We’ve been remiss in pointing out all the delectable new offerings in The Commons as our focus has been on events the institutions have held or celebrated. So, this week’s look at recent uploads contains a wealth of material waiting to be crowdsourced!

Beautiful Lisbon, Portugal, from the Estúdio Horácio Novais in the Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian’ collection. Won’t you please help tag these phenomenal images in the language of your choice?

Lisboa: perspectivas gerais e parciais

They’ve also added some fun advertisements from yesteryear!

Publicidade

The Bibliothèque de Toulouse, also needs your help tagging photos. Try the new photos they’ve added to this dandy set of transportation – on the road in France!

Sur la route (automobiles, charrettes, bicyclettes…)

Visit some stunning gardens courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution! These historic glass lantern slides of gardens dated from the 1920s and 1930s, considered a “golden era” for gardens in America’s history.

Archives of American Gardens

View 3 African expeditions in this marvelous set from The Field Museum Library. This is a must-see collection which includes some real prizes by the renowned Louis Agassiz Fuertes.

Africa Expeditions

The National Library of Wales presents some period sepia portraits from John Dillwyn Llewellyn and his family. A real treasure.

Ffotograffiaeth Gynnar Abertawe / Early Swansea Photography

Babe Ruth, Casey Stengel and more are featured in the Library of Congress’s ode to America’s national pastime. Just in time for the pennant races. Those damn yankees, why can’t we beat ‘em? They also uploaded a slew of baseball photographs from the Bain News Service, too.

Baseball Americana

The Powerhouse Museum also adds to two of their sets, images from Tom Lennon and Tyrell Collections. The big band era is in full swing here.

Tom Lennon and Tyrell Photographic Collections

The State Library of New South Wales gets fancy with a pair of risque dancers!

[set name goes here]

The Oregon State University Archives gets credit for most utilitarian set name with these cool photos of people doin’ their thing. Photographs by Herman Theodore Bohlman.

People doing stuff in the Herman Bohlman Collection

Get your flight on with these historical images of Florida aviation from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

Florida Flights of Fancy

The State Library of Queensland, Australia, dishes up a feast of good harvests to celebrate their state’s 150th birthday. Dinner time!

At our Table

See more ruins and ancient monuments, from the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Ancient monuments

You know the Galt Museum & Archives in Canada recently joined The Commons, eh? Check our this set of one of their curator’s favorites. Fun stuff – especially as Halloween draws near.

Belinda’s Favourites

creator: unknown
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, c. 1910
Smithsonian Institution: aaa_watsforb_8917

view + comment on Flickr

Flickr Commons uploads include many historical images–and historical images include many awesome hats–hats as costume, hats as uniform, hats as protective gear, and hats as fashion. Here are some of the finest examples.

This one at least looks lighweight–straw and flowers.

George Eastman House

The classic Australian hat–Aussie Olympic teams still wear this style in the opening ceremonies some years.

Australian War Memorial

A palmetto hat she made herself–probably a very practical solution to the need for cool headwear in Florida.

State Library and Archives of Florida

Evelyn Nesbit’s eyes, and the photo itself, all seem focused on that extravagant plume.

Library of Congress

The sideways cap–it isn’t just for 1980s rapper wannabes.

Library of Virginia

The pin on this 1930s headwrap commemorates the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

State Library of New South Wales

Mrs. Burleson’s huge hat marks her as a special leader of the suffrage parade. But the other women have some fine millinery too.

Library of Congress

The frayed edges of this hat match the frayed layers of Cody’s outfit.

George Eastman House

Feather plumes like these endangered several species of birds.

Library of Congress

Russell was an artist, but that’s no beret.

Smithsonian Institution

The exuberant hat matches Mrs. Stulle’s smile and attitude–she ran a matchmaking service for widows and widowers.

Library of Congress

Gardner’s hat marks him as a Nantucket eccentric, even while his suit and expression are quite sober.

Nantucket Historical Association

European immigrant women at Ellis Island sometimes brought with them the elaborate headwear of their home regions.

New York Public Library

Helene Dutrieu was the fourth woman in the world to earn a pilot’s license; she also raced cars and motorcycles. This makeshift helmet seems to have extra layers of felt for ear protection.

Library of Congress

A ballet dancer’s costume, heavily beaded and embroidered.

State Library of New South Wales

The clean lines of the sailor’s cap match the Portuguese actress’s trademark bangs and eyebrows.

Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

Today, we generally only see boater hats at political conventions–but they were once ordinary daywear for men, especially on hot summer days in Tennesee.

Smithsonian Institution

One of the most popular and commented photos in the Commons features a serious boy wearing a serious hat.

