Uh oh! Looks like bedbugs!

Ortus sanitatis, aka The Garden of Health (sometimes Hortus Sanitatis) is an early natural history encyclopedia, first published in Mainz in 1485. Our copy—the 1497, third edition—is not colored, sadly. But happily that means you can print the pages and color them yourself! The book has its fair share of whimsical woodblocks, including both real and mythical life forms, and was a guide to using natural materials for medicinal use.

(Source: library.si.edu)

From Paxton’s Magazine of Botany and Register of Flowering Plants, v.4, (1838) comes this lovely poinsettia, perfect for Poinsettia Day, which just so happens to be today, December 12!  

The  “flor de la noche buena,” as they are called in Mexico, are native to the tropical forests of the southern part of the country. Long nights are necessary for the plant to bloom—easy enough in a place with a year-round growing season. The name we know it as in America, “poinsettia,” comes from the name of the first U.S. Minister to Mexico, Joel Poinsett (1779-1851), who was responsible for helping introduce the plant to American botanists. Poinsett was also a founding member of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science (just two years after this volume of Paxton’s was published).

Through that organization Poinsett organized the United States Exploring Expedition. He also used it to advocate for the utilization of a strange bequest of half a million dollars from an illegitimate British gentleman who left it to the United States—a country he never visited—for a museum. That British gentleman was James Smithson, whose will left the young United States money for the establishment of an institution for “the increase and distribution of knowledge.” Long story short, we are here today as part of the largest museum complex in the world thanks in no small part to the guy whose name now graces an ubiquitous holiday plant. 

Of course, it would take almost a century for the plant to be associated with the holiday season in America. First, it had to be seen as a cultivated plant and not just a specimen. Thanks in part for that goes to enterprising Scottish-born Philadelphia nurseryman Robert Buist. The association with the holidays are due to the marketing efforts of Paul Ecke and his sons, who cultivated the plant in Southern California in the early 20th century, and saw the potential of marketing one of the few winter-blooming plants (with red bracts, no less).

See Collections Search for Joel Roberts Poinsett-related objects in our collection, including a few books by and about him from the Smithsonian Libraries.

(Source: biodiversitylibrary.org)

You never know what you’ll come across while volunteering to transcribe for the @smithsoniantranscriptioncenter! This image is from our current #ManyHatsofHolmes transcription event, running through December 9th!

This image is from v. 5 of William Henry Holmes’s Random Records. Holmes was born 170 years ago, and in his long career at the Smithsonian he filled many roles. Now is our chance to make accessible his multiple unpublished scrapbooks and field notes.

Visit the Smithsonian Transcription Center to join today! 

I suppose we are well within the acceptable holiday-decorating time limits.

Commence.

Gazette du bon ton 1914, .t.1

December 1st is World AIDS Day.  Artist Masami Teraoka, like many artists, reacted to the early epidemic by tackling issues of sexuality in the age of AIDS within his work. He did so after a baby’s friend contracted the disease, giving him an insight to the stigma and fear associated with AIDS at the time. In a modern take on the ukiyo-e genre, his large scale block prints depict modern subjects grappling with the new realities of living in the era of AIDS. 

We’ve digitized Paintings by Masami Teraoka and many other publications from the @freersackler. See the Freer Sackler bookshelf to see more of their digitized publications . You can also see more of the artist’s work by searching for him in Smithsonian Collections Search. 

Not even going to try to be witty here…

This image comes from the article “Recreations of Prominent Men” by Alexander Marshall in Physical Culture, v.20 July 1908, where Twain speaks of his enjoyment of billiards. To the architect planning his Hartford home, Twain claims to have instructed “[a]nd whatever you do, don’t forget to put a billiard room in it. Cut out the kitchen or the conservatory or the belfry if you want to, but a billiard room I must and will have.”

We’re kind of flipping out over William Henry Holmes. The Smithsonian artist, explorer, anthropologist, cartographer, curator, and director was born December 1, 1846, and we are celebrating his 170th through December 9th!

The image above is from the third of the many volumes of Holmes’s Random Records of a Lifetime, a scrapbook/memoir of his his life. The @biodivlibrary recently digitized the first three volumes of it, we are looking for folks to help transcribe them at @smithsoniantranscriptioncenter!

Learn more about Holmes and his contributions to the Smithsonian on our blog, Unbound. There you can get more details on the transcription project and how it really helps to make the materials at the Smithsonian that much more accessible.