Smithsonian Libraries and Archives


Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an institutional archives and library system comprising 21 branch libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. The Libraries and Archives serve Smithsonian Institution staff as well as the scholarly community and general public with information and reference support. Its collections number nearly 3 million volumes including 50,000 rare books and manuscripts.
The Libraries' collections focus primarily on science, art, history, culture, and museology. The archives include materials documenting the history of the 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, 9 research facilities, and the people of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is dedicated to advancing scientific and cultural understanding as well as preserving American heritage. The organization's Book Conservation Lab and other preservation efforts work to ensure long-term access to library and archival resources. Additional efforts include educational programs for learners of all ages, hosting internships and fellowships, and participating in collaborative projects such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Digital Public Library of America.
Formerly two separate units within the Smithsonian, the Smithsonian Libraries and Smithsonian Institution Archives merged in 2020.

Mission

History of the Smithsonian Libraries

The original library was founded by an Act of Congress on August 10, 1846, when the Smithsonian Institution was named a trust instrumentality of the United States. The Act created a Board of Regents for the Institution, and called for a building to house a museum with geological and mineralogical cabinets, a chemical laboratory, a gallery of art, lecture rooms, and a library.
The Smithsonian Libraries system as it exists today was not established until 1968, when Secretary S. Dillon Ripley realized that the existing library organization was greatly in need of an overhaul. He created a new position, Director of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and hired Russell Shank to fill the role. Shank reorganized the library staff and procedures, and created a modern, unified system with central services and a union catalog. By 1977, when Shank left, the quality and research value of the scientific collections were recognized nationally, and SIL was invited to join the Association of Research Libraries. SIL was granted a seat on the executive board of the Federal Libraries and Information Centers Coordinating Committee.
The late 1970s and 1980s also saw a growth in the number of Smithsonian Libraries branches, brought about by a range of donations to the Institution. In 1976, ten thousand rare scientific books and manuscripts were gifted to the Smithsonian by the Burndy Library, prompting the creation of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology under the Smithsonian umbrella. Several years later, large donations of artifact collections led to the formation of new museums for subjects such as African art, American Indian culture and postal history and a new library branch was subsequently formed for each of these as well.
The 1990s introduced an expansion of the Libraries' focus to improve their ability to reach and educate the general public. The introduction of electronic and Internet technology played a large role in spurring this new outreach endeavor. In 1999, under the leadership of director Robert Maloy, Smithsonian Libraries staff completed a fourteen-year long effort to create a public access online catalog, with 97 percent of their then-holdings gaining digital records. The Smithsonian Research Information System was introduced in the 2000s, providing the capability to search records of text, images, video and sound files from across the Smithsonian Institution.
In March 2013, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries formally changed its name to Smithsonian Libraries "to simplify and strengthen the Libraries as part of an overall rebranding in the modern era". The Smithsonian Libraries and Smithsonian Institution Archives merged in December 2020 and the organization changed its name to the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

Early leadership (1846–1968)

  • Charles Coffin Jewett, Assistant Secretary acting as Librarian
  • Jane Turner, first female employee of the Smithsonian, assigned as keeper of accession records for books after Jewett's dismissal
  • Theodore Gill, Assistant to the National Library
  • John Murdoch, librarian
  • Cyrus B. Adler, Assistant Secretary in Charge of Library and Exchanges
  • Frederick W. True, Assistant Secretary in Charge of Library and Exchanges
  • Paul Brockett, Assistant Librarian
  • William L. Corbin, librarian
  • Leila F. Clark, librarian, first to hold a library degree
  • Ruth E. Blanchard, Librarian
  • Mary A. Huffer, Acting Librarian

    Directors

  • Russell Shank
  • Robert Maloy
  • Vija Karklins
  • Barbara J. Smith
  • Nancy E. Gwinn
  • Scott Miller
  • Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty, inaugural director of the newly merged Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
  • Liza Kirwin

