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Annals of the
Smithsonian Institution
1998
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Annals of the
Smithsonian Institution
1998
Contents
Smithsonian Institution 4 Statement by the Secretary 6 Report of the Provost 10
Report of the Under Secretary 12 Report of the Board of Regents 18 Chronology 20
Reports of the Bureaus and Offices of the Smithsonian Institution for Fiscal Year 1998
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Members of the Smithsonian Councils, Boards, and Commissions, September 30,1998 93
Visits to the Smithsonian Institution Museums and Galleries in Fiscal Year 1998 101
Academic, Research Training, and Internship Appointments and Research Associates in Fiscal Year 1998 102
Award Activity at the Smithsonian Institution in Fiscal Year 1998 140
Publications of the Smithsonian Institution Press in Fiscal Year1998 — 151
Publications of the Staff of the Smithsonian Institution and Its Subsidiaries in Fiscal Year
1998 154
The Smithsonian Institution and Its Subsidiaries, September 30, 1998 217
Donors to the Smithsonian Institution in Fiscal Year 1998 233
Contributing Members of the Smithsonian Institution in Fiscal Year 1998 264
Financial Report 277
Notes: The arrangement of bureau and office listings within is not alphabetical but rather follows as closely as possible the
organization of the Smithsonian Institution as shown on page 4.
The contents of Annals were produced from electronic files provided by the bureaus and offices.
Smithsonian Institution
Establishment, Board of Regents, Executive Committee,
and the Secretary
Office of the Secretary
Office of the Under Secretary
Office of the Provost
Office of Inspector General
Office of Planning, Management, and Budget Office of General Counsel
Office of Government Relations
Office of Communications
Secretary
Inspector General
Secretariat
Planning, Management, and Budget Membership and Development
Provost
Museums and Research Institutes
Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture
Archives of American Art
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery/Freer Gallery of Art
Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
National Air and Space Museum
National Museum of African Art
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National Museum of American Art
—Renwick Gallery
National Museum of American History
National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of Natural History
—Museum Support center
National Portrait Gallery
National Postal Museum
National Zoological Park
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiative
Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Education, Museum, and Scholarly Services
Center for Museum Studies
Exhibits Central
Fellowship and Grants
International Relations
National Science Resources Center Program for Asian Pacific American Studies Smithsonian Institution Archives Smithsonian Institution Libraries Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service Smithsonian Office of Education
Sponsored Projects
Other Support Services
Accessibility Program Institutional Studies Scientific Diving Program
Under Secretary
Operations Directorate
Chief Financial Officer
Comptroller
Contracting
Treasurer
Senior Executive Officer
Equal Employment and Minority Affairs Human Resources
Ombudsman
Senior Facilities Officer
Environmental Management and Safety Physical Plant
Protection Services
Senior Information Officer
Imaging, Printing, and Photographic Services : : Brame isp tet Affiliated Organizations
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Business Advancement Directorate National Gallery of Art Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. Smithsonian Associates Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Smithsonian Businesses —Rerail —Concessions
—Product Development and Licensing —Smithsonian Press/Productions Smithsonian Magazine
Statement by the Secretary
I. Michael Heyman
A few years ago, a number of scholars at the Smithsonian convened a meeting at the National Zoo that they titled “What About Increase?” They were concerned that the research function of the Smithsonian had become the hidden part of the Institution’s dual mission to promote “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”
Ir is not, of course, surprising that most Americans think of the Smithsonian principally in terms of our museums and their exhibitions and programs. They are the public face of the Institution and represent our vital commitment to education. But there is another Smithsonian—the Smithsonian of research institutes in Massachusetts, Panama, and Maryland, of field expeditions throughout the world, of scholarly investigations into vanishing technologies, historical traditions, and artistic expression. It is that Smithsonian, committed to expanding the boundaries of knowledge, thar we celebrate here.
At the time James Smithson made his generous and mysterious bequest to the people of the United States in the 1820s, America was far from the research giant it has become in our century. While we will never know Smithson's exact intentions for the new institution he imagined, the Smithsonian’s first Secretary, Joseph Henry, argued that since Smithson had himself been a scientist (with more than 200 scientific papers to his name), it must have been his intention to found in the New World “an organization which should promote original scientific researches.” Henry, known for his experiments with electromagnetism, was in the vanguard ofa rising generation of American scientists and saw in Smithson’s bequest an opportunity to create, in the unlikely precincts of the capital city, a place devoted to pure research: in his words, a “college of discoverers.”
So devoted was Henry to his vision that he downplayed the potential for public education in the use of Smithson’s funds.
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The notion of a national museum left him cold, and even the construction of a great building on what is now the National Mall struck him as a diversion of monies more usefully spent in the support of investigations in all branches of knowledge and the dissemination of findings in publications and other forms of scholarly exchange.
Happily for us today, Henry was not entirely able to stop the Smithsonian from undertaking responsibility for the care of national collections, nor, for that matter, could he stop the creation of a tradition of great buildings on the Mall to present them. His enduring legacy to the Smithsonian, though, was to underscore and establish the importance of a research agenda of the highest standard.
Within two years of the Institution’s founding in 1846, Henry had already demonstrated the potential of his stubborn vision. At a time when only two other U.S. institutions sponsored the publication of research results, he initiated the series Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, which continues to the present day as the Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series Program. The first volume, Azcient Monuments of the Mississippi, a stady of Indian mounds, has been described as a “milestone in the development of American anthropology.” Henry also saw the Smithsonian's potential as a catalyst and coordinator of scientific inquiry throughout the nation and the world. Using the hot new technology of the telegraph, he set up a network of hundreds of observers to chart weather conditions throughout the United States and as far away as South America. This innovation created a base for the new science of meteorology, grounded in the accumulation of long-range data, and led to the establishment of the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1869.
Henry's interest in the emerging field we now call anthropology bore spectacular fruit when he persuaded John
Wesley Powell, a national hero after his explorations of the Colorado River, to add human studies ro his interest in geology. In time, Powell established the Bureau of American Ethnology, predecessor to the Department of Anthropology and its National Anthropological Archives in the National Museum of Natural History. The bureau documented the languages and customs of what were then assumed to be vanishing American Indian cultures (later augmented by materials associated with other global communities) in a series of studies, field notes, photographs, and eventually sound recordings. This remarkable and still developing body of materials has been called by the great French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss a “living inspiration.”
Research at the Smithsonian has another “godfather” from its early years, Henry’s assistant and successor as Secretary, Spencer Fullerton Baird. Baird never saw a contradiction between the Smithsonian's research and museum functions and committed himself, at first discreetly, to the accumulation of extensive collections for study and public display. Henry might have guessed at Baird's intentions when the young man arrived in 1850 to take up his new position with two railroad boxcars filled with his personal collections.
In time, Baird’s determination added to the Smithsonian's research goals a commitment to collection-based investigations. Inspired by Henry's own strategy of recruiting a network of scientific observers, Baird established connections to individuals throughout the country—farmers and soldiers, as well as committed naturalists—who were inspired to send to the Castle in Washington, D.C., a range of items, from Indian artifacts (which have grown to the Smithsonian's unequaled collections of well over 2 million items today) to specimens of plant and animal life (now well over 100 million in the National Museum of Natural History alone). Participants in the government's explorations of the West were encouraged to collect for the Smithsonian as well, instructed by Baird, as were all in his army of volunteer collectors, in the proper preparation and documentation of the specimens.
Baird’s Smithsonian took a leadership role that the Institution continues to maintain in systematics research, which builds systems of classification of plants and animals derived from the study of their physical characteristics. The National Museum of Natural History's Laboratory of Molecular Systematics, for example, uses molecular biology to examine an organism’s DNA as additional aids to classification. In the scientific sense, fossils have taken on new life. And, in another example of new uses for old collections, scientists have used the Smithsonian's vast collection of North American bird eggs, collected in the nineteenth century, to assess damage done to the eggs of bird populations exposed in our own time to DDT.
Neither Henry nor Baird could have imagined the enormous scope of activities of the modern-day Smithsonian, bur elements of their research philosophies have shaped much of its development. Henry’s ideal of a research institute has
been realized in such units as the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRD, both ranked among the top centers of their kind in the world. Baird’s ideal of museum-based research has expanded from the activities of the single National Museum he presided over to the proliferation of great museums devoted to individual fields in science, history, and art, each with their community of scholars.
While the many hundreds of researchers in the modern Smithsonian cover an extraordinary range of topics, they share the impulse at the heart of all research: to know what has never been known before. The astrophysicist, the natural scientist, the anthropologist, the historian, and the art historian keep in mind the fundamental questions of their particular field—whether about the origins of the cosmos, the interrelationship of life on Earth, the patterns of human behavior and events, or the brilliance of individual creativity—while devoting themselves to the process of uncovering in their own work one piece of a larger puzzle.
One example in the sciences is the painstaking work done by Anthony Coates, deputy director of STRI, and his colleagues in an eight-year project to study the 10-million-year geological and biological record represented by an isolated archipelago in Panama. In the end their work will produce maps of rock layers and a time range of fossil species among other measures of environmental and biological change. The period covered is one that saw the creation of the Isthmus of Panama, separating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and, by changing ocean currents, possibly providing the moisture that triggered an Ice Age.
A fascinating example of Smithsonian research in history is provided by the work of Paul Johnston, maritime curator in the Division of Transportation at the National Museum of American History, who conducted 211 dives in two years in Lake Superior to recover artifacts and gain information about a propeller steamship wrecked in 1858. One of the earlier ships to travel the Great Lakes, the Indiana, well preserved by the cold water, gives modern researchers a way to document mid-nineteenth-century propulsion machinery and to understand better, in Johnston's words, the role of the steamer “in the development of maritime trade, travel, and rhe settlement of the Great Lakes region.”
Late-twentieth-century research in art history has provided new strategies to answer questions about the creative process. One of the most remarkable examples is provided by a collaboration undertaken a few years ago berween Elizabeth Broun, director of the National Museum of American Art, and Ingrid Alexander, an art research historian specializing in technical analysis at the Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory (now the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education). In preparation for her groundbreaking exhibition and publication on Albert Pinkham Ryder, who is counted among America’s greatest artists, Broun sought to understand with Alexander's help the nature of Ryder's experimentation with color and materials,
often obscured by the deterioration and restoration of his paintings. The autoradiographs (similar to x-radiographs) that Alexander produced enabled new insights into the reclusive artist’s technique and sophistication.
These are, of course, just snapshots from the remarkable range of research activities pursued by our professional staff within the Institution and around the world. While it would be impossible here to describe them all, certain frameworks capture the spirit of inquiry across the modern Smithsonian and reveal our particular strengths as a research institution.
The recent creation at the Smithsonian of an Institute for Conservation Biology, involving work pursued across many of our units, reflects recognition of the need for an integrated approach encompassing many scientific fields to understand the complex interdependence and fragility of the natural world. At the National Zoo, for example, researchers draw upon insights provided by the study of genetics, physiology, behavior, evolutionary biology, and ecology to support its breeding and conservation efforts around the world, with special attention to the preservation of threatened animals. The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in the Chesapeake Bay region devotes its long-term program to the goal of gaining a landscape ecology perspective on air, land, and water interactions in its coastal zone; while at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum, researchers are involved in studies of arid environments around the world as a way of evaluating climate changes.
Other scientists, at our National Museum of Natural History, work to trace the evolutionary relationships that connect all plants and animals, living and extinct; those involved with the many research projects at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute cope with the mystery of how little we know about the nature and multimillion number of species, most of them in the tropics, that make up the diversity of life on Earth.
From the start, much of Smithsonian scientific research has been driven by a sense of urgency. The establishment of the National Zoo in 1889, for example, had its roots in the concern of Smithsonian naturalist William T. Hornaday and the third Smithsonian Secretary, Samuel Pierpont Langley, that the population of American bison had been dangerously reduced. So concerned were they over the disappearance of this distinctly North American ungulate that Langley and Hornaday penned a few behind the Castle, sought land and funds from Congress, and founded the National Zoo as the Smithsonian's first step in species conservation.
