As a coastal archaeologist and expert in prehistoric and historic settlement sites in the Chesapeake Bay region, Darrin Lowery of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and University of Deleware, is carefully watching the effects of coastal erosion and rising sea levels on coastal archaeological sites. [...more]
It takes a Tlingit artist up to 2,000 hours, or 83 days, to weave just one ceremonial robe. Not surprisingly, this art form is practiced by a dedicated few including Tlingit artists Teri Rofkar and Shelly Laws of Alaska. In their presentation for the Smithsonian Spotlight series hosted by the Arctic Studies Center at the Anchorage Museum, Rofkar and Laws discuss the methods and cultural significance of robes, spruce root baskets and more. For more information, go to http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/alaska.htm [...more]
“Camping With the Sioux: Fieldwork Diary of Alice Cunningham Fletcher ” is a Web site of the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives consisting of two fascinating journals kept by American anthropologist Alice Fletcher (1838-1923) during a six-week venture into Plains Indian territory in 1881. Drawings of the plains, Indian reservations, and her many campsites in eastern [...] [...more]
Members of the Human Origins Program team at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History describe why they love their job. [...more]
Bruce Smith, anthropology curator at the Smithsonian's Naitonal Museum of Natural History, talks about the Smithsonian explorations in the 1880s to determine who built the ancient earthen mounds in eastern North America. [...more]
Viewed from inside the SOMATOM Emotion 6CT scanner used at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the skeleton and internal organs of this well-preserved Peruvian mummy can now be studied non-destructively and non-invasively. CT scanners are fundamentally changing the way scientists examine museum specimens. The SOMATOM Emotion 6CT scanner was recently donated to the Smithsonian by [...] [...more]
With the gift of a Siemens SOMATOM Emotion 6 CT scanner from Siemens Healthcare, Smithsonian researchers are acquiring information about museum objects that is fundamentally changing the way scientists examine specimens [...more]
This 110-year-old doll made by the Coeur d’Alene tribe and given to the Smithsonian in 1901, was one of three dolls recently sent from Washington, D.C. to Coeur d’Alene’s Old Mission State Park in Idaho, for the exhibition “Sacred Encounters: Father De Smet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West.” Two local newspapers covered [...] [...more]
Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels Park, and Bethesda. Learn more about this 2011 study by clicking here. (Catbird photo by Gerhard Hofmann)
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