The National Museum of Natural History, a part of the Smithsonian Institution, has a huge exhibit space in Washington, DC. However, what’s on display is only about 1% of what they have. The rest is in storage, carefully curated, and sometimes rotated into display. Over a period of twenty years, Smithsonian photographer Chip Clark documented this backstage collection in photographs. The museum’s assistant director Carol Butler tells us about the stunning images.
There’s one image of the bird collection. And what I remember [Clark] told me was that it took about eight hours to set up that shot. The collections are stored taxonomically according to the tree of life. But to get beautiful colors and good artistic composition, they had to move some drawers to different positions.
It took an artistic eye, a lot of patience, and probably a certain amount of flexibility to shimmy under drawers or to move sideways past pulled-out drawers. It also took an understanding of what science needed to be expressed through the photographs.
But that’s just the story of one picture. Read more about Clark and the museum’s collections, and see a gallery of his images at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution)
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Is this that big of a deal? And what about all the evidence that low impact exercise is better for you?
"The skeletons had the healthiest feet." LOL, but they're still dead, Jim.
Thong sandals or flip-flops are famous for causing damage to the arches of our feet, as are shoes with no padding like Chuck Taylors.
It's stupid to compare just the feet of Ice Age men to our feet, because the rest of our bodies are fundamentally different. We are all much taller, putting more of our weight directly down onto our feet. Our ancestors did not walk as upright as we do.
I might get a pair of those five fingers types, even if they look ridiculous, just to work out in the yard.
Maybe it's just that I'm so used to wearing them, but I find that I walk differently when I go barefoot, I go slower and end up with more muscle soreness. Unless I'm sitting or lying down, I always prefer to wear shoes.
yeaah go shoes!
4% of the time I'm wearing flip-flops or sandals.
1% of the time I'm wearing shoes.
thick soles and perfect arch support for me.
We always went barefoot in the summer when I was a kid, I don't think kids go barefoot anymore, not in my neighbourhood anyway.
Why am I being accused of posting comments to quickly?
I like wearing sneakers.
I'm sure everyone's mileage will vary... a lot of people just can't get used to wearing a shoe without a heel and give up. I adjusted after an hour or so. If you have "bad" feet, they're probably not for you though I've heard some have toughed that out and been the better for it.
my keens are nice, i can feel everything i walk on. :)