Library of Congress

Shelley Bernstein
Getting Ready for Common Ground 2009 – Brooklyn Museum

The Commons is busting with activity with various institutions preparing for Common Ground! You’ve got until 16 September 2009 to VOTE.

Heard around and about The Commons:

• The Commons: Using the Web to Unlock Little Mysteries of the Past, is a very good write-up by Philip Bump, a technology and communications consultant in New York City. He illustrates the article with an example from the Commons.
• A History of Our Own, Representing Communities and Identities on the Web (SAA09: Session 202), a summary of Andrew Flinn’s session at the Society of American Archivists’ recent conference, by Jeanne Kramer-Smyth. She wraps the Commons into her final thoughts about the session.
• Did you know that the Getty Museum has audio tours you can listen to on your mobile phone? Check this one out.
• Smithsonian Museum Day is Saturday, 26 September 2009! Enjoy free general admission for you and a guest to hundreds of museums and cultural venues throughout the United States.
• How did you witness history on September 11, 2001? Share your story with the Smithsonian Institute’s September 11: Tell Your Story.
• Take This Job & Shoot It! by Catherine Shteynberg, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, discusses photography and the documentation of labor through the years.
• Here Comes the Revolution? Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, reports on the new open source initiative for photographic technology that’s happening at Stanford University.
• The Powerhouse Museum is preparing a new exhibition From Earth to the Universe with Photographic Astronomer David Malin, featuring photographs showcasing the beauty and mystery of our Universe. Catch the previews on their blog.
• The new high-definition restoration of The Wizard of Oz was made possible in part because of George Eastman House’s safekeeping of the original materials!
• There is still time to check out the Field Museum’s Water exhibition, and Marisa Naujokas, Chicago Environmental Health Examiner, tells you why you should visit. Hurry! It closes 20 September 2009.
• The hugely popular and inspirational BP Portrait Award returns to Edinburgh and to the National Galleries of Scotland, beginning 12 December 2009.
• Love Letter Update, from the Australian War Memorial. Learn more about a mysterious love letter from a young French woman to her soldier sweetie.
• Here’s an Animal Mummy Update from the Brooklyn Museum.
• The National Media Museum posts their Film Guide – yay, go watch a good flick with them!
• Hey cool, the Getty has a Dorothea Lange photograph in their collection. Let’s tweet them to get that into the Commons with the other Lange images!

Overheard on Twitter

Paula Bray
A lightcycle goes down under
to visit the Powerhouse Museum

…turns out the #lightcycle has made it to Sydney where @paulabray and @erikajoy are cooking up something http://yfrog.com/5hfersj – Brooklyn Museum tweet

The Smithsonian Institution’s brand-new Secretary, Wayne Clough, discusses the prospects of the 163-year-old largest museum and research complex in the world — including the long-term future of science and education.

Heard around The Commons on Flickr:

• Flickr Commons: It was a year ago…, a summary of the National Media Museum’s first year in The Commons. “100,000s of views, 1000s of comments, and 100s of arguments over whether they were fake or real, spooky or not. “
• The National Media Museum has podcasts! Check out their interview with the screenwriter and executive producer of ITV’s new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, held prior to a preview screening of the film.
• 1stfans Twitter Art Feed Artist at the Brooklyn Museum for September 2009: Duke Riley.
• They also release a nifty application, BklynMuse, a community-powered recommendation system for the objects that are on display there!
• Read the Wall Street Journal’s take on “state-of-the-art museum tours”; they talk to Shelley Bernstein at the Brooklyn Museum. The New York Post weighs in, too.
• artdaily praises the new exhibition at the Getty Museum, Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference.
• The Chicago Tribune writes about the acquisition of lynching victim Emmett Till’s casket by the Smithsonian Institution.
• The SI’s National Museum of American History launched a new exhibition earlier this year, On the Water: Stories from Maritime America. They also have a Flickr group for your images of maritime activities across the United States of America.
• SI experiments with ShareTabs, a quick way to share links.
• That Picture Looks Great On You: Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, talks about the new ubiquity of photography.
• Photos, Guns, Africa, Stanley, & Kalulu, Catherine Shteynberg, Smithsonian Photography Initiative — a story straight out of The Commons.
• Bamboo, bamboo, bamboo bamboobamboobamboobam.
• Reading War and Peace, some advice on reading this classic literature, on the New York Public Library’s blog.
• The Library of Congress announces their September film series.
• Powerhouse Museum announces their Common Ground meetup in October!
• The U.S. National Park Service celebrated their birthday on August 25th. If you couldn’t get to a park this weekend, enjoy Yosemite — it’s in The Commons!
• The State Library of Queensland, Australia, hosted Commandant Henry Miller’s descendant, Quentin Miller, at Redcliffe, which was the first European settlement in Queensland, established as the Moreton Bay Penal Colony in September 1824.
• The butcher and the grocer: A Western Front story, by the Australian War Memorial.
• Oregon State University Archives reports on the 6-month closure of the The Southern Oregon Historical Society. :””(
• They also post a nifty history of Mazamas, a climbing club in Portland, Oregon.
• And! They announce their digitized book, Oregon, a story of progress and development, together with an account of the Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition to be held in Portland, Oregon, from June first to October fifteenth, nineteen hundred and five, available on ScholarsArchive. Dang, Tiah, that’s a mouthful!

