Smithsonian Scholarly Press

10/06/2025

Congratulations to Aron Crowell! Laaxaayík, Near the Glacier: Indigenous History and Ecology at Yakutat Fiord, Alaska has been selected for the 2024 NMNH Research Achievement Awards! https://s.si.edu/3TNlZfX

29/05/2025

Got Red Algae? Smithsonian researchers looked in the waters around Puerto Rico, and this volume documents only some of what they found: 5 classes, 20 orders, 34 families, 88 genera, and 174 species. Included are type localities, comments on habitat, taxonomy, nomenclature — plus an array of colorful photos to catch your eye! https://s.si.edu/4jn5m44

16/05/2025

New Release! The Burpee Seed Company’s story spans over a century, starting in 1878 with W. Atlee Burpee, and later led by his son David. Along with the company’s legacy, a treasure trove of letters, records, seed catalogs, and more was preserved. In 2016, a massive collection was donated to the Smithsonian, where 200 boxes of historical materials were sorted and preserved. Today, the Burpee records offer a fascinating link to U.S. history, from agriculture and plant science to mail-order businesses and marketing. https://s.si.edu/3FeFj0S

01/05/2025

New Release! The first taxonomically comprehensive phylogenomic dataset for Notodontidae (prominent moths) that includes taxa from all continents where Notodontidae occur as well as type genera and (when possible) type species of all previously recognized subfamilies. This work incorporates as many as 854 anchored hybrid enrichment loci from 150 species, and it includes a checklist of 659 valid genera for all Notodontidae, with subfamily-level assignments. https://s.si.edu/3SgeZGA

18/04/2025

Are you interested in fossils? Check out this new release from SISP! The Cumberland Bone Cave Local Fauna (CBCLF) is the most significant Irvingtonian vertebrate fauna in the eastern United States north of Florida. Deposits of well-preserved Pleistocene fossils comprising 154 component taxa were found during excavations of a railroad cut near Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland. https://s.si.edu/4ikPVZG

21/03/2025

Baseball fans, check out this article by Arthur Daemmrich and Eris S. Hintz in The Conversation. MLB's automated ball-strike technology is being used to review umpires' calls...maybe in big league games as soon as 2026.

Technological advances that lead to fairer, more accurate calls are often seen as triumphs. But new technology doesn’t mean perfect precision – nor does it necessarily create a better fan experience.

14/03/2025

New Release! This catalog represents the first enumeration of all species of liverworts (Marchantiophyta) and hornworts (Anthocerotophyta) for Central America, including Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Cocos Island of Costa Rica. It includes 846 liversort species in 126 genera as well as 19 hornwort species in 7 genera and 4 families.
https://s.si.edu/3FGrecm

11/02/2025

New Release! What if the true champions of sports aren’t just the athletes, but the inventors behind the game-changing technologies they use? Inventing for Sports invites you to explore the hidden world of innovation that fuels modern athletics. From cutting-edge swimsuits and aerodynamic bikes to precision officiating tools and adaptive equipment, this book uncovers how invention shapes competition, safety, fairness, and participation. With compelling stories of inventors driven by frustration, inspiration, and ingenuity, the authors reveal how technology transforms every sport and challenge readers to see the extraordinary potential for invention in their own lives. Whether you are a fan, an athlete, a technology enthusiast, or a reader interested in history, this book will change how you view sports. https://s.si.edu/41aUh06

22/11/2024

New Release! The best-studied tropical forest in the world! In celebration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute of 100 years of research at Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, 140 investigators review plant and ecosystem studies in the Barro Colorado Nature Monument, which includes BCI and nearby mainland peninsulas, presented in a two-volume edited collection of 98 chapters. https://ow.ly/ivrr50UcI4E

15/11/2024

New Release! The present volume is a taxonomic study of the Gymnosperms and Angiosperms that occur in Guaramacal National Park (officially Parque Nacional “General Cruz Carrillo en Guaramacal”), which protects the Ramal de Guaramacal, an outlier of the more extensive Cordillera de Mérida in the Venezuelan Andes. The park covers 215 km2 in Trujillo and Portuguesa states and includes cloud forest and páramo found between 1,600 and 3,150 m elevation. The first volume was released in 2014 and covered the taxonomy of monocotyledons. https://ow.ly/bH5350U7WGM

22/07/2024

New from SISP! "Producing Posies" focuses on small decorative flower holders carried by women to the opera, theater, and balls in the 19th century. With more than 350 high-resolution photographs, it fills a significant gap in the literature and serves as a resource for museums and collectors. https://s.si.edu/46fMsqO

20/03/2024

New Release! Past lives, future lives, and “museum lives”—check out the various “lives” of scientific and technologic objects before and after they enter a museum, and then how the museum visitor experience reveals new interactive use for these objects.
https://s.si.edu/3TiSG3e