The Boreal Forest is home to 500 billion trees, billions of migratory birds, millions of lakes and miles of rivers! It stores more carbon than most tropical forests and plays a significant role in stabilizing our climate. The boreal forest is also home to hundreds of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and communities that have lived there for thousands of years. Each has their own unique history, language, cultural practices, and spiritual beliefs. Their ways of knowing nature offer a vision for a sustainable future. You can venture even deeper into the incredible #BorealForest all summer at Minnetrista Museum & Gardens! Our “Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest” exhibition is on view there through September 22! #OurSharedPlanet
Nothing says summertime like baseball! ⚾️😍 In the 20th century, for young Mexican American women, barrio baseball teams provided an acceptable public venue for them to assert autonomy, athleticism and ethnic pride while challenging socially constructed notions of gender. Here, Carmen Lujan stands on base in Colton, CA in 1936. Lujan played for the Mercury Señoritas for five years, starting at the age of 12 or 13. They traveled to play other women’s barrio teams. Learn more about Latinas in baseball our “Pleibol” Smithsonian Lab: s.si.edu/2XsHeIR #Pleibol #Baseball #LatinasInBaseball #Smithsonian
Our friends at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library are taking over our Instagram account this week and We. Can’t. Wait. for them to share what they’ve been up to down in Atlanta, Georgia as they host our traveling exhibition “The Negro Motorist Green Book” through June 22nd! Make sure to follow us on Instagram (@sitesExhibitions and @carterLibrary38) to take a deep dive into Atlanta’s local Green Book story! #GreenBook #InstagramTakeover
Project Director Robbie Davis tells us about the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program at #AAM2024! #BoothChat
The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service’s Maria del Carmen Cossu and Christina Johnston-Brownlee tell us about SITES’s “Caribbean Indigenous Resistance / Resistencia indígena del Caribe ¡Taíno Vive!” bilingual traveling exhibition! #AAM2024 #BoothChat
The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service’s Maria del Carmen Cossu tells us about the Smithsonian’s bilingual exhibitions! #AAM2024 #BoothChat
Learn about Smithsonian Latino Initiatives with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service’s Maria del Carmen Cossu! #AAM2024 #BoothChat
#AAM2024 Booth Chat about poster exhibits with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service’s Stephanie McCoy-Johnson!
We’re live from the American Alliance of Museums MuseumExpo in Baltimore 🦀! #AAM2024
Water is life! The earth holds a nearly unimaginable amount of liquid water: about 327 QUINTILLION gallons! Take a deep dive into water’s impact on our planet in our “Water/Ways” exhibition on view now at Buffalo County Historical Society/Trails & Rails Museum! #WaterWays
Work has been a huge part of many girls' experiences of girlhood. Girls built America—their work made leisure possible for other girls and women, made industries more profitable, their cheap labor sparked a consumer revolution, and their activism shaped labor laws.
A group of young women who came to be known as the “radium girls” during the early 20th century are an example of how girl’s work in factories have made them vulnerable to economic exploitation, but how they’ve used their activism to create change.
Radium was all the rage in the early 20th century. A glowing radium watch was a must-have item. In factories, young women painted face dials with radioactive material. Unaware that the paint was harmful, they would place the brush tip on their lips to achieve a fine point.
After suffering from radium poisoning, several young women sued their employers and brought national attention to the safety of workers. These young women helped create new laws to protect all workers. #GirlhoodItsComplicated #GirlhoodHistory
Image: Courtesy of the George Eastman Museum, Gift of New York Public Library; public domain image
Si Se Puede
Dolores Huerta’s call to arms, ¡Sí se puede! (Yes we can!) became the expression of her determination to empower farm workers and her faith in social change in the 1960s and 70s. Listen to her tell the story of how the expression came to be.
Civil rights activist and visionary Dolores Huerta’s incredible life has included being an organizer, lobbyist, leader, teacher and mother. Her unparalleled leadership skills helped dramatically improve the lives of farm workers!
#WomensHistoryMonth #SmithsonianWHM #WHM #DoloresHuerta
The Bias Inside Us
Explore the science of implicit bias now in our traveling exhibition “The Bias Inside Us” at Northwest Reno Library! #RetrainYourBrain
Washoe County Library
Today is Frederick Douglass’s birthday. Born into slavery around 1818, his birthdate is unknown and he chose to celebrate it on February 14. After fleeing slavery in 1838, he soon emerged as a renowned orator, author, and one of the nation’s most powerful abolitionists.
You can explore the Smithsonian’s collections related to Douglass’ life and work here: https://s.si.edu/3SIzR98
Image: Courtesy US National Archives
#BlackHistoryMonth #SmithsonianBHM #FrederickDouglass #HumanRights #CivilRights #AmericanHistory
The Bias Inside Us
If you’re human, you’re biased. But the real question is: what do we do about it? Every brain develops its biases from the environment. But bias does not dictate our destiny. Explore practical ways that you can #RetrainYourBrain in our traveling exhibition “The Bias Inside Us,” on view now at our Affiliate the Japanese American National Museum !
Happy New Year 2024!
The staff at SITES wishes you a very Happy New Year! Thank you to all of our Facebook friends, partners and host venues across the country for supporting our work in 2023! We can promise even more engaging stories, content and objects from our traveling exhibitions and the Smithsonian's collections in the new year! #NewYears2024
“Incredible Boreal Forest Facts”
Five Incredible Boreal Forest Facts:
1. Home of nesting sites for up to 3 BILLION birds
2. Holds 1.5 million lakes
3. 500 BILLION trees
4. 32,000 kinds of insects
5. Refuge for the few remaining caribou herds in North America
#BorealForest
Dolores Huerta Discusses the birth of the call to action “Si Se Puede!”
Civil rights activist and visionary Dolores Huerta’s incredible life has included being an organizer, lobbyist, leader, teacher and mother. Her unparalleled leadership skills helped dramatically improve the lives of farm workers!
Explore her story and legacy in our “Dolores Huerta: Revolution in the Fields / Revolución en los Campos” traveling exhibition on view now at Greeley Museums!
#SiSePuede #DoloresHuerta
From Negro Digest to the iconic Ebony and Jet magazines, John H. Johnson changed the landscape of print journalism by offering authentic portraits of both the ordinary and extraordinary aspects of black life. His entrepreneurial reach—enhanced by his wife, Eunice—extended to radio and fashion—eventually making him the first African American to enter the Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. Johnson is one of 27 inspirational African American men featured in our "Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth." traveling exhibition on view now at Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Birmingham Public Library!
Artist Joe Prytherch who depicts Johnson in the exhibition writes:
"John H. Johnson is a cultural icon who forever changed the world of publishing and entertainment. A man who, in the words of his daughter Linda Johnson Rice, ‘Never stopped dreaming dreams and climbing mountains.’ The cultural significance of his magazines cannot be understated, from their celebration of everyday black America to their work at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. It was an honour to create this portrait for the Men of Change exhibition.” —Joe Prytherch
Through literature, poetry, original works of art, dramatic photographs, and a dynamic space that encourages self-reflection, our “Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth.” traveling exhibition illuminates the importance of influential Black men. See and experience it starting September 16 at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute!
The “Men of Change” national tour is made possible by the Ford Motor Company Fund.
#MenOfChange #InspirationalBlackMen #Smithsonian