Modern Smithsonian researchers are in the forefront of those addressing, in the words of a recent statement, such pressing issues of environmental and ecological concern as “acid rain, global warming, deterioration of the ozone layer, clear-cutting of tropical forests, desertification, and pollution of the oceans.” On an individual level, an activist research agenda is typified by the work of scientists like Ronald Heyer, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the National Museum of
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Natural History, whose concern about declining global frog populations has led him to chair an alliance of 1,000 volunteer scientists around the world to monitor the problem.
Another way in which certain research interests throughout the Institution complement each other is within the broad category of the exploration of “material culture,” the interpretation of objects as documents of human and natural history. As a repository of “things” of all sorts (141 million in our collections at last count), the Smithsonian offers advantages over the university in providing scholars with the opportunity to examine directly and debate the various meanings objects reveal across disciplines. One example was a discussion held about the Hope Diamond, in which a geologist provided a perspective on its natural formation across millions of years, a decorative arts specialist described its role as a cut and polished gemstone in the history of jewelry, and a folklorist revealed the pattern of its ownership from India to Europe and the United States and the legends that have added so much to its mystery and attraction.
Some of the most interesting discussions of this sort take place under the auspices of the Smithsonian Forum on Material Culture, which invites to its meetings any scholar with an interest in cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary interpretation. One meeting asked forum members representing the history of technology, art history, and archaeology to interpret three African chairs owned by the National Museum of African Art. Another took on the imaginative theme of “Captured Water,” in which a curator from the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery showed the ways in which the culture of India has ritualized the human relationship to water and a curator from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum explained the many purposes fountains serve in European life. Then a scientist, Michael Robinson, director of the National Zoo, joined in with a description of his planned exhibition on the centrality of water to life on the planet. This is the multifaceted Smithsonian at its best, sharing knowledge across the full range of arts and sciences.
Although the Smithsonian is its own community of research, the Institution is as committed to the creation of resources available to researchers throughout the world. No scholar of American art can do without the extraordinary range of materials collected and catalogued by our Archives of American Art, with centers in California and New York, as well as Washington, D.C. Other researchers have available to them such documentary collections as the advertising history materials in the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History, the Catalog of American Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, and the more than 200,000 photographs and nearly 2 million pages in unpublished materials at the National Anthropological Archives. Add to this the enormous resources of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries system and the Smithsonian Institution Archives, among hundreds of collections of documents and objects too numerous to mention, and the Institution becomes a resource of vast proportions.
There was a reason why James Smithson coupled the “increase” with the “diffusion” of knowledge. The Smithsonian's commitment to “discovery” can mean at the purest level of research the expansion of human knowledge beyond anything grasped before, bur “discovery” also happens whenever any one of us encounters and understands something we did not know before. That process is repeated millions of times in exhibitions at the Institution and in those presented by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, at programs provided by The Smithsonian Associates and by Smithsonian Productions, in the wealth of articles in Smithsonian magazine, and in the expanding world of the electronic Smithsonian, which now welcomes millions of visitors each month to our home page on the World Wide Web, bitp://www.st.edu.
Bur to return to the concerns expressed at the “What About Increase?” conference, very few of our visitors associate the process of research with the exhibitions and programs they enjoy. In her address to that meeting, Maxine Singer, president of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., and chair of the Smithsonian’s Commission for the Future, explained that researchers themselves have “failed to convey to people . . . how we come to know things and what the standards of knowing are.”
I find thar a very fair observation. Very often exhibitions and programs provide the fruits of investigation but little about the process itself. What were the questions posed? How were conclusions reached? Do questions remain? If the information is groundbreaking, we need to know that. If it is a synthesis of what is already known, tell us that as well.
Some of our most exciting programs are now geared exactly to do that—to let the public in on the workings of research. One of my favorites ina scientific field is “Think Tank,” a complete reworking of the small mammal house at the National Zoo. “Our goal,” according to the head of the team that produced it, Ben Beck, “is to engage the public ina field
of study that has challenged scientists for 2,000 years.” Visitors are exposed to monitors showing various aspects of animal behavior such as a group of beavers building a dam and asked, “Is this thinking?” The answers are not clear-cut and point to questions about how we define thinking and its component elements of planning and flexibility. At the heart of the installation is the opportunity to observe behavioral scientists interacting with orangutans in a language project based on communication through touch-screen computer technology and a new symbolic language created at the National Zoo.
Unlike research in the sciences, research in the humanities does not proceed through experimentation as much as through the search for meaning in human history and expression. Because the process is more subjective, it is less easily demonstrated to our visitors, but two curators at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden are at work on a groundbreaking exhibition that might just do the trick. To mark the museum's 25th anniversary in October 1999, Neal Benezra and Olga M. Viso are examining what has happened to the idea and ideal of beauty in the art of the twentieth century. By reviewing how, in Benezra’s words, “time-honored aesthetic standards” had come to be considered by many artists and critics “no longer valid,” the curators will show through the juxtaposition of various works of art changing visions of the beautiful but draw no absolute conclusions. “Our question to viewers,” Benezra says, “will be the same one that we have been struggling with: ‘What could beauty in art be at the end of the twentieth century?’”
These two exhibitions, one in the sciences and one in the humanities, point the way to the Smithsonian of the future, a place committed to sharing with the public not only what we know, but what we do not yet know, sharing the questions we ask and the approach we take to answering them. That Smithsonian will be a “college of discoverers” for the twenty-first century.
Report of the Provost
J. Dennis O’Connor
When the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) is launched from the Kennedy Space Center aboard the space shuttle Columbia \ater in 1999, the Smithsonian will be there. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), a pioneer in X-ray astronomy, played a major role in developing the orbiting observatory and is the site of the Chandra Science Center, which will receive and analyze information from the spacecraft's sophisticated instruments and make it available to the scientific community. SAO will also manage the Chandra Operations Control Center.
The Chandra Observatory takes the Smithsonian in new, but not surprising, directions. Since its founding, the Instirution has been on the leading edge of research. The first Secretary, Joseph Henry, one of the most eminent scientists of his time, believed that the importance of the Institution was measured by the knowledge it sent out into the world. Under his successor Spencer Fullerton Baird, a respected naturalist and the quintessential collector, the national collections began to grow. The next Secretary, Samuel Pierpont Langley, an early investigator of variable solar temperatures and the sun's corona, was an astronomer who was also intrigued by aeronautics. The fourth Secretary was Charles Doolittle Walcott, a geologist and paleontologist best known for one of the greatest finds in paleontology, the Burgess Shale.
The fact that this remarkable quartet of scientists shaped the Smithsonian during its first century is a significant statement about the Institution’s fundamental purpose. The Smithsonian of Henry, Baird, Langley, and Walcott was on the leading edge of the scientific disciplines of its time: electricity, astronomy, aeronautics, evolution, comparative zoology, and comparative botany.
Headed toward the millennium, the Smithsonian remains on the leading edge. Research brings about paradigm
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shifts—changes in the fundamental theoretical framework of a discipline or a body of knowledge. As a result of research, a paradigm is initiated, sustained, or refuted, or existing observations are tested and reinterpreted based on a new perspective.
In our museums and research institutes and in the field, Smithsonian researchers advance knowledge in dramatically different areas, Hundreds of intriguing examples could illustrate the research that distinguishes the Institution. Here are a few that suggest the immense range of interests being pursued under its aegis:
Melinda Zeder of the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Anthropology has studied museum collections of modern and archaeological bones to develop a new technique for identifying the earliest stages of animal domestication. She has used accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating to directly date the earliest evidence for the domestication of a herd animal (the goat) to 9,900 years ago at the archaeological site of Ganj Dareh in highland western Iran.
Wendy Wick Reaves's inquiry into early-twentieth-century caricature in America defined a new art form closely related to the emerging celebrity culture. Her research, which evaluated artists’ fresh approaches to traditional caricature, resulted in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition “Celebrity Caricature in America” and the well-received book of the same title.
For a book manuscript titled Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s, Pete Daniel, curator in the History of Technology Division at the National Museum of American History, has analyzed agricultural transformation, the environment, stock car racing, music, and civil rights.
Jenny So, curator of ancient Chinese art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, is looking at some 1,000 pieces of jade
dating from 4000 B.C. to A.D. 1900. She is trying to determine the location, function, and cultural uses of those pieces and place them in a taxonomy of use throughout that period to see what changes occurred.
Reproductive research by research veterinarian Steven Monfort at the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, could contribute to saving the endangered scimitar-horned oryx, a species of African antelope that is extinct in the wild. Monfort’s research team developed new sperm freezing and artificial insemination techniques to enhance the global genetic management of this rare antelope.
The reports from museums and research institutes on the following pages describe more research highlights. Together, these reports communicate the extent and the significance of the Smithsonian research enterprise.
In the decades ahead, rhe Smithsonian must remain on the leading edge. The Chandra X-ray Observatory is an especially striking example because it could change our view of the
cosmos through the power of X-ray astronomy. In other realms, the opportunities are also compelling: the National Museum of American History's research on the Teodoro Vidal Collection of Puerto Rican Material Culture, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden's analysis of the complex questions of beauty in late-twentieth-century art, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's important interdisciplinary research in tropical paleontology, archaeology, and geology.
How fortunate we are to have the legacy of Henry, Baird, Langley, and Walcott. The Smithsonian's extraordinary research resources are of great value in the “increase” of knowledge and in sharing it with scholarly communities. Of equal value, however, is the potential to carry that knowledge to the public. Using the results of research by Smithsonian scholars in the arts, the humanities, and the sciences, the Institution can demystify the unfamiliar, challenge assumptions, and stimulate new ways of thinking and understanding. That is the ultimate power of our research tradition.
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Report of the Under Secretary
Constance Berry Newman
A great strength of the Smithsonian is its emphasis on collaboration. Many collaborative relationships join its diverse museums, research institutes, and offices in their efforts to fulfill a common mission. Through these relationships, each organization preserves its distinctive qualities, while our shared purpose becomes the driving force. Sometimes these linkages happen with great ease, and sometimes they are hard won. Each of them, however, enriches the Institution's contributions to exploring new frontiers of knowledge and sharing what is learned with scholarly communities and the public.
Since the time of Joseph Henry, the Smithsonian's first Secretary, the Institution has been a world-renowned center of research, dedicated to pursuing new discoveries and expanded knowledge, first in the sciences and later in the humanities. The work of Smithsonian scientists and scholars is immensely important to their colleagues throughout the world. This annual report reviews some of their accomplishments in wide-ranging fields of study—the revelation that Indian forest owlets are not extinct, new knowledge about a painting by Willem de Kooning, the recovery of a piece of the Star- Spangled Banner, and new evidence that a black hole the size of 3 million Suns anchors the heart of the Milky Way. The reports on the following pages review the efforts of Smithsonian organizations to share some of this intriguing work with the public and to provide essential operational support to their colleagues who are pursuing research in other parts of che Institution.
Another important initiative underscores the sense of unity that is so essential to the Smithsonian’s mission. Over the past fiscal year, staff members from across the Smithsonian, under the leadership of the director of communications, were involved in an interesting and challenging undertaking: the
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creation of a cohesive visual identity for the Instirution. As the Smithsonian, like so many other institutions, faces the challenging reality of competition for funding and for public recognition, our success will depend in part on presenting a unified public image. As Secretary Heyman explained, “The Smithsonian needs to encourage greater understanding of the totality of its activities and its mission. And this requires the use of a uniform graphic presentation.”
On the surface, this was a design and communication project—creating a new logo, eveloping guidelines for its use, and then implementing the complete program in every unit. But che project really had a larger symbolic meaning. Today's Smithsonian—a remarkably varied group of organizations with substantial reputations of their own—is quite different from the Smithsonian of Joseph Henry's time. The visual identity that emerged reminds us all that we have important common pursuits, and that the linkages we form among ourselves are vital to the Smithsonian's future.
The Smithsonian Associates
On the National Mall, across the nation, and around the world, The Smithsonian Associates (TSA) offers stimulating educational opportunities for Smithsonian members and the larger public. This year, more than 250,000 people participated in nearly 1,800 programs and learned directly from experts about developments in most areas of scholarship, from music history to astronomy, from genetics to the Civil War.
