I’m a nerd of many facets. Comics, books, video games, TV, and movies are my bread and butter, but I’m also an amateur intellectual (woefully amateur) and a huge history buff, so when I saw these they made me, “Squee” with joy. The following posters, entitled Historically Hardcore, are NOT officially sanctioned by the Smithsonian Institution. They actually started off as part of an ad portfolio project by art student Jenny Burrows, and all week long they’ve kinda blown the hell up all over the interwebs.

What is kinda crappy is that The Smithsonian was not happy about Jenny’s mock ads and have asked that she remove their logo from them. If you look at them on her online portfolio, you can see that she has complied. Jenny was gracious about the Institute’s rejection on her blog, but it just goes to show you how short-sighted and close-minded some people are.

If they had any sense at all, they would have embraced them in an attempt to generate new interest in their institution. Check them all out in the gallery below. My favorite is definitely the Genghis Khan one. Which is yours?