Monday Morning Mayhem!

Mehgan Murphy/Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Burrowing Owl Babies, August 28, 2009
Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo

The Smithsonian asked last week if the tweeples following them on Twitter could identify these newborns. They did!

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo welcomed two burrowing owl chicks Aug. 2—the first hatching of this species at the Zoo in 30 years. The chicks’ parents, a 5-year-old male and 4-year-old female, have been at the Zoo since June 2006.

The last time burrowing owls successfully bred at the National Zoo was in the late 1970s. A recent population-management plan recommended breeding the Zoo’s current adult pair. The chicks are with their parents in the Zoo’s Bird House. Currently, there is semi-transparent filter paper covering their exhibit, providing the chicks with privacy. As they become more comfortable with their new surroundings, the paper will slowly be removed.

Archival footage brought to you by the Walt Disney Imagineers. Hat tip to the Getty Museum for this great web find. I got sucked into watching the whole series just now of time-lapse photography of the building of Disneyland in Southern California, circa the 1950s.

Heard around the Commons:

• Be a Friend with Benefits! the Brooklyn Museum tells how.
• Congrats to Smithsonian Science, Voice of America’s website winner of the week!
• When Good People Love Bad Pictures, some musings on photos and the internet, by Marvin Heiferman of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative
• How to build an 8-foot-tall light bulb out of LEGO bricks, from the SI’s National Museum of American History.
• The Prisoner of Zenda – read all about George Eastman House’s newest nitrate motion-picture acquisition (with great stills, too!).
• The Swedish National Heritage Board weighs in on social media. They also discuss bicycling to work.
• The New York Public Library has some tips for midlife job hunters.
• Read all about the White Gloves Tour in the Granite Belt region at the State Library of Queensland, Australia’s blog.
• Coming Soon: DCPL Discovery Packs for SirsiDynix Libraries, from the D.C. Public Library.
• Scientist Scott A. Braun Discusses “Peering Into the Storm: NASA’s Exploration of Hurricanes” on 16 September, at the Library of Congress.
• The Oregon State University Archives brings you The Legend of Llao Rock. Also, check out the story of Mt. Mazama.
• Put The Source from the National Library of New Zealand on your reading list; it’s news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web.
• Starting 11 September, the National Library of Wales brings us Ken Elias: A Retrospective – a celebration of 40 years of painting.

Your weekly recap of happenings around the Flickr Commons.

The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition Oregon State University Archives

Let’s start the week off with a challenge! The Oregon State University Archives just added a map to their 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition set on Flickr. Anyone feel game to create a mash-up similar to what we did with the Chicago Expo? Read more about the finding of this map at OSU Archives’ blog.

• The Museum Computer Network 2009 conference is being held November 11-14 in Portland, OR. OSU Archives will present its case study of the Flickr Commons!
• Speaking of Portland, anyone know anything about some of the rose gardens there? OSU wants your help!
• Some clarifications on our experience with ‘free’ content – Seb Chan at the Powerhouse Museum responds to a question about their experience with the Flickr Commons.
• Be sure to catch his presentation schedule, too. Lots coming up.
• The 2009 National Digital Forum conference will be held November 23-24 at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Courtney Johnson at the National Library of New Zealand has information on subsidies for small organizations.
• Stacking the Tech: The Library of Congress Talks Digital Initiatives with the folks at Library Journal.
• Catch this write-up, by L’Archivista of the Building, Managing and Participating in Online Communities session at the Society of American Archivists 2009 conference.
• The American Historical Association provides a Take Two of Snapshots of the Past: The Commons on Flickr, an overview of the institutions that have joined the Commons since their first article.
• Picturing Rochester: Got photos of Rochester, New York? George Eastman House wants ‘em!
• The Powerhouse Museum has labels! And they want your visitor labels for their Odditoreum!
• The National Library of Wales has new podcasts up! Great stories of the library from folks that used to work there.
• Astrobiology: Life in Space, a webcast from the Library of Congress of Daniel P. Glavin, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who says the possibility of extraterrestrial life in our solar system is not limited to Mars.
• You’ll like the preview of the D.C. Public Library’s new website!
• Read about the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Peel Island lazaret, from the State Library of Queensland, Australia.
• Not sure where to find the Smithsonian on the internet? Here’s a guide.
• The SI and the Chandra X-ray makes news about research on the birth of stars.
• Harewood House and some historic photographs of Yorkshire – a fun field trip with the National Media Museum!
• ARRRRRRRR! The Field Museum wants you to dress like a pirate!