TSA's Resident Associate Program offerings presented a rich variety of research and scholarship to audiences in the greater Washington area. Among the highlights was an evening with historian John Hope Franklin, who spoke with
the Smithsonian’s Marc Pachter and Franklin’s son John Whittington Franklin of the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies about his research into the remarkable life and times of his father, Buck Colbert Franklin. Culrural historian Tad Szulc drew on his study of rare correspondence and journals to provide new insights into Fryderyk Chopin's years in Paris as part of a vibrant intellectual community. The evening culminated in a performance of three of Chopin's shorter works by concert pianist Eugene Istomin.
Two thought-provoking lectures reflected the public's growing interest in the work of geneticists: lan Wilmut discussing the social implications of his sheep-cloning research and Dean Hamer explaining his exploration of the links among genetics, personality, and behavior. Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute conducted rwo all-day seminars on the latest discoveries about the universe made possible by the Hubble Space Telescope. A seminar on Ikat textiles in Asia, held in conjunction with an exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, placed these distinctive textiles in historical context.
In Resident Associate children’s workshops, young participants learned from scientists about their work. Dave Bohaska of the National Museum of Natural History, for example, led young paleobiologists on an expedition along the Chesapeake Bay to find and analyze fossils, shark teeth, and other treasures. The popular Smithsonian Summer Camp opened a world of possibilities for young explorers. Sessions included Summer Splash!, in which campers examined the properties of liquids and their various states, and A Shocking Good Time!, which introduced youngsters to the concepts of electricity.
Associates expanded their study through more than 500 Smithsonian Study Tours in the United States and abroad. This year's offerings included a one-week seminar based at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Whipple Observatory and the National Observatories on Kitt Peak near Tucson, Arizona. Civil War historians Edwin C. Bearss and A. Wilson Greene led several tours illuminating the strategies and campaigns that determined the war's outcome and shaped northern and southern political life into our own time. Associates on a 10-day study voyage in Panama boarded a small vessel to visit indigenous peoples in island communities and explore the rainforest ecosystem with Stanley Heckadon of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
TSA's National Outreach Program introduced the public to the research of Smithsonian scholars and taught graduate students new research techniques. A Smithsonian Voices of Discovery Program in Scottsdale, Arizona, for example, featured the work of Gillian Moss, curator of textiles at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; James Zimbelman, geologist at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum; Jeremy Adamson, curator at the Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art; and Andrew Connors, curator of painting at
the National Museum of American Art. Some 5,000 people attended these events, while thousands more watched a cablecast to classrooms and homes in the region. In addition, TSA's Master's Degree Program in the History of Decorative Arts, established in 1996 with the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and Parsons School of Design, graduated its first class this year.
Radio Theatre Live! —A Lively Partnership
In what has become an annual event, the Smithsonian's Resident Associate Program again joined in rich partnership with L.A. Theatre Works and Voice of America (VOA) to present Radio Theatre Live'—three classic American dramas thac were taped live for later broadcast on VOA worldwide and on public radio in the United States. Under the guidance of the artistic directors of three distinguished Washington theater companies, the plays were performed by some of the country’s most talented actors. Smithsonian audiences had the added thrill of observing live radio drama in production.
The plays included Arthur Miller's A// My Sons, starring the great Julie Harris and James Farantino and directed by Nick Olcort of Arena Stage. Henry James's The Heiress, starring Amy Irving, was directed by Michael Kahn of The Shakespeare Theatre. And the musical Working, based on a Studs Terkel book, starred Tyne Daly and was directed by Eric Schaeffer of Signature Theatre.
Additional cosponsors of Radio Theatre Live! were the Capital Group Companies, Inc.; J.W. Marriott; Dr. Sidney Harman, chairman of Harman International Industries, Inc.; The Luxury Collection/ITT Sheraton; and La Colline.
Smithsonian Press/Smithsonian Productions
Through books for general and academic audiences, exhibition films and videos, and broadcast projects, Smithsonian Press and Smithsonian Productions (SP/SP) build on the strengths of Smithsonian research and collections.
This year, Smithsonian Institution Press (SIP), an SP/SP division, issued approximately 65 new books and sold about 330,000 individual copies. Books from SIP received nine important editorial awards, many design awards, eleven reviews in the Washington Post Book World, and three reviews in the New York Times Book Review.
Continuing the successful Smithsonian Answer Book series, Bats in Question was included on the New York Public Library’s annual list of best books in the teenage category. Author Don Wilson is director of the National Museum of Natural History's Biodiversity Programs Office. Other books for a general audience included Anthropology Explored: The Best of Smithsonian AnthroNotes, a lively selection of essays from the Smithsonian's acclaimed serial publication edited by Ruth Selig and Marilyn London, in which the world’s leading anthropologists explore fundamental questions humans ask themselves as individuals, as societies, and as a species. The
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elegant exhibition catalogue Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collections, copublished with the Freer Gallery of Arc and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, elaborates on the curatorial research behind the exhibition. In collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management, SIP published the first recreational guide to the bureau's enormous land holdings, Beyond the National Parks: A Recreation Guide to the Public Lands in the West.
Books for academic audiences included a posthumously published book by Martin H. Moynihan, founding director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, The Social Regulation of Competition and Aggression in Antmals. Ecology and Management of the North American Moose received the annual book award in the edited book category from the Wildlife Society. The Society of American Archaeology gave its annual book award to volume 2 of Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene Settlement in Chile, by Tom Dillehay, part of the Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry. Continuing its tradition of excellence as a publisher in museum studies, SIP issued an extensively revised and expanded edition of Marie Malaro’s classic Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections.
Many of the exhibition programs that Smithsonian Productions developed during 1998 grew out of the research efforts of Smithsonian museums. Highlights include a video of Ella Fitzgerald's best performances for “Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song” at the National Museum of American History; Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group, a profile of contemporary African artists produced for the National Museum of African Art; and three videos for “Speak to My Heart: Communities of Faich and Contemporary African American Life,” organized by the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture.
Several broadcast projects also drew on solid research. “Jazz Smithsonian,” the nationally broadcast radio series chat fearures the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and host Lena Home, celebrated its sixth season by expanding to 13 programs. “Guitar: Electrified, Amplified, and Deified,” produced for the National Museum of American History's Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and aired nationwide on public radio, traced the musical impact of the electric guitar.
Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series Program
In scholarly communities, it is firmly held that individual research has little benefit to society unless it is published. This fundamental principle was wisely reflected in the Institution's original mandate not only to increase knowledge but, equally important, to diffuse it.
The Smithsonian's first Secretary emphasized publication as a means of diffusing knowledge. In his formal plan for the Institution, Joseph Henry proposed to “publish a series of reports, giving an account of the new discoveries in science,
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and of the changes made from year to year in all branches of knowledge.”
This commitment to publishing has been honored through the years in the publication of thousands of titles issued in various serial publications under the Smithsonian imprint, beginning with Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge in 1848 and continuing today with the nine monograph series published by the Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series Program.
Highly regarded in this country and around the world, the nine series include reports on the results of scientific, technical, and historical research conducted by Smithsonian staff, as well as reports on the Institution's collections. This program is one of the few avenues in which Smithsonian researchers and their collaborating colleagues can publish large monographs and major revisionary works, which are often profusely illustrated. Most of these works are too large to be considered by journals, which typically publish short articles. The nine series are Anthropology, Botany, Earth Sciences, Marine Sciences, Paleobiology, Zoology, Folklife Studies, Air and Space, and History and Technology. The publications in each series are distributed by mailing lists to libraries, research institutions, government agencies, and individual scholars throughout the world.
In addition to providing high-quality editorial assistance, the program's staff editors typeset and design the monographs and provide camera-ready pages to the printer. This year, the program published 18 monographs, including a Thesaurus of Sponge Morphology and a two-volume work on the Systematics and Biogeography of Cephalopods.
Smithsonian Magazine
For 2 million readers, Smithsonian magazine is a respected link to the multifaceted world of the Smithsonian. Articles about research in the sciences, the arts, and the humanities, both inside and outside the Institution, are regular features in the magazine. This year, readers leamed about the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s creation of an X-ray sensor for the new space telescope known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (later renamed the Chandra X-ray Observatory) and curator Wendy Wick Reaves’ work on the National Portrait Gallery exhibition “Celebrity Caricature in America.” Other articles focused on subjects as varied as freshwater mussels, the history of fountains, the causes of back pain, coral reefs, and objects from the California gold rush. Michael Kernan, who explores the Smithsonian in his column “Around the Mall and Beyond,” took readers behind the scenes for, among other things, a look ar collection storage and laboratories at che Museum Support Center, a visit to the archives of the National Museum of American History's Engineering and Industry Collection; a conversation with Richard Fiske, director of the Global Volcanism Program at the National Museum of Natural History; and a visit to the archives of the National Museum of American History's Engineering and Industry Collection.
Smithsonian Businesses
A Smithsonian Frog Lab, a piece of Art Nouveau glass, a CD-ROM on American art—each says something to the consumer about the Smithsonian’s mission as a leading research and educational instirution. In turn, merchandise like this—sold in museum shops, through the Smithsonian Catalogue, or in retail stores through licensing agreements—generates revenue that is critical to the Institution's financial base and benefits its many programs, including research.
This year, Smithsonian Museum Shop sales exceeded $36 million, a 9 percent increase over fiscal year 1997. Exhibition-related shops remained popular, especially at the National Air and Space Museum, where “Star Wars: The Magic of Myth” inspired the most successful temporary shop ever. The “Jewels of Lalique” shop in the International Gallery featured glass jewelry and giftware from Lalique and an assortment of products that reflected René Lalique’s influence in art and nature.
The Smithsonian Catalogue enjoyed record sales of nearly $35 million, a Io percent increase over last fiscal year. In April, the Catalogue opened its new 125,000-square-foot fulfillment center near Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. Sales resulting from the mailing of 18 million catalogues last year overwhelmed the capacity of the previous, much smaller, location. With the move, the Catalogue plans to increase the number of packages shipped annually from 442,000 to 740,000.
The new facility is home to the Catalogue’s call center, as well as purchasing, accounting, human resources, information systems, shipping, receiving, and inventory control operations. The large inventory of holiday ornaments, neckties, furniture, and other items inspired by Smithsonian collections is received and processed there and then shipped to customers around the world.
Licensing agreements also help fund research initiatives. In 1998, more than 65 percent of the available royalties revenue went to collection or programmatic endeavors, including research. As a result of the revenue-sharing system, for example, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries supplemented its General Support Endowment, which addresses the Libraries’ needs and strengthens its capacity as an accessible research resource.
Some of the children’s retail products developed by licensees reflect the Smithsonian's position as a leading research institution. With the Smithsonian Anatomy Lab and the Smithsonian Frog Lab, for example, young scientists explore anatomical systems and their interaction with their environments. The labs, sold in stores throughout North America, were created by Product Development and Licensing and Natural Science Industries in conjunction with the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Anthropology and the National Zoological Park's Department of Pathology.
Office of Public Affairs
This year, Director of Communications David J. Umansky and staff in the Office of Public Affairs (OPA) began implementing the Secretary's new visual identity program, designed by Ivan Chermayeff of Chermayeff & Geismar in New York City. The foundation of the program is a new logo, used with a sunburst symbol, that links the Smithsonian name with each museum, research institute, and office.
A major effort in implementing the visual identity was the preparation, printing, and distribution of the Smithsonian Design Guidelines, which governs use of the logo by staff and outside designers and printers. By the end of the fiscal year, the new identity was in place on many Smithsonian products, including stationery, Web sites, brochures, and reports.
A public service ad campaign put the Smithsonian in the public eye this year. The ad featured Larry Fuente’s colorful Game Fish, from the Renwick Gallery's collection, with the line “Ever wonder who decides what the Smithsonian keeps?” Ic ran in TV Guide, Latina, the New Yorker, Elle Decor, and other magazines in free space provided to nonprofit organizations such as the Smithsonian. The ad received the Addy 98 Citation of Excellence from the Advertising Club of Washington, D.C.
Extensive media coverage followed the announcement of a three-year conservation project for the Star-Spangled Banner. The project is part of the White House Millennium Council’s Save America’s Treasures initiative, launched at the National Museum of American History on July 13 by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. OPA handled all media for the event and videotaped the ceremony.
