Peggy Thomson is the author of Auks, Rocks, and the Odd Dinosaur, a children's book about the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.

Barbara Moore is an art historian, writer, and lawyer. She is head of education publications at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The book The Nine-Ton Cat: Behind the Scenes at an Art Museum was developed and copublished by the National Gallery of Art. The National Gallery was created for the people of the United States as a gift from wealthy investor and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. When Mellon died in 1937, he left his art collection to the United States along with money to build a museum. Since then, the National Gallery has grown enormously and today houses one of the finest art collections in the world.