May 2007 was an important time for BHL. All the work done by Tom Garnett to integrate BHL into the funding streams for the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) was coming together. 9 May was selected as the official launch date for EOL and the event would take place in Washington, DC.The day started with a press conference held at the National Press Club. After that, participants regrouped back at the Smithsonian's Natural History museum to (well, you know), do more work. A bunch of us hung out in the digitization space (where the Smithsonian's Scribe machine had been delivered a few days earlier, on 5 May 2007). We'd decorated the room with some print on demand books from the Internet Archive and a Mold-a-Rama dinosaur from The Field Museum.
Cathy Norton and Brewster Kahle between events at the Smithsonian's Scribe digitization room
National Academies of Sciences
The capstone for the day was a large gala celebration held at the National Academies of Sciences. Many of those worked on BHL and EOL in those early days were in attendance.
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| Nancy Gwinn, Graham Highley, Marcia Adams |
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| Suzanne Pilsk, Eric Pilsk, Keri Thompson, Chris Freeland |
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| Chris Freeland, Keri Thompson, Chuck Miller, Mary Augusta Thomas |
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| Graham Highley, Cathy Norton, Eric Pilsk, Suzanne Pilsk |
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| Brooke Henley, Cristian Samper, Tom Garnett |