OPA produced a 16-minute video for television news producers with exterior views of the museums and the National Mall, as well as shots of famous artifacts, including the Star-Spangled Banner. The staff also developed and produced a seven-minute film about education at the Smithsonian to be used by the Office of Membership and Development and other offices.
Two brochures in OPA’s Resources series were updated this year: Native American Resources at the Smithsonian and African and African American Resources at the Smithsonian. The brochures are intended for teachers, students, and researchers interested in exploring Smithsonian collections, databases, publications, and other resources.
OPA also reestablished a full-time staff position this year to publicize and promote research at the Institution.
A Unified Visual Identity for the Smithsonian
The Smithsonian's first logo, in 1847, was James Smithson’s profile. Symbols of enlightenment followed: a globe and torches of knowledge in the late nineteenth century and then, in 1966, the sunburst. Over the years, the museums, research institutes, and offices developed their own visual identities.
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After the 15oth anniversary celebration and looking toward the new century, Secretary I. Michael Heyman felt the time was right to create a unified visual identity for the Institution. It was clear, he wrote in Smithsonian magazine, that “knowing who we are and being able to communicate that identity clearly and confidently to the public is best achieved in a single graphic representing both our sum and our parts.”
The choice was the sunburst, linking the Smithsonian's history with its fucure. Chermayeff & Geismar, Inc., of New York designed the updated sunburst and logotype and created design guidelines to help implement the new visual identity program throughout the Institution.
Building a strong corporate identity is standard practice in the business world. For the Smithsonian, the challenges are similar. “If we are to be successful in attracting the support we need, now and into the next century, to sustain our multiple departments, activities, and service to our audiences,” the Secretary wrote, “the Smithsonian must express those needs with one voice, with one image.”
As the sunburst logo continues to appear on stationery, Web sites, publications, and product packaging, a stronger public image of a multifaceted institution dedicated to knowledge is emerging.
Visitor Information and Associates’ Reception Center
The Visitor Information and Associates’ Reception Center (VIARC) supports both public access to Smithsonian research and the work of the Insticution’s scholars and scientists. This year, 5,684 volunteers contributed 495,541 hours of service as docents, volunteer information specialists, and staff assistants behind the scenes, as well as in other volunteer activities that help the Smithsonian fulfill its mission.
An important example of VIARC’s contributions is the Behind-the-Scenes Volunteer Program, which places volunteers as research assistants to staff on subjects as varied as the Smithsonian itself. VIARC also administers the Public Inquiry Mail and Telephone Information Service, which provides a central point for public contact about the Institution's work. Collectively, mail and phone inquiries number 400,000 annually, many of which are specific to the Institution's research activities.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors are exploring the Institution's research resources online through the electronic “Encyclopedia Smithsonian” (http://www. si.edu/resourcelfaq/ start.btm), developed and maintained by VIARC on the Smithsonian Web site. “Encyclopedia Smithsonian” also presents fact sheets and recommended reading lists prepared by the Public Inquiry Mail Service in cooperation with curatorial and research divisions.
Research Volunteers
Working with museum and research institute staff on everything from aviation history to threatened plants of Latin
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America, volunteers in the Visitor Information and Associates’ Reception Center's Behind-the-Scenes Volunteer Program actively contribute to the Smithsonian's research efforts. At the National Portrait Gallery, the range of volunteer research projects illustrates just how valuable volunteer participation can be.
In the Painting and Sculpture Department, Philippe Newton, a retired engineering executive and a painter, has spent the past four years doing research for assistant curator Brandon Fortune in preparation for the exhibition “Franklin and His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth-Century America,” which opens in April 1999. “He has researched everything from the transits of Venus to bee keeping,” Fortune says, even taking time during a personal trip to London to study some 18th-century manuscripts at the Natural History Museum.
For an exhibition of portraits by photographer Hans Namuth, also opening in April, volunteer Christopher Saks searched the National Archives, locating information that other researchers had not found. “He deserves a lot of credit for his diligence and perseverance, and especially for his skill at using the Archives,” says Carolyn Carr, exhibition curator and the gallery's deputy director.
Elsewhere in the Portrait Gallery, Mary Skow and Joseph Phillips volunteer with the Charles Willson Peale Papers project. Their research runs the gamut from tracking down basic biographical information to more complex activities. They summarize and transcribe manuscript letters of Peale family members, for example, and then research specific aspects of the letters’ contents. For the Catalog of American Portraits, Sylvia Lee is involved in a variety of tasks, from verifying information about portraits in public and private collections, to data entry, to answering research requests.
Volunteers working on research-related projects are among the 1,240 behind-the-scenes volunteers who contributed 176,128 hours of their time to the Smithsonian during fiscal year 1998.
Office of Government Relations
The Office of Government Relations, with Donald L. Hardy as its new director, oversaw a successful legislative agenda to enact personnel protections for Smithsonian employees and secure funding to update and expand the Institution's transportation collections, exhibitions, and public programming. Supporting the Smithsonian's priority to make its collections and programs more accessible to the public, Government Relations staff coordinated discussions, demonstrations, and tours for members of Congress and their staffs. The goal was to enlist their support for making the Smithsonian the nation’s virtual museum and research complex.
In collaboration with educators and with Smithsonian museums, research instirutes, and offices, the Office of Government Relations placed special emphasis on bringing Smithsonian resources to the classroom.
Operations
Those involved in the Smithsonian’s research activities on the Nationa! Mall and around the world depend on the centralized services provided by Washington-based finance, administration, facilities, and information technology staff. This year was no exception, as offices in the administrative area continued to provide a reliable, effective support system for their colleagues throughout the Institution.
A number of activities recognized the Smithsonian's dedicated staff. The annual Unsung Heroes awards, coordinated by the Ombudsman, honored employees nominated by their colleagues for their exemplary service. The Office of Equal Employment and Minority Affairs presented the fourth annual Excellence in Equal Opportunity awards to four employees for their accomplishments in making equal opportunity a reality. The Office of Human Resources introduced open houses for Smithsonian employees who work outside Washington, beginning with an event in New York City at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Two major construction projects were completed this year: the National Museum of the American Indian's (NMAI'’s) new Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Maryland, and the renovation and expansion of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The 145,000-square-foot NMAI facility is a support center for the museum and its collection. Ic features a resource center, conservation laboratories, repatriation offices, indoor and outdoor ceremonial areas, and collection storage. Objects now stored in the museum's Research Branch in the Bronx, New York, will be moved to the center over the next five years. At the Cooper-Hewitt, a multiphase project to transform the museum's landmark structures into an accessible museum facility involved renovating three historic buildings, installing an upgraded climate control system, and creating the new Design Resource Center linked to the
museum's historic Andrew Carnegie Mansion by the new Agnes Bourne Bridge Gallery.
Other renovation and expansion projects moved ahead this year throughout the Institution, coordinated by the Facilities division. They included the East and West Court projects at the National Museum of Natural History; plans for renovation of the historic U.S. Patent Office Building, home of the National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery; the renovation of the National Air and Space Museum and planning for the museum's Dulles Center; and the design of the Narional Museum of the American Indian's Mall museum. Ground was broken for a major research laboratory for the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Several offices analyzed and improved the efficiency of systems that serve the entire Smithsonian. The Finance division, for example, led an Institution-wide team to study indirect cost issues, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in the indirect cost rate used in financial planning and management. The division also initiated several projects to improve financial systems, including a new time-and-attendance data entry system and more flexible software for developing and issuing financial reports. The Office of Planning, Management, and Budget continues to develop and refine its automated system for improving resource planning and management. The office has also developed an integrated electronic budget management database.
Technical assistance from the Office of Information Technology (OIT) helps the Smithsonian keep pace with rapid developments in information and communication technology. This year, for example, OIT advised Smithsonian art museums in the selection and installation of a new collections information system known as The Museum System (TMS). With the Office of the Provost, OIT is designing a system to provide searchable public access to collections information from the museums, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Report of the Board of Regents
Secretary Heyman and the Regents’ committees contributed substantially to the Board of Regents’ accomplishments ar its three meetings on January 26, May 11, and September 14, 1998. At the Seprember meeting, the board voted to designate Esteban E. Torres as a Regent Emeritus, with all the rights and responsibilities thereof, effective upon his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Regents continued their practice of meeting as a Committee of the Whole on the afternoons preceding each meeting. In these sessions, they reviewed selected museum operations and advisory board activities, consulting with the directors and board representatives of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of American History. In addition, the Regents discussed in depth such issues as Smithsonian capital campaign planning, Smithsonian business initiatives, and strategies for fulfilling facilities needs. Our of these discussions, the Regents authorized undertaking a national fund-raising campaign, establishing a special business organization within the Smithsonian, and appointing an ad hoc Committee on Facilities.
The Audit and Review Committee met three times during the year and continued to exercise its primary responsibility for oversight of the Smithsonian’s financial operations. The committee discussed KPMG Peat Marwick’s report on fiscal year 1997 transactions and considered the Smithsonian Inspector General's semiannual reports to Congress. The committee also considered a study on enhancing business activities, reviewed cash management and pledge collection policies and procedures, and discussed both Year 2000 computer problems and the Regents’ policy on the rotation of independent auditors.
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The Investment Policy Committee also met three times. The committee monitored the investment managers’ development of the Institution's endowment, rebalanced the portfolio, and evaluated the managers’ performance. In addition, the committee recommended a total-rerurn payout rate for fiscal year 1999 and proposed a plan for meeting the financial needs of the first two years of the Smithsonian's capital campaign out of endowment funds. The Regents appointed Smithsonian National Board vice-chair Frank A. Weil to the Investment Policy Committee, and the committee was saddened by the passing of irs member Thomas Keresey.
At each of their meetings, the Regents considered comprehensive financial reports. They approved the trust and federal expenditures for fiscal year 1999 and the request to the Office of Management and Budget for fiscal year 2000 appropriations.
The Regents also discussed how exhibition topics are selected and developed at the Smithsonian and were briefed on the Institution's highly respected security operations that safeguard collections and people.
Through the Secretary's reports at their meetings, the Regents were informed about the design and implementation of a uniform visual identity for the Smithsonian. In accordance with the new institutional logo, the Regents adopted a new seal effective August 10, 1998. The Secretary's reports also informed the Regents about the Star-Spangled Banner Preservation Project and the difficulties emanating from the contract for architectural services for the National Museum of the American Indian. Under the Secretary's initiative, congressional members of the board supported legislation to gain coverage for the Institution under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Rehabiliration Act, and the Age
Discrimination Act. The congressional Regents also sought statutory authority for the Board of Regents to enlarge the membership of its advisory boards for the purpose of increasing their ability to raise support for the Smithsonian's museums.
Among their many actions, the Regents affirmed their intention to construct the National Air and Space Museum Dulles Center as soon as possible, approved the acquisition of land in support of Smithsonian research programs, and agreed to endow Smithsonian marine research out of the Seward Johnson Trust for Oceanography.
The Regents established two advisory bodies: the board of the National Air and Space Museum Dulles Center and an advisory board for the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture. In addition, the Regents approved bylaws for the Visiting Committees of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art and bylaws amendments for the Smithsonian National Board.
