Such a lovely story 👇

Seen while walking around town.... DC samizdat...

APS Together: an online book club led by a renowned author w/ participants from around the world. Dickens' Bleak House, led by Yiyun Li, starts 10/14 to 11/30. Hosted by APS Together.(Full disclosure: I've read War & Peace & Moby Dick via this program -highly recommend the experience.)

Smithsonian extends its opening through October 11th.

The Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art both receive federal funding, but both institutions have announced they are using their reserves to stay open, at least for a little while. Other museums are offering discounts to federal employees.

Re-posting my Tuesday story on the imminent sale and likely destruction of government-owned murals by Ben Shahn and Philip Guston. The Trump administration is a cascade of emergencies; this one requires rapid mobilization by preservationists. Followup tomorrow. newrepublic.com/article/2010...

Job posting: Online Project Mgr, Nat'l Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian. Closing date: 10/7; FT 2yr position; remote, $101,401-$141,826. Plans & manages online projects; works w/ Web team, project teams, contractors to develop, produce & maintain the museum’s website & online products

Jane Goodall, Legendary Primatologist and Anthropologist, Dies at 91 www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Join web pioneers Sir Tim Berners-Lee & Brewster Kahle in conversation about building and preserving the internet. 📅 Thurs, Oct 9 @ 7:30 PM PT 🎟️ IN-PERSON & VIRTUAL Details ➡️ blog.archive.org/event/buildi...

Job opening: Winiarski Curator of Food & Wine History @ Nat'l Museum of American History;CLOSING DATE: October 14, 2025; FT, on-site, Washington, DC; $120,579-$156,755/y To lead the Food History Project, a multidisciplinary initiative exploring American history through the lens of food and drink.

Job Opening: Museum Specialist @ Nat'l Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian. Closes: 10/14; GS9 - $69,923-$90,898/yr; FT, onsite, Washington, DC. Located in the office of Collections; responsible for assisting the Digitization Team.

Meet the Scientist Digitizing Millions of Fossilized Pollen Grains to Reveal Earth’s Climate History #archives #pollen www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/nation...

For years, those applying for jobs in the federal government were strongly advised to submit expansive resumes that documented their experience in great detail, length be damned. That ends on September 27th with a new 2-page limit.

Heidi Meudt & I will give a FREE virtual 1hr Wiki webinar focusing on plant biodiversity. Open to anyone wanting to improve their digital outreach skills by enriching #Wikipedia, #Wikidata & #WikiCommons. Tuesday 14th of October at 3pm NZST. Register to get link: tepapa.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

JOB: Data Curation Network Director hr.myu.umn.edu/psc/hrprd/EM...

On this day in 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on the National Mall. When you are next in Washington, DC go visit this amazing institution.

It’s entirely legal for federal agents to hide their identity, but it’s not necessarily normal — and it’s taking a deep toll on D.C., @samdelgado.bsky.social reports.

We’re not just planning for a digital future: we’re living in a digital present. How do we make a sustainable cultural memory? @TJOwens.bsky.social & @ShannonMattern.bsky.social discuss in the #booktalk AFTER DISRUPTION. 🗓 Thurs Sept 25 🕖 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET 🎟️ www.eventbrite.com/e/1633230118...

New job: Senior Social Media Strategist @ Smithonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. (Job closes once 150 applications are received, so apply NOW if interested.) FT, Washington, DC; $101,401-$131,826/yr Develop/execute comprehensive social media strategy across the Museum.

Hey, let's look at some amazing and fun art! The State Fairs show at The Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery is a must-see. Seed art by Liz Schreiber

Really cool story about long-distance pollen transport by migratory hoverflies. The actual research paper is here: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Inclusions! Thank you for this information. For years I have been wondering if there was a term for items left within the pages of a book. (I had been calling them biblioartifacts...)

Job opening: Archaeologist (Community Liaison) @ Smithsonian Nat'l Museum of Nartural History. Closes 09/26/24. 3 yr position; FT, Washington, DC; Salary $84,601 - $109,975/yr. To perform repatriation-related research/outreach activities.

