The Smithsonian Joins Flickr's "The Commons"

You'll recall that in February, Flickr and the Library of Congress announced "The Commons," a public photo collection which they hoped would

... firstly, increase exposure to the amazing content currently held in the public collections of civic institutions around the world, and secondly, to facilitate the collection of general knowledge about these collections ...

Part of the idea was to have Flickr users annotate and add comments to the photos to enhance their historical value. As with an well-intentioned project, you sometimes end up with things like the "Daddy?" annotation from JPhilipson shown below on an Albert Einstein photo.

That photo sits on The Commons' front page, as one of the sample photos, unforunately.

Since the unveiling of The Commons in January, the Powerhouse Museum and the Brooklyn Museum have joined the project. In a press release, the Smithsonian Museum announced this week that it was joining the project as well.

The Smithsonian has collaborated with Flickr—a leading photo-sharing community—Monday, June 16, by adding more than 800 images to The Commons on Flickr from seven of its museums, research centers and archives. The images in this initial Smithsonian posting came from the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, National Postal Museum, Anacostia Community Museum, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

Richard Kurin, Acting Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture, said:

"Our goals in participating in The Commons on Flickr are to expose new, larger, broader and younger audiences to our photographic collections and help them discover more of the Smithsonian educational resources. We also hope to learn how Web site visitors use our digital collections so that we can better serve the public."

The Smithsonian also said that it will add an additional 1,200 photos to Flickr in the next several months. Hopefully more institutions will continue to join the project.