The Board of Regents made the following appointments and reappointments to Smithsonian advisory boards: Carolyn S. Blount, Sylvia A. Earle, Jane B. Eisner, Patricia Frost,
Nely Galan, Bert Getz, Paul Hertelendy, Dona Kendall, Marie L. Knowles, Marc E. Leland, John D. Macomber, Elizabeth S. MacMillan, Holly Madigan, Michael McBride, Kenneth B. Miller, John M. Nelson, Joan Noto, Clemmie Dixon Spangler, and Kelso Sutton to the Smithsonian National Board; Rita Fraad, William G. Kerr, Henry Luce II, Peter Lunder, Richard J. Schwartz, Ferdinand T. Stent, and Wesley S. Williams Jr. to the Commission of the National Museum of American Art; David C. Driskell, Frances Humphrey Howard, and Robert H. Nooter to the Commission of the National Museum of African Art; Todd Axelrod, Richard Carrion, Thad Cochran, Jerry Florence, Dorothy Lemelson, and James Mellor to the National Museum of American History Board; Kenneth E. Behring, William H. Frist, Arthur Gray Jr., John S. Hendricks, Stanley Ikenberry, Jean Lane, Robert Malott, Jeffery W. Meyer, Nancy R. Morin, David Pilbeam, Paul G. Risser, Alan Spoon, and Milton H. Ward to the National Museum of Natural History Board; James Block, Ellsworth Brown, Eloise Cobell, Jorge Flores Ochoa, Catherine Fowler, Doug George, Luci Tapahonso, Bernie Whitebear, and Phyllis Young to the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian; Robert A. Bartlett, Edith A. Cecil, Jeannine Smith Clark, Elizabeth Frazier, Laura Howell, Alberta Kelly, William Ramsey, Jeffrey R. Short Jr., and Henry Strong to the Advisory Board of the National Zoological Park; Thomas Alexander and Henry Hartsfield Jr. to the Council of Philatelists of the National Postal Museum; Charlotte N. Castle, Shirley M. Gifford, Rosemary Livingston Ripley, and Frank A. Weil to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Board; Agnes Bourne,
Anne Ehrenkranz, Barbara Riley Levin, Richard Meier, Enid Morse (Honorary Life Trustee), and Harry G. Robinson III to the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Board of Trustees; James R. Cargill II, Dollie A. Cole, Morton Funger, Robert James, Walter H. Leimert Jr., Adrienne Bevis Mars, Thomas G. Morr, Donald B. Rice, Clive Runnells, John Safer, Carrington Williams, and Daniel W. Yohannes to the National Air and Space Museum Dulles Center National Board; Kurt Gitter and Elizabeth ten Groetenhuis to the Freer Gallery of Art Visiting Committee; and Robert Feinberg to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Visiting Committee.
Staff Changes
Government Relations Director M. John Berry left the Smithsonian during fiscal year 1998 to become assistant secretary for management and budget at the U.S. Department of the Interior. In January, after an extensive search, the Institution was pleased to welcome Donald L. Hardy as director of government relations. Hardy had served as chief of staff to Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyoming) and became well acquainted with the Institution during
Senator Simpson's tenure as a Smithsonian Regent.
In August, Refugio I. (“Will”) Rochin, former director of the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan Strate University, became the founding director of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives. Earlier in the year, counselor to the Provost Franklin S. Odo established the Program for Asian Pacific American Studies.
Ross B. Simons was named director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in addition to his duties as associate director for research and collections at the National Museum of Natural History. Michael Sofield was appointed director of the Office of Physical Plant, and Rex Ellis left his position as director of the Center for Museum Studies to become chairman of the Division of Cultural History in the National Museum of American History. Regrettably, Leslie Casson Stevens resigned from her position as comptroller to pursue other interests, and Daniel H. Goodwin retired from the directorship of Smithsonian Press/Smithsonian Productions.
The Smithsonian was supported throughout the year by a loyal and dedicated staff. While some may go and will be missed, the Institution has always been fortunate to attract highly talented individuals to serve in their stead. The result is an ever-productive group of professionals, aided in almost every endeavor by spirited volunteers and guided by increasingly involved members of the advisory boards and the Board of Regents.
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Chronology
Fall and Summer 1997
@ Rediscovery Unraveling a tangle of falsified scientific data from the early twentieth century, Natural History ornithologist Dr. Pamela Rasmussen and two colleagues found and videotaped a pair of Indian forest owlets from a species long believed extinct. Rasmussen videotaped that encounter—the first between Athene blewitti and scientists in 113 years—and later returned to India to record its dis- tinctive call. Rasmussen and her colleagues have helped launch a project with the Bombay Natural History Society to survey and study the
owlet.
October
@ Publication An umbrella case statement for the Institution’s first-ever national capital campaign was drafted and distributed for review by the Office of the Executive Director for Development to board members, museum directors, and SI development professionals.
October
@ Meeting The Office of Membership and Develop- ment welcomed the Smithsonian National Board to Washington, D.C., for the board’s annual meeting. The board also held its spring meeting April 1998.
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October
@ Collections System With the five other Smithsonian art museums, the National Museum of African Art ac- quired a collections information system. The software, known as The Museum System, allows staff to manage transactions and information and, ultimately, to give scholars and the public electronic access to the collection.
October
@ Exhibition Traditions” opened at the George Gustav Heye Center on October 19. Presenting 40 North American and
“To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting
Hawaiian quilts together for the first time, the exhibi- tion illustrated the similarities and differences in the history and meaning of quilts within diverse Native communities.
October
@ Special Event The Office of Equal Employment and Minority Affairs orchestrated the fourth annual Secretary's Award Program for Excellence in Equal Op- portunity in collaboration with the Secretary's Office and the SI Equal Opportunity Advisory Council. Several outstanding managers and employees were recognized for exceptional contributions to the Smithsonian’s Equal Opportunity goals and honored before their peers and hundreds of Smithsonian employees.
October
™ Construction The Office of Contracting negotiated and awarded a contract to William V. Walsh to replace the roof of the Patent Office Building. (NMAA/NPG) This is one of the early contracts for the total restoration of the Patent Office Building.
October
= Exhibition/Sponsorship “The Art of Jack Delano” premiered—to critical accolades—in October 1997 at the Rafael Carrion Pacheco Exhibit Hall in the Banco Popular headquarters in Old San Juan. Banco Popular, also the exhibition national corporate sponsor, made pos- sible the exhibition’s mainland debut at the Smithson- ian International Gallery by sponsoring the exhibition's opening reception. Following its showing in Washing- ton, the exhibition traveled to the Museo del Barrio in New York City.
October 1
B Exhibit Opens The Zoo’s refurbished Great Cats exhibit opened October 1. Second-graders from Alexandria’s Bucknell School cut the ribbon. A grant from Save the Tiger Fund paid in part for the renovations.
October 1
= Electronic Journals Libraries brought 177 full-text journals online and
The Smithsonian Institution
made them available to its users in the Institution through an agreement between Academic Pub- lishers and the Chesapeake Information and Research Library Alliance, of which the Libraries is a founding member.
October 1
® Curators Installed Leslie K. Overstreet assumed the position of Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Curator of Natural History Rare Books scheduled to open in 2001. Ms. Overstreet is involved in the planning and develop- ment of the new Natural History Rare Book Library. Mrs. Jefferson Patterson contributed funds to support this posi- tion for the first three years. In June 1998 Ron Brashear be- came the Curator of Rare Books in the History of Science and Technology. Mr. Brashear serves researchers working in the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Tech- nology. Both Ms. Overstreet and Mr. Brashear are in the Libraries’ Special Collections Department.
October 7
§ Public Program “Smithsonian Honors Queen of Salsa” —Celia Cruz, the undisputed Queen of Salsa, received the National Museum of American History Programa Latino Lifetime Achievement Award for Excel- lence in Music. Ms. Cruz donated one of her world- renowned costumes to the museum and during a public oral history session, reflected upon her career, the chang- ing nature of the Latin music business, and the role of women in the Latin music business.
October 7
B Exhibition “As Precious As Gold” exhibition examining the gold
The National Postal Museum opened the
rush and the struggle of the Post Office Department to ensure that stampeders received adequate mail service.
October 9
@ Exhibition plores the three categories of crimes investigated by the US. Postal Inspection Service, the nation’s oldest con-
“Mayhem by Mail,” an exhibition that ex-
sumer protection agency, opened at the National Postal Museum.
October 9
@ Exhibition and Programs Introducing biblical scenes, nudes, portraits, allegories, and landscapes by a mid- twentieth-century British artist (1891-1959) whose paint- ings are highly celebrated in England but little exhibited or studied abroad, “Stanley Spencer: An English Vision” opened at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Coorganized by Hirshhorn Director James T. Demetrion and Andrea Rose of the British Council in London, the show generated a Sunday-after- noon lecture series (October 12~-November 16) exploring Spencer's work from four distinct perspectives: an over- view by Director Duncan Robinson of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge; the artist’s milieu by curator Judith Collins of the Tate Gallery in London; his religious themes by Professor Nicholas P. Woltersdorff of the Yale University Divinity School; and his impact on later artists by Director Hugh Davies of the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. British writer Fiona MacCarthy contributed an essay to a fully illustrated 195-page catalog, and the show received major funding support from Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, Fieldstead and Company. After closing in Washington on January 11, 1998, the exhibition traveled to the Centro Cultural/Arte Contempordneo in Mexico City (February 19—May 10, 1998) and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francis- co (June 8-September 6, 1998).
October 11-December 7 @ Exhibition “Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions’—Collaboratively developed between the National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Ser- vice, “Wade in the Water” examined how the legacy of music sung during slavery and the development of the worship practices of America’s black churches during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has contributed
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to the African American heritage and to making this music a worldwide cultural force.
October 14
@ Public Program Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, spoke about her life, personal philosophy, and hoped-for legacy in an interview program conducted by veteran Washington broadcast journalist Maureen Bunyan and presented by The Smithsonian Associates’ Resident As- sociate Program.
October 18
@ Special Event The Office of Membership and Development organized the Smithsonian Benefactors Circle Dinner to recognize and honor those individuals whose gifts, over their lifetimes, have preserved the traditions of the Smithsonian and furthered its vision. At the October 1997 dinner, Herbert and Evelyn Axel- rod received the Circle’s annual award for their support including endowment gifts for a revolving chair in the Department of Fishes at the Natural History Museum, and for the Chamber Music Program of the American History Museum’s Cultural History Department.
October 19
= Exhibition and Publication The SITES exhibition “Seeing Jazz” premiered at the International Gallery. The book, also entitled Seeing Jazz, published for the premiere, complemented and expanded on the themes of the exhibition, including more artworks and literary selections. As part of its national tour, select works from the exhibition were shown at The Jazz Gallery in New York City on February 22, 1998. The New York City Host Committee brought the exhibition there as part of city-planned events for the Grammy Awards. Support for the exhibition was provided by America’s Jazz Heritage, A Partnership of the Leila-Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution.
October 20-23
® Collecting The Archives of American Art held a four- day meeting of all regional collectors from around the country at the Washington Center. The meeting provided an opportunity for Washington staff to meet and discuss a wide variety of Archives’ issues with collec-
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tors from New York, New England, the Southeast, and the West Coast.
October 22-April 26
w Exhibition The National Museum of African Art opened the Sylvia H. Williams Gallery, the first per- manent gallery to be devoted to modern African art in a U.S. museum, reflecting the museum’s expanded mis- sion to collection and display of modern African art. The gallery's inaugural exhibition, “The Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group,” featured 64 paint- ings, drawings, prints, wood sculptures, and mixed- media works by seven Nigerian artists connected to the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Nigeria. In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum organized a symposium with the seven fearured artists and leading scholars from Africa, Europe, and the United States who explored Nsukka art and related the artists’ work to the larger contem- porary art scene in Nigeria and throughout the world.
October 23-May 12
= Exhibition “Oil from the Arctic: Building the Trans- Alaska Pipeline” at the National Museum of American History examined the engineering, economic, cultural, and environmental issues involved in building the 800- mile-long Trans-Alaska Pipeline. A 21-foot section of the pipeline was placed on display.
October 23
§ Outreach The National Science Resources Center par- ticipated in the 1998 Smithsonian Office of Education’s Teachers Night. Staff handed out thousands of informa- tion packets about the curriculum materials and out- reach and leadership developments programs of the National Science Resources Center.
October 23
The Smithsonian Accessibility Pro- gram presented a training session titled “Service Animals Welcome at the Smithsonian.” The session was
8 Training Seminar
offered to accessibility liaisons, Office of Protection Ser- vices staff, and all staff responsible for working with the public. Presenting the session were speakers from the Delta Society National Service Dog Center and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Disability Rights Section.
October 24
= Public Program The Smithsonian Associates, in as- sociation with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, presented the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition. British musician Darren Barrett took first prize in the contest.
October 25
= Donation The National Zoo receives a $32,400 donation from Enron Corp. to support Asian elephant research. The funds will support to Malaysian Elephant Satellite Tracking System, run jointly by the Conserva- tion and Research Center and the Malaysian Wildlife Department.
October 26—January 31
= Exhibit “About Faces” at the National Museum of American History explored how the application of medical research to everyday life in the past 50 years has changed our perception and understanding of the way we look.
