Who doesn’t love a great adventure story? One replete with strange new lands, hard journeys across the high seas, and amazing new sights to behold . . .

Journey through the Commons and you might find … … a voyage to Antarctica at the turn of the last century.

State Library of New South Wales

Explorers headed toward the North Pole …

Library of Congress

… and the Inuit they find there.

National Maritime Museum

Adventure beckoned in the then-New Frontier, as when Yosemite was encountered by Western travelers …

New York Public Library

… or the unknowns of South America.

Field Museum

And then there is tomorrowland …

State Archives of Florida

… and outer space!

Smithsonian Institution

Show us the Commons explorations you’ve found in our Flickr group.

The Swedish National Heritage Board is looking for help identifying places in a number of photographs by Carl Curman newly added to the Board’s Commons collections. You can read more about what’s missing at the Board’s own blog.

We’d love to hear about any identifications in the Flickr Commons group topic as well!

Unidentified location in Norway (Carl Curman)

Manhufe
Amadeo de Souza Cardoso com a avó materna
e Lucie de Souza Cardoso, 1914-1915.
Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian: [ASC02-22 IC]

The painter Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, with Lucie and mother.

view + comment on Flickr

Our First Oldsmobile - 1897, New York Public Library

The headlines are filled this week with the news of General Motors, an American icon, declaring bankruptcy. The New York Public Library takes us on a stroll down memory lane with six sets of GM photographs, chronicling the storied manufacturers history, in their G.M. and Chrysler Cars and Trucks, 1897-1938 collection on the Flickr Commons.

Heard around the Commons:

• Help the NYPL! Donate today to the New York Public Library. Services there are now at risk; even throughout the Great Depression, The New York Public Library was able to maintain seven days of service.
• Read all about the Civilian Conservation Corps’s (CCC) 1933 Camp Arboretum, from the Oregon State University Archives. Sort of ties in with that whole Depression-era thing we have going on lately.
• Check out OSU’s new finding aids, too.
• Brooklyn Museum API: the iPhone app released on iTunes!
• Wales in Europe – art without frontiers – Read about the National Library of Wales’ contributions to EuropeanaTravel.
• WIGGLE! JIGGLE! Get jiggity with stereoscopic images from the National Library of New Zealand. Read more at our Flickr group.
• 1000th Tyrrell image in the Commons (1265 released in total) – Celebrate with the Powerhouse Museum on this milestone by commenting, tagging, and viewing!
• And check out their new Flickr group, Sydney Design.
• U. S. Copyright Office to Adjust Fees – Information from the Library of Congress.
• “Everything You Know About Indians is Wrong” – From Smithsonian curator Paul Chaat Smith (review by the Washington Post).
• Take a sneak peak of the a new D.C. Public Library Building.
• The George Eastman House asks for your help in moving them up the charts at CommuniCause’s $25,000 Social Media Makeover contest. Re-tweet early and often!
• Destroying Photographs? A decision made about old photographs for an exhibit by the GEH.
• Conserving Hollywood History at George Eastman House – an article about film preservation that includes some great old stills.
• Print of the Brisbane River donated by the Mackay Historical Society to the State Library of Queensland, Australia.
• The girl on the badge – A story of an Anzac Day donation to the Australian War Memorial.
• Being serious isn’t the whole answer – a great article by the Electronic Museum on Web 2.0 and museums.
• Everyone’s Smithsonian – an entry by Nina Simon on the Smithsonian Institution and multi-platform museum experiences.
• Celebrating 2,020 years of service – A tribute to the Smithsonian’s docents.
• Like birds? Apply to be an exhibit interpreter at the Bird House for the Smithsonian’s National Zoo!

Friday Fun!

Vote at Budget Travel for the squeeeelicious Clouded Leopard cubs at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo! See more of the cubs on Flickr.

Go Visit!

6 June 2009 - Target 1st Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum! Free entertainment.

9 June – The 31st Annual Museum Mile Festival in New York City. Free access to all museums along the mile, including the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum.

Clone Trooper: What? What are we looking at??

Powerhouse Museum	im.mick
ORIGINAL	REMIX

Animals are a common theme in the Flickr Commons, and we’ve noticed some very magnetic images of them across the institutions. Always good for a laugh … Here are some of our favorites.

The absurdly camel version of Mr. Ed …

Field Museum

A flock of sheep frolicking …

Oregon State University Archives

A performing sitting bear …

Nationaal Archief

Man’s best friend …

Library of Congress

An interloper elephant …

State Library of New South Wales

… and thieving pelicans. (Their beaks can hold more than their bellies can!)

State Archives of Florida

What animals are you attracted to in the Commons?

The National Media Museum has uploaded a new set of photographs from its archives to The Commons — but these aren’t images they’ve chosen themselves: these are guest-curated, by noted British war photographer Don McCullin. As an accompaniment to the NMM’s major exhibition of McCullin’s work, Don McCullin Selects … presents McCullin’s

personal selection of photographs from the museum’s collection, revealing how these sites were recorded by earlier photographers such as Francis Frith and Maxime Du Camp.

Rudolf Lehnert & Ernst Landrock, 'Karnak - The Amon Temple'

Check out McCullin’s curated Commons set, and make plans to see the exhibition In England, on  until September 27.

Get yer hankies out: the State Archives of Florida uploads the location scouting photos for MGM’s 1946 film The Yearling. The photographs taken for pre-production of The Yearling document two significant aspects of Florida culture: the state’s role in American film and the folklife of Florida “Crackers.”

“The Yearling”: Pre-production and Location Photographs of MGM’s “The Yearling,” 1939-1941

The Field Museum goes crazy and provides 170 more images of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. The White City comes to life with these gorgeous, crisp, clean images of the fair.

1893 World’s Columbian Exposition

The Field Museum also brings the first images of South America into the Flickr Commons with a great set of photos from geology expeditions in Argentina during the 1920s.

Argentina Geology Expeditions

Happy International Year of Astronomy from the Smithsonian Institutions’ Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

The State Library of Queensland, Australia, is now posting its Photo of the Week at the Flickr Commons. This week’s image is of the 1893 flood in Brisbane.

Picture of the Week

(more…)

We celebrate International Children’s Day with a wealth of photographs from the Flickr Commons. Enjoy!