The earliest records concerning the National Zoological Park date from 1887. They were kept by the Office of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution until 1890, when they were transferred to Holt House, the Park's administrative headquarters. During the late 1960's the records were transferred to the custody of the Smithsonian Institution...

The Myron Bement Smith collection consists of two parts, the papers of Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine and the Islamic Archives. It contains substantial material about his field research in Italy in the 1920s and his years working on Islamic architecture in Iran in the 1930s. Letters describe the milieu in which he operated in Rochester NY and New York City in the 1920s and early 1930s; the Smiths' life in Iran from 1933 to 1937; and the extensive network of academic and social contacts that Myron and Katharine developed and maintained over his lifetime. The Islamic Archives was a project to which Smith devoted most of his professional life. It includes both original materials, such as his photographs and notes, and items acquired by him from other scholars or experts on Islamic art and architecture. Smith intended the Archives to serve as a resource for scholars interested in the architecture and art of the entire Islamic world although he also included some materials about non-Islamic architecture.

This collection is comprised of photographic and manuscript materials, primarily created by Eliot Elisofon to document his travels and work. The images portray many aspects of African life and culture including agriculture, wildlife, archaeology, architecture, art and artisans, children, cityscapes and landscapes, leaders, markets, medicine, recreation, ritual and celebration, and transportation. The manuscript materials include correspondence, essays, clippings, puobligations, notes, research, and itineraries.

The W. Atlee Burpee & Company records, dated circa 1873-1986, document the firm's business activities developing plant varieties, working with contract seedsmen, and marketing and selling seeds. They include seed trial records, seed contracts, sales and acccounting records, inventories, office correspondence, seed catalogs, promotional and instructional materials, advertisements and advertising reports, contest letters, daybooks, photographs, reference materials, and other items relating to the company and some of its competitors. The collection also includes Burpee family papers.

This collection consists of postcards gathered by Dr. Victor A. Blenkle, a twentieth century physician. The postcards primarily concern geographical locations and landmarks in the United States and Western Europe, but also include materials from six other continents.

This collection contains the non-book portion of Bellcomm's Technical Library. The material in the collection consists of technical reports prepared by NASA subcontractors and/or NASA facilities during the first decade of space exploration (1960-1970). The collections also includes some reports issued by the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) at Pasadena, CA, including Space Program and Research Summaries, as well as technical and engineering documents.

A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. Series 2 materials include cinema lobby cards, fire insurance maps, photographs and scrapbooks of liquor and wine labels. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.

Sports and trading cards, 1952-1996, amassed by card collector Ronald S. Korda. The sports cards are subdivided by sport. Baseball cards, (1952-1996), comprise the vast majority of the sports cards, while football (1968-1996) and hockey (1968-1996) are the two next largest subseries. There are lesser quantities of cards for basketball, and only a few each for all other sports, such as racing, skiing, etc. Non-sports cards cover a large variety of popular culture topics, including motion pictures, television programs, popular music, toys, games, cars and trucks, comics, fantasy art, and many other subjects. Some ephemeral items are also included in the collection, such as sticker albums, posters and programs

Primarily war-related posters.

This collection includes postcards from 45 African countries. Subjects include agriculture; animals; artists; body arts; cityscapes; cultural landscapes; dance; education; expeditions; flora; industry; leaders; marketplaces; medicine; military; missionaries; music; portraits; recreation; rites and ceremonies; and transportation, among many other topics.