October 29
= Endowment Established The Smithsonian Institution Libraries established The Wineland Research Library Endowment in conjunction with the purchase of the Lloyd and Charlotte Wineland Collection of Native American and Western Exploration Literature. Income from this endowment will support projects, exhibitions and public outreach, and study and research in collec- tions relating to the fields of Native American and Western Exploration literature. A reception was held to recognize the establishment of the endowment.
October 29
= Special Event The Smithsonian Associates awarded the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal to filmmaker George Lucas for his contributions to the advancement of the art of motion pictures.
November and May
§ Acquisitions Several major acquisitions will be the focus of further research and future exhibitions. They in- clude a selection of 14 sculptures from Central and East Africa and a rare Mbete reliquary figure from Gabon;
two fine Urhobo and Igbo figures from Nigeria; the artist's book Emandulo, Re-Creation, created in Johannes- burg, South Africa; and a sculpture, The Ancestors Con- verged Again, by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui.
November
8 Film Festival The National Museum of the American Indian presented its biennial Native American Film and Video Festival at the Heye Center. The festival offered free screenings of 70 films, videos, tadio programs, and multimedia products by in- digenous media makers from North America and Latin America.
November
= Program The Center for Museum Studies, in col- laboration with the Fundacion Antorchas and the University of Buenos Aires, concludes a professional development training project, based in Argentina, designed to ensure that the cultural patrimony of South American museums will not disappear as a result of neglect or lack of resources.
November 2
= Program The 1997 Mordes Lecture in Contemporary Art, made possible by Board of Trustees member Mar- vin Mordes of Baltimore and his wife, Elayne, featured the observations of New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, who titled her talk “On Becoming and Remain- ing a Critic.” The annual Mordes lecture was one high- light in a year of stimulating public programs, including ongoing “First Friday,” “Young at Art,” “Young Artists,” and “New Voices” talks and programs, writers’ workshops, and the popular independent film series. With the arrival in June of Linda Powell, former- ly of the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, as Education Program Director, the Hirshhorn looked ahead to further expansion and innovation in its public programs.
November 3-14
8 International Workshop The Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education staff organized and conducted a two-week course on “Preservation of Paper- Based Collections and Archives,” at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, Venezuela. Financially supported by the U.S. Information Agency and the SI-150 Commit-
tee, and organized in collaboration with the Galeria de Arte Nacional and the Bibliotheca Nacional in Caracas, the course attracted 17 Venezuelan museum professionals.
November 6
The Smithsonian Ac- cessibility Program presented information on the ap- plication of Universal Design principles in museums to
® International Technical Assistance
a group of accessibility professionals from Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan.
November 7—July 12
a Exhibition “George C. Marshall: Soldier of Peace” was on view at the National Portrait Gallery. The show was organized to mark the soth anniversary of the Mar- shall Plan to restore stability and prosperity to Europe. It traced the career of George Marshall from his childhood and entry into the military to his distin- guished service as Harry Truman's Secretary of State and following its viewing at the Gallery, traveled to the George C. Marshall Foundation in Lexington, Virginia. Curator for the show was historian James G. Barber.
November 7
8 Exhibition “Vida y Costumbres de un Pueblo Precolombino” (“Life and Customs of a Pre-Columbian Village”), an exhibit produced by the Tropical Research Institute with the collaboration of Panama’s Institute of Culture, opened at the Museo de la Nacionalidad, in la Villa de Los Santos, Panama.
November 8
"Gift Californian businessman and philanthropist Kenneth E. Behring and his family made a gift of $20 million to the National Museum of Natural History, at that time the largest donation made to a Smithsonian museum. The Behring gift will enable the museum to update its Rotunda and Hall of Mammals and create two new programs to promote the understanding of mammals and how they live in the wild.
November II
= Exhibition “Blue Guitars”—An exhibit opens at the National Museum of American History of 22 blue archtop guitars selected from the collection of Scott Chinery. Each guitar was commissioned by the collector
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who challenged the world’s leading luthiers to expand their limits, become more innovative, and move in new directions in constructing guitars.
November 12
8 Special Event The Smithsonian Associates awarded the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal to John Hope Franklin in recognition of his outstanding achievements as a historian of American life.
November 13
@ Publications Awards The Office of Public Affairs was presented the following awards in the National Associa- tion of Government Communicators’ Blue Pencil com- petition for 1997: First Place for the quarterly newsletter Smithsonian Institution Research Reports; First Place (tied) for The Torch, the employee newspaper; and Third Place for the annual report, Smithsonian Year 1996.
November 18
= Exhibition The Tropical Research Institute’s exhibi- tion “Parting the Green Curtain: The Evolution of Tropical Biology in Panama” returned to Panama to
be displayed at the Smithsonian’s Marine Exhibition Center.
November 20
= Exhibition “Directions—Toba Khedoori” opened at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, present- ing three floor-to-ceiling wax-covered paintings on paper by this Los Angeles—based Australian-born artist (b. 1964). Organized by Associate Curator Olga M. Viso, who discussed Khedoori’s work ina gallery talk on December 4, the show revealed the artist’s dexterous approach to “phantom figuration,” as one critic has coined a current trend, in enormous floating images of a rooftop railing, a cutaway view of a house, and a section of empty theater seats.
December
= Endowment Herbert and Evelyn Axelrod made a gift of $1.5 million to the National Museum of Natural His- tory to create a chair of ichthyology, the first endowed chair in the Smithsonian’s 102-year history. Curator of fishes Dr. Victor Springer, whose research has been a
continuing interest of the Axelrods’, will hold the chair for the initial three-year term.
December
= New Wing Construction began on the new Dis- covery Center of the National Museum of Natural His- tory. Designed to complement the museum’s original Beaux Arts architecture and tucked into its West Court, the center will add 80,000 square feet of public space to the Natural History Building and will house a 600-seat cafe and Washington's only 3D IMAX theater.
December
= NZP Medal Presentation Director Michael Robinson presented the NZP Medal for Outstanding Service to Biological Sciences and Conservation to Knut Schmidt- Nielsen. The award was made in recognition of Schmidt-Nielsen’s distinguished career in biology and his untiring quest for answers to complex questions of animal physiology.
December
@ Special Event Smithsonian Institution Archives and its Joseph Henry Papers Project (JHPP) commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Smithsonian's first Secretary, Joseph Henry, with a series of articles, interviews, presentations and media events. The cele- bration includes the launching of the project’s home page on SIA’s Web site on October 10, 1997.
December
8 Award and Giving Fund The Smithsonian Libraries received $47,600 from the Atherton Seidell Endow- ment Fund for a digital camera and other computer equipment necessary to produce high-resolution digital scans. The Libraries will establish a digital imaging cen- ter where important rare books will be scanned and made available to large audience on the Internet. The same month, the Smithsonian Libraries’ Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Branch benefitted more than $20,000 from the Parsons School of Design Graduate Program Annual Giving Fund, which allocates 25 per- cent of the total received to the branch library.
December
8 Annual Audit qualified opinion on its audited statements.
The Smithsonian received an un-
December
@ Latino Outreach The Office of Public Affairs ran the first of four print advertising campaigns for the year in a number of Washington, D.C., Spanish-language newspapers. The campaigns were geared toward the December holidays, spring events, summer events around the time of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and Hispanic Heritage Month. The Institution-wide advertisements highlight exhibits and activities of special interest to the community.
December
® Construction Smithsonian Marine Station—The Office of Contracting negotiated and awarded a contract to Associated Construction for the building of the laboratory/office facility at Fort Pierce, Florida. This is the beginning building of a research campus for Marine Biology.
December
The Office of Contracting negotiated and awarded food service agreements for the Smithsonian Mall to Sodexho Marriott and Compass Group USA, Inc. These agreements produce about one
@ Food Service Agreements
quarter of the trust fund revenues for the Smithsonian Business Activities.
December
@ Publication The Office of Equal Employment and Minority Affairs published and distributed the fifteenth Smithsonian Institution Equal Opportunity Report in response to a 1989 request from the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. This report described the composition of the work force in terms of gender, racial/ ethnic identity, grade, and occupational categories. It also contains a summary of the Institution's efforts to ensure that programs reflect the nation’s diversity and pluralism. It covered the period September 1997 to September 1998.
December and March
The Office of Contracting negotiated and awarded Smithsonian-wide consignment
| Consignment Agreements
agreements to Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses for auction sales of deaccessioned works of art. These
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agreements provided a simple standard for the sale of art and a discounted fee for services.
December 1
@ Exhibition The Tropical Research Institute traveling exhibition “Our Reefs: Caribbean Connections” opened in Jamaica, where it was on view at three sites: Negril, Montego Bay, and Kingston, as part of its travels through the Caribbean area.
December 4
@ Training Seminar The Smithsonian Accessibility Program presented a training session titled “An Accessibility Critique of NASM’s ‘How Things Fly” exhibition. The session was offered to accessibility liaisons, exhibition designers, and exhibit team mem- bers, as well as all staff responsible for working with the public. Presenting the session was a group of people with disabilities who critiqued the exhibition from both a personal and consumer advocacy perspective.
December 8-12 ® Course The course “Preserving Natural History Col- lections” was an introduction to an integrated approach to managing and preserving natural history collections, including risk assessment, categorizing collection specimens, and collection profiling applied to collec- tions-care strategic development, and sponsored by the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Educa- tion. The course included a full-scale exercise using Smithsonian Institution collections.
December 10
= Ceremony Inaceremony on December 10, National Air and Space Museum Director Donald D. Engen ac- cepted into the collection a backup “Iridium” spacecraft. This is one of the few “production” models in the collection, and represents achievements in space communications and applications for the public.
December 15
m Meeting The Office of Membership and Development and the Office of the Secretary convened five meetings of the executive committee of the Smithsonian Washington Council. The Washington Council is chaired by Washington attorney and philanthropist R. Robert
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Linowes. Four more meetings were held during the year, on January 28, 1998, April 14, June 9, and Septrem- ber 17. The group of Washington-area business and philanthropic leaders was formed to extend and deepen Smithsonian services to local residents.
January 1998
@ Program The Center for Museum Studies initiates a collaboration with Montgomery Community College, Rockville, Maryland, to establish the Montgomery College Humanities Institute. The institute will host a wide range of scholarly and community-focused activities, including an annual faculty seminar led by a Smithsonian scholar-in-residence; museum-based faculty research fellowships; student internships at the Smithsonian; public lectures and symposia; and an enhanced humanities honors program.
January
® Construction The Office of Contracting negotiated and awarded a contract to Tompkins Builders for skylight window, wall replacement and miscellaneous work at the National Air and Space Museum. All the walls and skylights in the Museum will be replaced over 48 months at a cost of $25 million. The museum will remain open throughout the entire construction period, and the build- ing envelope will remain secure and watertight at all times.
January-March
= Exhibition Horticulture Services Division col- laborated with the U.S. Botanical Gardens to mount the fourth annual orchid exhibition in the Ripley Center. The display of over 5,000 orchids attracted more visitors to the Quadrangle than any single previous exhibit.
January 5-9
@ Collecting Dr. Liza Kirwin, Curator of Manuscripts for the Archives of American Art traveled to Tesuque, New Mexico (north of Santa Fe), to collect the papers of Chuck and Jan Rosenak. For the past two decades, the Rosenaks have devoted their energies to studying and collecting twentieth-century American folk art. Their papers consist of their research material gathered in the course of writing three books: Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists (1991), The People Speak: Navajo Folk Art (1994), and Contemporary American Folk Art: A Collector's Guide (1996).
January I5-I6
= Presentation In San Juan and Humacao, Puerto Rico, National Science Resources Center Executive Director Douglas Lapp and Deputy Director Sally Goetz Shuler presented workshops to government, business, and education leaders. They discussed science education reform and presented workshops on inquiry-centered science teaching.
January 17
= Exhibition “We Shall Overcome: Photographs from America’s Civil Rights Era” began its national tour with a very successful opening at the National Museum of American History. The tour, which continues through the year 2004, includes stops in California, Georgia, New York, and Pennsylvania. The exhibition explores the role of several prominent African American photographers—Bob Adelman, Bob Fitch, Leonard Freed, Matt Heron, Charles Moore, and Gordon Parks— in documenting one of the most decisive eras in American history. The 80 black-and-white photographs focus on key events and personalities in the civil rights era (1954-1968).