    History of the Smithsonian Archives

In 1891, William Jones Rhees, Chief Clerk of the Smithsonian Institution, became Keeper of the Archives. He served until 1907. Current records and historical files were maintained by Office of the Secretary's administrative staff through the middle of the 20th century. John F. Jameson III became Archivist in 1958. His successor, John DeGurse, Jr., served from 1960 to 1964.
Beginning in 1965, Smithsonian Archivist Samuel T. Suratt was charged with "development of the Archives as a facility for historical research in American Science by making the Archives' resources more readily accessible to historians through better identification, preservation, and cataloging of Smithsonian documents." The Archives were physically relocated to the Smithsonian Castle, and received separate line-item funding.
Nathan Reingold, the editor of the Joseph Henry Papers Project, served as Acting Archivist from 1969 to 1970. In January 1970, Richard H. Lytle began a tenure as Archivist which included the 1973 establishment of an oral history program, and the 1976 relocation of the Archives to the Arts and Industries Building. Most of the Smithsonian museums increased acquisitions and conducted surveys during this period; new guides were issued 1971 and 1978. In 1981, William A. Deiss became Acting Archivist, upon Lytle's departure to head up the Smithsonian's computer services. 1983 saw yet another new guide to the expanding repositories, and the appointment of William W. Moss as Director.
By fiscal year 1988, the stacks in the Arts and Industry Building had filled up, and about 5,000 cubic feet of records were sent to leased warehouses at Fullerton Industrial Park, South Springfield, Virginia. New developments included the Smithsonian Archives and Special Collections Council, The Smithsonian Videohistory Program, which collected interviews focused on American science starting in 1987, and an "exhaustive survey" of the photographs housed in Smithsonian facilities.
Moss continued as director of the reorganized Office of Smithsonian Institution Archives in 1993, which contained an Archives Division, an Institutional History Division, and a National Collections Program. Pamela M. Henson succeeded Moss as Acting Director in 1993, followed by John F. Jameson Fr. in 1994. In 1994, Edie Hedlin became Director. She served until 2005, presiding over the transition to electronic information and the creation of the first websites. The "fourth printed Guide to the Smithsonian Archives... described over 1,100 record units comprising some 15,500 cubic feet of archival material," and appeared in 1996. Many archival records were moved to a storage facility, Iron Mountain, in 1997. Acting Director Thomas Soapes served from 2005 to 2007, followed by the present Director, Anne Van Camp.
The Archives division consisted of three divisions: a Records Management Team, the Arrangement and Description Team which created "finding aids, bibliographic records, and agency histories" and the Reference Team responding to visits and remote queries from researchers. The Records Management Team took over the work of the Arrangement and Description Team in 2007. The Preservation Team, responsible for long-term preservation of Smithsonian Archives materials, consultation, and outreach, is part of the larger Technical Services Division. It offers services on a fee basis to other archives and repositories, including offsite storage at the Boyers, Pennsylvania facility. The Smithsonian Center for Archives Conservation was created with initial funding of $100,000, provided by Eleanor McMillan, which supported the salary of a paper conservator. The Institutional History Division has authored an online history of the Smithsonian, and provides web access to over 3,000 digital images. The 12-volume Joseph Henry Papers Project, a history of the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was published in 2007. The Electronic Records Division has held digital records since the mid-1990s, and works with "risk management, preservation and conservation" of data in current and obsolete formats, including archiving of the Smithsonian websites. It has also conducted joint research on e-mail record preservation with the Rockefeller Archive Center.
The Smithsonian Institution Archives moved into the Capital Gallery Building in August 2006, and has "a state-of-the-art storage facility; a reading room; several special viewing/listening rooms; processing and preservation space; digital imaging and audiovisual processing facilities; an oral history interview studio; and a conservation lab."
The Smithsonian Libraries and Smithsonian Institution Archives merged in December 2020.

Collections

Subjects

The collections held by the Libraries reflect the various disciplines and scholarly pursuits of the curators and researchers of the Smithsonian Institution. Strengths in the collections include the following areas:
  • Arts: U.S., Americas, Africa, Asia, Middle East
  • Design and decorative arts
  • History and cultures: U.S., African American, Latino, Native American
  • Postal history
  • World's Fair ephemera
  • Aviation history and space flight
  • History of science and technology
  • Natural history, tropical biology, environmental management, and ecology
  • Physical and cultural anthropology
  • Materials research
  • Museology
The Smithsonian Libraries also holds the United States' largest trade literature collection, which includes nearly commercial catalogs dating from the early nineteenth century, representing about 40,000 companies.