethnology, Native American linguistics, and archeology; botany; ornithology, mammalogy, herpetology, ichthyology, entomology, malacology, and other zoological fields; paleontology; and geology and mineralogy. The publications of seventeenth- through nineteenth-century voyages of exploration are a special strength, as is the history of museums and scientific collecting. The Cullman Library makes the books available to researchers by direct access in the reading room and through reference assistance (including limited ...
The Museum Support Center Library serves the research needs of all staff at the Smithsonian's Museum Support Center (MSC) in Suitland, Maryland. See below for subject areas covered by the MSC collections. Books and serials are arranged in the Library of Congress classification system. Stacks are open to Smithsonian staff and visitors to MSC. Specific information on Branch Library holdings may be obtained from the library staff. The Museum Support Center is a museum collections management facility designed for the purposes of collections storage, research, and conservation. One of the first such facilities in the world of its kind, the MSC was ...
A premier aviation and aerospace history collection, the National Air and Space Museum Library supports research by the Museum’s curatorial staff and aviation researchers around the world. It’s one of the largest branches in the Smithsonian Libraries’ twenty-branch system, which is analogous to a university library system. The general collection consists of monographs (books), serials, technical reports, government publications and microforms. With approximately 40,000 volumes, the collection supports the following research: aerospace, including aviation history air transport and aviation (civil and military) astronomy balloons and ballooning flight material, including propulsion geology: lunar, planetary, and terrestrial remote sensing rocket engine design ...
The National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC) Library is devoted to collecting and providing access to resources that support scholarship in African American history, culture, and the African Diaspora. The Library also supports research in genealogy and family history. Located on the second level of the museum, the Library features a reading room with public computer stations, stack space for 11,000 volumes, electronic and print resources, and a case for rotating exhibits of items from the library and archives. Please visit the following page for more information about research appointments: https://nmaahc.si.edu/national-museum-african-american-history-and-culture-library. In-person appointments are available by appointment. Library reference is available ...
As a premier American history collection and one of 21 branch libraries in the Smithsonian library system, the National Museum of American History (NMAH) Library supports research in the following areas: all areas of American history, including social, cultural, political, and economic events and development, along with their impact on everyday American life advances in technology, including machinery and transportation scientific and medical history The NMAH Library is open to all Smithsonian affiliated staff, researchers, volunteers, interns, and fellows, and to visiting researchers by appointment. Books and journals are arranged by the Library of Congress classification system, and some stacks are open to ...
The National Museum of Asian Art Library originated as a collection of four thousand monographs, periodical issues, offprints, and sales catalogues that art collector Charles Lang Freer donated to the Smithsonian Institution as part of his gift to the nation. With more than one hundred thousand volumes, the Library is one of the finest repositories of Asian art resources in the United States. Since it opened in the Freer Gallery in 1923, the Library's purpose has been to foster and stimulate study of the artistic traditions and cultures of the peoples of Asia. The Library maintains the highest standards for collecting ...
The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Library consists of the main location (on the 1st floor and basement of the NMNH's East Court) and 11 specialized collections throughout the NMNH building. These collections are located within the NMNH Entomology, Invertebrate Zoology, Vertebrate Zoology, Mineral Sciences and Paleobiology departments. The NMNH Main Library and its satellite locations all have strong collections of 19th- and 20th-century literature (thanks in part to the gifts of early Smithsonian curators). Pre-1840 titles are accessible in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, which is part of the Special Collections Department, SIL. The ...
Your philatelic adventure starts here. The Smithsonian's National Postal Museum houses one of the largest and most significant philatelic and postal history collections in the world and one of the world’s most comprehensive library resources on philately and postal history. The Library has one of the world's largest and most accessible collections of philatelic literature. The National Postal Museum is dedicated to the preservation, study and presentation of postal history and philately through stamps and objects. The Library supports the museum's mission: Through the preservation and interpretation of our postal and philatelic collections, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum educates, challenges, and inspires ...
The evolution of the Libraries’ outreach at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park (NZP) and Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) reflects how profoundly American zoos have changed in the last 50 years. What used to be called wildlife management is now conservation biology, and the traditional study of animals based on physical characteristics has evolved into investigation based on genetic distinctiveness. As the care and study of wild animals become increasingly sophisticated, the Libraries’ expanding collections and evolving services are more critically needed than ever before. Located on the grounds of the 160-acre Zoo in Washington, D.C. and the 3,100-acre campus of ...
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Library, located in Edgewater, MD, is one of 21 branch libraries in the Smithsonian Libraries system. It was founded in 1977 at the Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies (CBCES) to support the Center's research and education programs. The CBCES was renamed the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in 1986 upon the closing of the Smithsonian Radiation Biology Laboratory (SRBL) in Rockville, MD and the partial merging of staff and collections. The SERC Library collections provide support for Smithsonian scientists studying ecological systems and processes and SERC's education staff and programs. The library primarily serves the ...
The Smithsonian Institution Archives captures, preserves, and shares with the public the history of this extraordinary Institution. From its inception in 1846 to the present, the records of the history of the Institution—its people, its programs, its research, and its stories—have been gathered, organized, and disseminated so that everyone can learn about the Smithsonian and its role in American history, scientific exploration, and with the promotion of international cultural understanding. Overview In the earliest organizing documents of the Smithsonian, the importance of maintaining archival records was explicitly mentioned. Throughout the years the record-keeping practices of the Archives have evolved into ...
The Smithsonian Libraries Research Annex (SLRA) holds over 50,000 monographs, over 300,000 periodical holdings, and is the most subject-diverse branch within the Smithsonian Libraries system. SLRA's collection of late 19th and early-mid 20th Century trade periodical literature is a scarce collection that includes U.S. Patent Office Library legacy serials. These trade periodicals document the material culture of the Industrial Era in the United States and Great Britain, giving nuance to the literal machinations of Victorian and turn-of-the century middle class life. All aspects of American life, as well as major developments in industry like the steam engine, electricity, and the mechanical printing press are represented. History and Culture. Applied ...
The Earl Silas Tupper Library in Tropical Biology, located on Ancón Hill, Panama City, Republic of Panamá, supports the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). The Library is one of twenty-one branches of the Smithsonian Libraries, supporting research, publications, exhibits and public programming of STRI, as well as those of other museums and research institutions in Panamá and across Central America. About STRI In 2010, STRI celebrated 100 years of tropical biology research beginning with the Smithsonian’s Panama Biological Survey in 1910–1912. Scientists who contributed to the U.S. effort to build the Panama Canal by eradicating disease-carrying mosquitos, with colleagues from the Institute for Research ...
In operation since 1999, the Vine Deloria, Jr. Library of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is the 20th library of the Smithsonian Libraries and is located in Suitland, MD in the Cultural Resources Center (CRC) where it shares research and collection space with the NMAI Archives. The Deloria Library research materials include over 40,000 volumes of books, periodicals, microfilm, and media in the main collection; a small, but growing rare book section; Native American Artist Files; and, ephemera. The Library collections cover the broad range of topics and disciplines related to the histories, cultures, arts, and contemporary ...
The Warren M. Robbins Library at the National Museum of African Art, founded in 1971, is the major resource center in the United States for the research and study of the visual arts of Africa. Its collection of more than 50,000 volumes covers all aspects of African visual arts, including sculpture, painting, printmaking, pottery, textiles, crafts, popular culture, photography, architecture, rock art, and archaeology. The African Art Library has significant supporting collections of African ethnography, musicology, performing arts, theater, cinema, oral traditions, religion, creative writing, and arts in the African Diaspora as well as general information on the history of ...