Lost in Translation

Sundial, Smithsonian Castle Garden, August 5, 2012. 1:15 pm. Latin inscription (left on this photo): Aspice, Respice, Prospice   = "...

During a visit to the Freer Gallery of Art last year, I came across this 13th-century scroll painting that depicts the art of Chinese silkwe...

The emergence of the online public-access catalog has largely rendered the traditional library card catalog obsolete. At the Library of Cong...

Last weekend I checked out the National Book Festival (annual event on the Mall organized by the Library of Congress) and brought back some...

Today I spotted this logo on a construction vehicle as workers were repaving part of the street. The logo bears the DC flag, and below a low...

I was mildly disappointed when I walked into the Library of Congress to discover that this exhibition is NOT about social media. Instead, ...

Shouldn't an ad for graduate study at least use proper grammar and punctuation? Somehow this attempt to appear "cool" via text...

This is my final entry about Florence - saving some of the best stuff for last! Sign outside a door on the train into Italy. This looks to ...

For a variety of complex reasons , Taiwan does not have an official "embassy" in DC; instead, there's something called the Ta...

Library of Congress, November 2009. I must say the interactive display accompanying the LOC's Gutenberg Bible is really cool. The Gute...

January 1, 2010. Happy New Year everyone! I start the year with images from the Library of Congress copy of "Poor Richard's Alman...

Smithsonian American Art Museum, November 2009. The first bible ever printed in what would become the US was this Algonquin-language bible...

Library of Congress, November 2009. Two early printers' marks painted on the ceiling of the Jefferson Building. On the left, D. Appl...

Library of Congress, November 2009. A snazzy interactive computer display allows the visitor to view another early printer's mark. Not...

Library of Congress, November 2009. A rarely-noticed ceiling motif in the ceiling of the Jefferson Building is its sequence of early print...

Last week the Sackler Gallery proudly announced the opening of " Falnama: The Book of Omens ," a book of divination widely used...

Metro riders are avid readers. During my commute to work today, I noticed that every person in my sparsely-populated train was reading - an...