Smithsonian Institution

  • 3,308 photos
  • 58.8M views
  • Member since 2008
  • Last upload was
    July 2018
  • 🇺🇸
Welcome to the Smithsonian Institution! The Smithsonian is happy to join the Flickr community. We look forward to your tags, comments, and general participation in this new venture. We will be adding more photos on a regular basis and hope you will often return to visit us. The Smithsonian and Photography Photography predates the founding of the Smithsonian by just a few years. The introduction of various photographic processes in the 1830s culminated in the development of the daguerreotype in 1839. From its founding in 1846, the Smithsonian adopted the camera to advance its mission, cataloging plant and animal species and documenting the grandeur of the American landscape and the continent’s original inhabitants. Photography brought the faraway near and made visible the previously invisible. Many of our photographs also serve as a historical record of the growth of the Institution.

When were these photos taken?

2025-07-04T01:51:38.845960 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.10.3, https://matplotlib.org/ 1880 2015 600

Where were these photos taken?

4% of these photos are geotagged.

These links will take you to Flickr.com. For now.

Photos of interest

These photos have had lots of views, comments, and favourites.

Recent uploads

The last upload was July 2018.

Conversations

Here’s a selection of the conversations happening on these photos::

Mailsters on parade

from Smithsonian Institution

  • 5 older comments, and then…
  • Lulybelle said:
    The 50s are so unappreciated!
  • ronmclinden said:
    these cushman mailsters were purchased in quantity in 1957-58.
  • conscious hospital said:
    Marry Christmas my Fine Flickr Friend,and the best to you and your kin in 2010,,,
  • tacit geese said:
    God Bless 2010
    Happy New Year!!!!!
  • healthy scarf said:
    I'd love one of those to drive around town in!

Rural Carriers from Lebanon, Tennessee

from Smithsonian Institution

  • 2 older comments, and then…
  • John McStravick said:
    those are some grizzled mail carriers
  • Flickr said:
    Congrats on Explore! ⭐ January 15, 2024
  • Sigurd Krieger said:
    Congrats on Xplore!!
  • gato-gato-gato said:
    Super! Check my photography blog at gatogatogato.ch/blog/
  • Mark Alan Howard said:
    👍

Photograph of rural carrier in automobile at mailboxes

from Smithsonian Institution

  • Shawn Wolfe said:
    Wow. He's got chains on those rear wagon wheels. Amazing that we still use them a hundred years later.
  • Peter D. Tillman said:
    Added to
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Free_Delivery

    Thanks for posting these!
  • Миша Погребинський said:
    This "electric-motored vehicle" looks more like Iternational Harvester Highwheeler.

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