The Science Media Group (SMG) was founded by Dr. Matthew H. Schneps and Dr. Philip Michael Sadler as an experimental project to explore novel applications of video in the service of science education. In operation at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory from 1989 to 2013, this accession consists of...

The Science Media Group (SMG) was founded by Dr. Matthew H. Schneps and Dr. Philip Michael Sadler as an experimental project to explore novel applications of video in the service of science education. In operation at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory from 1989 to 2013, this accession consists of...

This accession includes administrative records of the Registrars Committee of the American Association of Museums. The Registrars Committee mission is to foster understanding, communication, and cooperation among registrars and other museum professionals; increase professionalism through training, education, and promotion of high standards; an...

The Smithsonian Videohistory Program, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation from 1986 until 1992, used video in historical research. Additional collections have been added since the grant project ended. Videohistory uses the video camera as a historical research tool to record moving visual information. Video works best in historical r...

This accession consists of records that document the administration, research, outreach, and programs of the Biodiversity Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, a bi-national collaborative research project between the Smithsonian Institution and the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (National Institute for Research in the Amazon) in B...

Robert Moody Laughlin was an American ethnologist specializing in the study of Mayan language, history, customs, and folklore. He spent the majority of his career working for the Smithsonian Institution, first with the Bureau of American Ethnology, then with the Department of Anthropology. He was a curator emeritus with the department from his retirement in 2006 until his death in 2020. The Robert Moody Laughlin papers (1899-2016, bulk 1954-2016) document his research and professional activities and primarily deal with language and folktales he recorded and studied, as well as the culture and history of the Tzotzil and other Mayan groups in the Chiapas region. His involvement in language education and training, advocacy for the Tzotzil and language and cultural revitalization, and administrative matters at the Smithsonian are also represented. The collection consists of materials created for books and other publications, field notes, research materials, correspondence, administrative files, sound recordings, video recordings, photographs, and electronic records.

The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.

The Priscilla Reining papers, 1916-2007, primarily document the professional life of Reining, a social anthropologist and Africanist who worked for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from 1974 to 1989. Her area of specialty was sub-Saharan Africa, specializing in desertification, land tenure, land use, kinship, population, fertility, and HIV/AIDS. During the 1970s, she pioneered the use of satellite imagery in conjunction with ethnographic data. She is also known for her ground-breaking research in the late 1980s that showed that uncircumcised men were more susceptible to contracting HIV/AIDS than circumcised men. The collection contains correspondence, field research, research files, writings, day planners, teaching files, student files, photographs, maps, sound recordings, and electronic records. Reining's research files, particularly on the Red Lake Ojibwa, the Haya, HIV/AIDS, and satellite imagery, form a significant portion of the collection.

This collection contains the professional papers of anthropologist Marvin Harris. Harris was a prominent anthropologist, best known for developing the controversial paradigm of cultural materialism. He authored several important books in the field of anthropology and taught at Columbia University and The University of Florida. The papers include correspondence, research materials, his publications, unpublished manuscripts, conference papers, lectures, subject files, teaching files, computer files, and photographs.

This accession consists of records documenting the administration of approved and rejected grants at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). Topics covered include grant proposals and extensions, projects, and finances. Materials include correspondence, memoranda, proposals, budgets, notes, reports, grant applications, agreements...