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Fun GIFs From The Smithsonian Archives

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The Smithsonian Institution - known as 'the nation's attic' - has a great many weird and wonderful artifacts in its possession; and the internet loves nothing more than the weird and wonderful.

Thus, following a discussion between Margaret Rhodes at Wired Design and technical information specialist Richard Naples, the latter started to comb through the huge Smithsonian libraries (over 14 million digitised pages), searching for images that could translate well to GIFs - and a Tumblr created to showcase them.

We've picked ten to show you; all are taken from a range of varying publications and all are excellently intriguing; you can almost hear the Monty Python theme playing as you look at them.

Take a look below, and visit the Smithsonian tumblr for more updates.

[via Gizmodo]

From Scrapbook of Early Aeronautica

From "The Greenland Whale" in Whales by Robert Hamilton

From La Guirlande

From Practique de la guerre

From Scrapbook of Early Aeronautica collected by William Upcott

From Practical Art Anatomy

From The Teacher of Sparring

From Soldiers of Glorious America

From The Works of Jules Verne

From Report of the Commissioner of Patents

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Astonishing Smithsonian Photo Contest Finalists

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Ace gIfs morph from NES to movie stills

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