Lloyd Herman Curator @ Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery. Scholar of American decorative arts, craft, design, or a related field to support all curatorial aspects of work in the Gallery. (This job closes after 300 applications: apply NOW if interested.) FT, onsite Washington, DC; Salary $101,401 /yr

Agnes “Aggie” Gund saw the arts as a powerful way to combat social injustice and education inequity. A staunch advocate and major art collector, Gund was known for her philanthropic endeavors that bolstered underrepresented artists and underserved communities.

DH Post-doc opportunity @smithsonian. 1 year; $70K stipend +$5K health insurance offset. Deadline: 10/17/25. Lead a project to improve the discoverability of the digitized collections using AI. Develop knowledge graphs to ID interconnections between Smithsonian objects, datasets, & publications.

My lab is running a study to investigate how serendipity relates to information seeking in digital collections. We're looking for researchers & practitioners who have used, designed, or stewarded digital collections to participate in our survey (<10 min): forms.gle/zGJDZZ14vx2M...

A photo of the National Mall taken on Labor Day weekend at 10:50AM (FWIW museums open @ 10:00AM.) Family visits taper off around Labor Day due to the start of school, but the near-deserted Mall on a beautiful holiday weekend struck me as so unusual that I photographed it.)

Excellent table-setter for what might happen next in Trump’s ongoing efforts to control DC, by the great @maustermuhle.bsky.social of @51st.news

Posters advertising the National Book Festival, hosted for 25 years now by the Library of Congress. 1. Inaugural poster 2. This year's poster (celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Festival) 3. My favorite poster (because of the Hilma af Klint vibe...)

Job Opening: Museum Specialist @ Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. FT, 1 yr:,onsite (NYC); Salary: $72,017/yr Deadline: 10/3/25 Conducts scholarly research, planning, writing, execution, & installation of exhibitions. Repts to Associate Curator/Head of Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design

this is great, lovely to see the policy working and lovely to see the @51st.news finding its groove

We love a good museum visit, and we’re guessing you do, too — test your knowledge with this month’s Art Crossword to kick off fall, with clues on Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic rotunda, the Parisian railway station that became an art museum, and more.

Job Opening: Museum Specialist (Digitization Team) @ Nat'l Museum of African American History & Culture. IMPORTANT: Position closes after first 125 applications rec'd - apply NOW if interested; FT, onsite, Washington, DC; $69,923 - $90,898 /year. Core tasks: cataloging/digitizing collections

Job Opening: Production Coordinator, National Museum of American History's Center for the Understanding of Religion in America. 3-year term position. Apply by 09/16/25. FT, onsite, Washington, DC; $69,923 - $90,898/yr. To assist w/ theater programs, facilitated interactives, and public engagement.

THEY VOTED TO RESTORE THE IMLS FUNDING. This isn't the end. It's nowhere near the end. But the House and Senate subcommittees voted to restore the IMLS in their budget markups. Full House budget markup is tomorrow.

No one does better sleuthing within museum data to get at historical sources than @siobhanleachman.bsky.social and her colleague.

An example of an Indigenous algorithmic knowledge system that offers an alternative, more humanistic model for AI...

If you've ever struggled to take good photographs of fossils (or other reasonably stationary natural history objects), here's a beginner's guide to scientific fossil photography I wrote a while ago (and should probably update). coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2016/02/pale...

CASVA Fellowships at the National Gallery of Art are amazing. (CASVA = Center for Study in the Visual Arts - the Gallery's research center.)

job Posting: Deputy Director, Smithsonian Office of Sponsored Research. CLOSING DATE: September 19, 2025 Permanent, FT, Onsite - Washington, DC; Salary $167,603 - $195,200 / year (not a federal position)

So much effort, so *little* impact....

Every once in a while I stumble on a humanities db that feeds my soul... "BASIRA (Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art)-a new, open-access db of representations of books & other documents in the figurative arts between 1300- 600 CE basiraproject.org

Job Posting: Rights & Reproductions Specialist @ Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Application Deadline September 9, 2025; FT, onsite, Washington, DC. Salary: $69,923 - $90,898 / year