January 23
§ Oxtreach The National Collections Program of the Smithsonian Institution Archives launches its home page, featuring guidelines, publications, and other resources of use to museums and collections managers.
January 26
= Radio Advertising Campaign The first radio advertise- ment ran in the Office of Public Affairs’ Black History Month campaign, one of three radio advertising campaigns this year aimed at local African American audiences, ages 25 to 45. Another campaign was run in the spring for spring break and a third in the summer for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The following stations were used in the three campaigns in different combinations: WHUR, WMMJ, WKYS, WPGC, WYCB, and WTOP.
January 26-31
™ Meeting Seventy-five scholars from 15 countries gathered for the meetings of the International Byozool- ogy Association held at the Tropical Research Institute's Earl S. Tupper Conference Center.
February
a Publication A strategic plan for implementing the capital campaign was drafted and distributed by the Office of the Executive Director for Development.
February
® Oxtreach In observance of Black History Month, the Archives of American Art inaugurated online access to the second, revised edition of its guide The Papers of African American Artists (1992). The guide includes photographs and other illustrations.
February
§ Publication With the Australian Biological Resources Study and the Department of Environment, Canberra, the museum helped produce The Darwin Declaration, a blueprint for incorporating taxonomy into the goals of the International Convention on Biological Diversity. Although the discovery, description, naming, and clas- sification of individual species has been well carried out for some groups, little is known about the taxonomy, biology, distribution, and genetics of the vast majority of plant and animal species. The Darwin Declaration explains the importance of collections-based research to understanding the environment and the threats it faces. The declaration also outlines actions to be taken to sup- port taxonomic research. The International Convention on Biological Diversity was developed by leaders of key natural history museums and research institutions, policy makers, funders, and ecologists and conserva- tionists, with major financial support from the Smithsonian, the MacArthur Foundation, the Global Environment Facility, and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
February ™ Grant The Smithsonian Libraries was awarded a grant of $3,780 by the Smithsonian Women’s Commit- tee to preserve nineteenth-century bindings on a collec- tion of horticultural works. The grant provides money to clean the books and to purchase protective bindings for several hundred books.
February
@ Web Site Redesign SITES launched its redesigned Web site: www.st.edu/SITES. The new design provides
te
N
easy access to information. Visitors will find it easier to locate exhibitions within their regions by clicking on a map of the United States linked to tour information. The site also features more extensive educational resource and activity material based on current and past SITES’ exhibitions. Materials include “Diversity Endangered,” “The Good the Bad and the Cuddly,” “Frank Lloyd Wright,” “Jazz Age in Paris,” “Moscow Treasures and Traditions” and “Tropical Rainforests.” The inclusion of the new educational materials was made possible by grants from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee and the Educational Outreach Fund.
February
The Office of Contracting negotiated and awarded an affinity credit card with
@ License Agreement
Novus Services, Inc. This business arrangement was the continuation of financial support from Novus, which began, with the sponsorship of the 1soth-anniversary “America’s Smithsonian” traveling exhibition.
February—April
= Public Program The Smithsonian Associates offered the second season of Radio Theatre—Live!, produced by the L.A. Theater Works and presented in collaboration with the Voice of America. The plays, The Heiress, A// My Sons, and Working, were recorded in front of live audiences for subsequent broadcast across the United States on public radio and around the world on the Voice of America.
February, September
& Architecture/Engineering and Exhibit Design The Office of Contracting negotiated and awarded a contract to Polshek, Tobey & Davis to restart the National Museum of the American Indian Mall Museum design project. The office directed the project team for design and construc- tion to continue the effort during litigation of the previous design contract. Also, the Office of Contracting awarded negotiated contracts to Howard-Revis Design, Staples & Charles, and Design Communications to design the ex- hibits for the Mall Museum. These exhibitions will show- case the Museum's collections on opening day 2002.
February 6-7
@ Public Program “Between Slavery and Freedom: Free People of Color and the Coming of the Civil War’—An
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outgrowth of the African American Communities Project, begun at the National Museum of American History in 1981, “Between Slavery and Freedom” was a landmark gathering of scholars and community repre- sentatives designed to analyze and synthesize new infor- mation about the experiences of free people of color in the antebellum South.
February 6-May 28
w Exhibition The Archives of American Art presented the exhibit “El Movimiento: Selections from the Tomas Ybarra-Frausto Research Material on Chicano Art” in the gallery space of the New York Regional Center. The archival display from the papers of Tomas Ybarra-Fraus- to illustrated the major phases of the Chicano art move- ment from its inception in the 1960s to the present.
February 10 @ Presentation Tropical Research Institute scientist Nancy Knowlton gave a presentation on “Basic science: key to the management of the oceans” at “An Evening at the Smithsonian,” an annual event organized by the Fundacion Smithsonian de Panama and held at STRI’s Earl S. Tupper Conference Center.
February 12
The Coordinator of the Smithsonian Accessibility Program lectured on accessible
® Professional Presentation
design of museum-based security systems during the National Conference on Cultural Property Protection.
February 18
@ Public Program nan illustrated lecture presented by The Smithsonian Associates, embryologist Dr. Ian Wil- mut of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, dis- cussed the background, controversy, and possible implications of his world-famous experiment: Dolly the
sheep, the first adult mammal ever to be successfully cloned.
February 19
= Exhibition and Programs “George Segal, A Retrospec- tive: Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings,” a four-decade retrospective honoring an American artist (b. 1924) whose evocative sculptures of everyday people in urban environments have become signature works of modern
art, opened at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The show, on tour from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada, included such landmark works of the Pop Art era as Cinema, 1963, as well as single- figure reliefs, boldly expressive paintings and pastels, and the original, mixed-media version of Depression Bread Line, 1991, recently cast in bronze for Washing- ton’s new Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. As a barometer of Segal’s popularity, his auditorium talk on March 9 was so popular that 200 people had to be turned away. In an unprecedented arrangement, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority donated advertising for the show in its subways and buses as a public service. After closing on May 17, 1998, the exhibi- tion traveled to the Jewish Museum in New York and the Miami Art Museum in Florida.
February 23
= Benefit The Detroit Council of the Archives of American Art presented its annual black-tie gala, Lundi Gras XX XVIII, “An Evening of Elegance,” on February 23, 1998. Traditionally held on the Monday preceding Mardi Gras, this is the longest-running fund-raising event for the Archives.
February 23-27
= Program The Center for Museum Studies collabor- ates with George Mason University and Historic Alexandria to offer a one-week workshop for small museums, “Introduction to Museum Management.”
February 25
® Award Smithsonian Folkways’ six-CD recording Anthology of American Folk Music received Grammy Awards for best historical album and best album notes at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards Ceremony in New York City.
Spring
= Professional Program The Smithsonian Associates’ Na- tional Outreach program formally introduced the Smithsonian Institutes for Professionals. Geared to cor- porate audiences, the institutes include the Smithsonian Creativity Institute, which takes participants into Smithsonian collections, laboratories, and research facilities for customized hands-on workshops designed to introduce participants to new ways of seeing, think- ing, and understanding; the Smithsonian Signature In-
stitute, which provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at the Smithsonian; and the Smithsonian World Affairs Institute, which uses Smithsonian connections within the Washington international community to examine a selected region of the world.
Spring-Summer
8 Educational Program The National Museum of American Art held its first high school poster competi- tion and award ceremony in conjunction with the “Posters American Style” exhibition. The poster designs were so popular that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reproduced several of them to display at their facilities in Veteran's hospitals nationwide.
March
@ Award The Archives of American Art received a grant from the Smithsonian Latino initiatives Fund administered by the Office of the Provost in the amount of $42,984. This grant funded Spanish-to-English translations of 12 oral history interviews with Cuban- American artists. The award allowed the Archives to broaden its current survey of art-related manuscript material in Puerto Rico.
March
8 Special Event The National Museum of American Art celebrated the final weekend of “Ansel Adams, A Legacy: Masterworks from the Friends of Photography” with extended evening hours on March 27 and 28, a first for any Smithsonian museum. Both nights featured live jazz, café dining, and screenings of a video on Adams'’s career. More than 11,500 people took advantage of this opportunity, made possible by the generous sup- port of the Monsanto Corporation, to see the most popular exhibition in the museum's history, which at- tracted some 285,000 visitors in 18 ¥2 weeks.
March
@ Public Program Legal Problems in Museum Administra- tion Conference—OGC in conjunction with the American Law Association—American Bar Association hosted the annual seminar in Chicago.
March
@ Exhibition To highlight the Archives of American Gardens Collection, Horticulture Services Division recreated the Lanes End estate at the New England
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Flower Show. The exhibit received five awards, includ- ing the Boston G/obe’s People’s Choice Award for being the show's most popular exhibic.
March
8 Fellowship The Center for Museum Studies, in col- laboration with the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR) develops a new Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship Program with the theme “Latino Cultural Re- search in a National Museum Context: Issues of Repre- sentation and Interpretation.” The fellowships, a mix of residencies for scholars and museum professionals, will be interdisciplinary and will support Latino/a focused scholar- ship using the extensive cultural, archival, historical, and professional resources that only the Smithsonian can offer.
March 5
@ Exhibit Opening and Lecture ogy, Archaeology, and History of Hawaii's Leeward Is-
Remote Oceania: Biol-
lands, a lecture by Sheila Conant, professor of zoology at the University of Hawaii, focused public attention on the Zoo's new exhibit at the Bird House, “The Birds of Paradise Lost.”
March
@ Seminar In March, the National Air and Space Museum’s annual “Mutual Concerns of Air and Space Museums” seminar, cohosted by the American Associa- tion of Museums, brought more than 130 Air and Space museum directors, curators, and other staff together for three days of trading ideas and information concerning their museums.
March 7
® Outreach Archives of American Art Catalog Manager Karen Weiss delivered a paper at the national Art Librarians Society of North America (ARLIS) conference in Philadelphia for the panel “Collection Level Records: Ar- chivists and Librarians Share Solutions.” She was joined by colleagues from the Frick Art Reference Library, the Na- tional Gallery of Canada, and the university archivist at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
March 13
@ Professional Collaboration The Smithsonian Accessibility Program began a four-month technical assistance pro-
30
gram with the Missouri Historical Society (MHS) in St. Louis. The accessibility program collaborated with the MHS to develop accessible exhibits for the Society's new wing. These exhibits, on the history of St. Louis, were not only to be fully accessible to people with disabilities but were also to include this group's par- ticipation in the development of the city’s history.
March 15-September 7
@ Exhibition The exhibition “Olowe of Ise: A Yoruba Sculptor to Kings” at the National Museum of African Art celebrated the work of one of Africa’s greatest tradi- tional sculptors, introducing visitors to Olowe’s distinc- tive style of carving wood. The exhibition presented more than 30 major works including the museum's palace dooe and bowl with figures, as well as shrine figures, veranda posts, and a mask.
March 16-20
= Program The Center for Museum Studies offers the annual “Awards for Museum Leadership” diversity semi- nar. The program explores diversity issues in museums and provides training opportunities for enhancing leadership skills and competencies.
March 18-21
™ Collecting Archives of American Art Director
Dr. Richard J. Wattenmaker, and Southeast Regional Collector Dr. Liza Kirwin traveled to Puerto Rico to meet with directors of museums and archives. The purpose of the trip was twofold: To explore a potential microfilming project documenting art in Puerto Rico and to underscore the significance of the Archives’ current survey of art-related manuscript material in Puerto Rico as the foundation for future research and microfilming.
March 19
= Exhibition In “Directions—Kiki Smith: Night” (March 19—June 21, 1998), an American artist (b. 1954) who energized figurative sculpture in the late 1980s with her expressively anatomical images of the human body revealed a new direction focused on nature. The show, organized by Associate Curator Phyllis Rosenzweig, featured a metaphorical, nocturnal ecosys- tem consisting of a diorama-like photo-etching of animals interacting at night and, filling the Directions
Gallery’s center, long platforms displaying literally dozens of silhouetted and three-dimensional sculptures of birds, stars, flowers, rabbits, cats, snowflakes, raindrops, eggs, and other natural elements.
March 19
8 Outreach The Institutional History Division of Smithsonian Institution Archives produces “Historic Pictures of the Smithsonian Institution,” a site on its home page that provides a comprehensive visual tour of Smithsonian museums and research centers.