The Brooklyn Museum Crew

Twitter was all up in arms last weeks with #dukeriley. Here’s the Brooklyn Museum’s battleship. The New York Times and WNYC explain.

A bag functions like a physical envelope that is used to send content through the mail but with bags, a user sends content from one computer to another. This video describes the preparation and transfer of data over the network in bags.

Heard around the Commons:

• Got a minute to vote for the Powerhouse Museum’s incredible Flickr Commons book? C’mon – click on over to Blurb.
• Stereo-view detail: The Powerhouse Museum gives a little background on the topic.
• All is not lost – using digital photography to recover daguerreotypes: a great preservation resource from the Powerhouse.
• Michael Feinstein comes to George Eastman House in October – get yer tickets!
• Oregon State University Archives explains their “trip to Mount Hood.”
• Are you reading the National Library of New Zealand’s Source? Every Friday, a wrap-up of things of use to digital libraries..
• Cataloging for Gold: Learn what college students have unearthed at the Library of Congress over the summer.
• Art review: The Chimaera of Arezzo at the Getty Villa: An LA Times article about happenings at the Getty Museum.
• Want to know where to stay up with the Smithsonian Institution online? card.ly can help.
• Right now in the Luce Foundation Center (Smithsonian Institution) you can borrow a Flip Mino and shoot a video of your museum visit!
• What price fame? by Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, discusses Annie Leibovitz’s financial situation in a broader sense.
• And, Down at the Drive-In, by Christin Boggs, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, is an awesome take on the intersection of media and transportation.
• And the SI has some notes about the International Astronomical Union (IAU) meeting on their Chandra X-ray blog. Check out their 10th Anniversary post, too.
• Did Michael Jackson model face after Egyptian bust? The Chicago Sun-Times unearths some spooky stuff at the Field Museum.
• Fflur Dafydd wins £5,000 literary prize for book set at The National Library of Wales! yay!
• Plan a trip to the National Media Museum!
• Or, learn from them how to digitize motoring photographs!
• The State Library of Queensland, Australia, weighs in on conserving gilded frames in the Richard Daintree Photographic Collection.

Friday Fun!

… your welcome is assured…

History in the making, with a clip of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Weekend!

This is your weekly update of important events and notes about the institutions that partake in the Flickr Commons.

• Virtuous circle – from visitor to speaker: Read about how the Flickr Commons transformed the relationship of one of the Powerhouse Museum’s guests.
• The mystery of Level One: what is happening at the Powerhouse Museum?
• What in the Powerhouse’s workshop? A telescope!
• The Brooklyn Museum releases v.1.3 of their iPhone application… and lessons learned.
• Cool – the Brooklyn Museum’s iPhone application gets a mention on the O’Reilly Radar.
• And check out their awesome Twitter profile at Beyond the Fail Whale.
• How Green These Valleys Were: Some info about the Library of Congress’s recent uploads to the Commons.
• Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy v 1.0: Hot off the press.
• Who do you trust? A post by Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, on the veracity of photojournalism.
• Are You There? by Merry A. Foresta, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, on travel photography.
• Ten Years Later: A round-up of the Chandra X-ray Lab, from the Smithsonian.
• Matthew Lewis talks Harry Potter 7, IMAX, and weird fans, all at the National Media Museum.
• Praise for PANDORA: A post from the State Library of Queensland, Australia, on Australia’s Web Archive. They also have 3 new digital stories available.
• Fellowship Awards Preserves Films: A short report on this project by George Eastman House.
• Job Search: How to Avoid Interview Mishaps: Get armed for your next job interview, from the good folks at the New York Public Library.
• Also, The Craft of the Book: Reading List: A PSA from the NYPL
• Oh yea, and the NYPL is looking for a Senior Applications Developer. Apply now.
• The Australia War Memorial goes on the offense about the terms ‘wounded’ and ‘injured’.

Friday Fun!

Need more baby animals fix? Look no farther than Flickr and the National Zoo’s photostream.

Go Visit!

01 August – My Fair Lady at the Dryden Theatre, George Eastman House, a Lerner and Loewe classic.

Now through 18 October – In Focus: Making a Scene at the Getty Museum. Theatricality and photography: “the images in this exhibition are inspired by art history, literature, religion, and mainstream media.”

13 August – The New York Public Library partners with the NYC chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association to host screenings of HBO’s series on Alzheimer’s Disease.