Name a topic that links science, history, art, and culture. How about color?

Let’s follow the theme of color through the vast collections of the Smithsonian Libraries, and make a few unexpected connections and discoveries.

Most of us take color for granted. We simply see it the moment that light beams from or reflects off an object, enters our eyes, and is processed by our brains. But do we stop to think what color actually is?

Journeying through the collections of the Smithsonian Libraries — from chemistry to catalogs, from colorblind tests to couture — we might see color in a new light.

This Learning Lab is based on the online exhibition, Color in a New Light, curated by Jennifer Cohlman Bracchi, Head Librarian, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The exhibition can be found here: https://library.si.edu/exhibition/color-in-a-new-light