Months? Try 179 years. The Smithsonian was officially created on this day in 1846. One of the first things on the to-do list? Construct a building! The 1850 glass lantern slide at the end of this video is the earliest-known photo of our Smithsonian Institution Building, known as the Castle, and the only image we have of it under construction. 📷: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives | Smithsonian

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The Smithsonian Natural History Museum houses 147 million specimens — everything from pickled animals to priceless gems to dinosaur bones. But less than 1% of it's on display. The rest is hidden behind the scenes in what's called collections. But they're not just sitting in storage rooms collecting dust. The specimens are actively used for scientific research with real-world benefits, from preventing bird strikes to documenting invasive species. We went inside the collections to see how they acq