March 20-August 2
= Exhibition “Faces of TIME: 75 Years of Time Magazine Cover Portraits” was on view at the National Portrait Gallery. Organized to mark the 75th anniver- sary of Time, this exhibition was drawn primarily from the Gallery's collection of original Time cover artwork and represented some of the finest and most interest- ing moments in the magazine’s newsmaker-of-the- week cover tradition. Among the most eye-catching pieces was a life-size papier-maché caricature of The Beatles. The show’s curator was Senior Historian Frederick S. Voss.
March 23-27 § Presentation In San Juan, Mayaguez, and Ponce, Puer- to Rico, National Science Resources Center Executive Director Douglas Lapp and Deputy Director Sally
Goetz Shuler presented workshops to government, busi- ness, and education leaders. They discussed science education reform and presented workshops on inquiry- centered science teaching.
March 26
™ Ecologist Dies Dr. James Lynch died. A Terrestrial Animal Ecologist at SERC since 1974, Dr. Lynch pub- lished more than 70 scientific articles on the ecology of salamanders, ants, and birds, with special emphasis on habitat fragmentation and conservation.
March 26
§ Training Seminar The Smithsonian Accessibility Program presented a training session titled “An Acces- sibility Critique of ‘American Encounters.” The session was offered to accessibility liaisons, exhibition desig-
ners, and exhibit team members, as well as all staff responsible for working with the public. Presenting the session was a group of people with disabilities who criti- qued the exhibition from both a personal and consumer advocacy perspective.
March 29-April 3
@ Meeting The First International Workshop on Sus- tainable Cocoa Growing organized by the Tropical Re- search Institute, the Migratory Bird Center, and the Institute for Conservation Biology was held at STRI’s Earl S. Tupper Research and Conference Center. The meeting gathered more than 80 international par- ticipants, both chocolate manufacturers and repre- sentatives from cacao-producing countries.
March 31
B Special Event The U.S. Postal Service launched a new form of computer-generated postage at the National Postal Museum. PC-based postage, created by E-Stamp Corporation, enables mailers to electronically mail let- ters and documents through the Postal Service without
affixing postage stamps. April § Grant A $500,000 challenge grant awarded to the
NMAI by the Kresge Foundation in July 1997 was successfully completed in April thanks to the generous support of individuals, corporations, and foundations. Funds raised through the Kresge challenge grant totaled $1.6 million.
April
@ Panda Studies NZP’s panda conservation team returned from China. Scientific specialists from three USS. zoos worked with colleagues at Chinese zoos to carry out the first health and reproductive survey of giant pandas in China's zoos.
April
@ School Envirothon SERC served as one of three hosts for the Anne Arundel County Envirothon, a program to teach middle-school students basic environmental prin- ciples and ways to apply them to real-world problems in their communities.
April
@ Exhibition “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820—Present,” an exhibition that opened at the National Museum of American History in April, represented an ambitious intellectual and design treatment of a complex and controversial topic. The Office of Exhibits Central designer's innovative use of materials, media, design, and lighting to express distinct time periods and diverse content issues enhanced the exhibition's intellectual content and facilitated the understanding of challeng- ing subject matter.
April
8 Online Exhibition In partnership with ASTC, SITES launched the online exhibition “Rotten Truth (About Garbage).” The exhibition provides information to educators, students, and home users regarding the complex environmental issues surrounding daily trash disposal. Links to related Web sites give users easy access to wide ranging information and opinions on the topic. As visitors review the exhibition, they will find suggestions for activities they can do at home or in the classroom. “Rotten Truth (About Garbage)” was made possible in part by support from Rodale Press Inc.
April
@ National Meeting SERC hosted a national meeting on invasive species for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice. The meeting brought together the leading re- searchers in biological invasions of marine and aquatic ecosystems to develop national guidelines for long-term monitoring of species introductions.
April 3-6
® Outreach At the National Science Teachers Associ- ation’s annual convention in Boston, the National Science Resources Center exhibited its programs, conducted presentations, and gave workshops on its Science and Technology for Children curriculum.
April 10-August 23
@ Exhibition “Celebrity Caricature in America” was on view at the National Portrait Gallery. This landmark ex- hibition reintroduced an inventive form of portraiture that captured the spirit of the modern era in the first
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half of the twentieth century. Highlighting such per- sonalities as Mae West, Will Rogers, and Josephine Baker, the more than 200 caricature objects explored
the intersection of wit, stylized design, and mass media— generated celebrity. Along with many virtually unknown original drawings, the show featured caricature on a silk dress, on a theater curtain, on the walls of Sardi’s restau- rant, and in a series of animated cartoons. The exhibition will travel to the New York Public Library in April 2000.
April 13 8 African American Family Day The Zoo’s annual African American Family Day featured performances of
jazz and gospel music along with African storytellers, drummers, and special animal demonstrations.
April 15
The Office of Public Affairs issued its general information brochure in six languages—Arabic,
8 Publications
Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish—for distribution from information desks in each museum.
April 16-19
8 Study Tour The Smithsonian Associates, offered the first in a series
Smithsonian Study Tours, a division of
of tours called “American Snapshots” during a four-day program on Amelia Island, Florida. Snapshots feature smaller towns and regions known for their unique heritage, such as Amelia Island's well-preserved Vic- torian architecture. Other planned Snapshots featured the Amish community in Holmes County, Ohio, and the maritime heritage of Puget Sound, Washington.
April 22—November
@ Exhibition “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A His- tory of American Sweatshops, 1820—Present"—This Nation- al Museum of American History exhibition was designed to help the public understand the history of sweatshops in the United States and efforts to reform and control their proliferation. The exhibition looked at global competition, government regulation, immigration, business practices, and racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination.
April 23
® Anniversary Barro Colorado Island, the Smithson- ian’s oldest field station and one of the oldest in all the
New World tropics, celebrated its 75th anniversary as a reserve.
April 23-26
= Public Program The Smithsonian Women’s Committee’s Annual Craft Show was held again at the National Building Museum, and featured 120 artisans from across the country. Proceeds from the show are used to fund SI projects in the Women’s Committee's competi- tive grant program. The committee is under the umbrella of the Office of Membership and Development.
April 24-May 30
= Exhibition and Public Programs “Duke Ellington Youth Festival and Art Exhibition’—Produced in collaboration with the District of Columbia Public Schools, this National Museum of American History exhibition featured dynamic artwork done by students from the Washington, D.C. area depicting Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington during his career. Elling- ton’s life and career was also celebrated in art, poetry, and musical performances.
April 30
= Exhibition “Natural Selections: Museum Photography” by Chip Clark opened at the National Museum of Natural History. This exhibition presented 30 photo- graphs that capture life at Natural History and the special skills science photography, like scientific research, demands: curiosity, knowledge, and great patience.
April 30
The Smithsonian Accessibility Program presented a training session titled “Parents + Kids +Disabilities+Museums.” The session was offered
§ Training Seminar
to accessibility liaisons, museum educators, exhibition designers, and staff responsible for working with the public. Presenting the session were two parents, one who herself has a disability and one whose child has a disability.
May = Public Program n May, the NMAI launched the first
annual Children’s Festival at the George Gustav Heye Center. Staff from many museum departments includ-
ing public programs, education, film and video, and the resource center joined together to create a museum- wide event that was attended by a record number of visitors.
May
@ Exhibition paintings, photographs, sculptures, and mixed-media
“Indian Humor,” an exhibition of 87
works opened at the George Gustav Heye Center in May. The exhibition used humor, sarcasm, and irony to dispel the stereotype of the stoic Indian. “Indian Humor” was developed by the American Indian Contemporary Arts of San Francisco.
May
B Lecture annual Dibner Library Lecture featured Professor
The Smithsonian Institution Libraries’
Katharine Park of Harvard University who delivered an illustrated lecture on “Visible Women: Anatomical Illustration and Human Dissection in Renaissance Italy.” The lecture is supported by The Dibner Fund.
May
@ Furniture The Office of Exhibits Central's design and fabrication of the Arts and Industries Building infor- mation desk was inspired by the materials and motifs of the nineteenth-century building’s original interior finishes. Reflecting contemporary office planning require- ments, the ergonomic and accessible casework meets the needs of volunteer staff and visitors while housing publica- tions, telephones, and computer equipment. The ash-and- faux-granite desk presents a gracious and inviting focal point for visitors entering from the Mall, enhancing their visit and fulfilling their quest for information.
May 1
@ Concert Smithsonian Folkways Recordings celebrated its oth anniversary with a concert in Car- negie Hall. Participants and performers included Ossie Davis, Theodore Bikel, Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Lucin- da Williams, Ralph Stanley, and the SNCC Freedom Singers.
May 1
@ Exhibition “Our Town: Post Office Murals of the New Deal Era,” a beautiful art exhibition featuring 17
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mural studies and three sculptures created during the Great Depression as decorations for post offices, opened at the National Postal Museum.
May I-4
@ Exhibition Restaging The 1997 “Mississippi Delta” program was restaged in Greenville, Mississippi, and featured traditions created daily in the homes, churches, rivers, fields, and juke joints of the Delta. The “Missis- sippi Delta” program was produced for the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies’ annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
May 5
w Exhibition Seventy-five decorative envelopes were displayed as part of the National Postal Museum's fifth “Graceful Envelope” exhibit. The 75 envelope designs were selected from the more than 260 entries received by the museum as part of its fifth annual calligraphy contest.
May 6-9
= Program The Center for Museum Studies, with the Program for Asian Pacific American Studies, presents “Diversity, Leadership, and Museums: The Repre- sentation of Asian Pacific American Communities,” at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles, California. The seminar, a pilot program funded by the Anheuser-Busch Companies and the Smithsonian Institution Educational Outreach Fund with additional support from the Hawaii Museums Association, explored diversity issues in museums and examined current issues affecting Asian Pacific Americans in the museum profession.
May 10
® Award The Smithsonian Board of Regents induct Kenneth E. Behring into the Order of James Smithson in recognition of his $20 million gift to the National Museum of Natural History. The Office of Membership and Development assisted in coordination of the event.
May 1
@ Special Event The Office of Membership and Devel- opment’s Smithsonian Corporate Membership Program held its Annual Luncheon Meeting, which was attended
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by 120 corporate representatives. Attendees joined Secretary Heyman, Regents Dr. Hannah H. Gray and Rep. Sam Johnson for a luncheon to discuss the theme “Education at the Smithsonian.” Smithsonian National Board Member Marie L. Knowles gave the keynote address, and The Smithsonian: America’s Classroom, a video detailing Smithsonian education programs, was premiered. NOVUS Services, Inc. (now Discover Finan- cial Services, Inc.) received the Corporate Leadership Award for its support of the “America’s Smithsonian” traveling exhibition and creation of an affiliate credit card agreement with the Smithsonian.
May I-15
= Public Program The Office of Membership and Development's “Smithsonian Treasures,” the annual
tour for Contributing Members, brought 70 people to Washington, D.C., for behind-the-scenes tours of exhibitions, as well as the Office of Exhibits Central,
the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and other SI units.
May 14-15
= Program The Center for Museum Studies collabor- ates with the Smithsonian Associates Creativity Insti- tutes to offer “New Ways of Seeing, Thinking and Understanding,” an interactive exhibit production workshop designed for independent stockbrokers affiliated with Commonwealth Equity.
May I5
= Publication The magazine Science published a land- mark paper by Dr. Doug Erwin, curator of paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History, and col- leagues from MIT and Nanjing, China, narrowing the time frame for mass extinctions at the end of the Per- mian period 250 million years ago. By dating volcanic ash beds in South China, Erwin and his colleagues deter- mined that the extinction of many insects, 85 percent of all marine species, and 70 percent of all terrestrial genera worldwide took place within less than 1 million years, far shorter than the 8-to-10-million-year period previously suggested.
May 15-16
® Symposium The National Portrait Gallery and the Library of Congress jointly sponsored a two-day sym- posium, “Caricature and Cartoon in Twentieth-Century
America.” Friday’s session at the National Portrait Gallery included Wendy Wick Reaves, “The Celebrity Caricature Vogue”; Thomas P. Bruhn, “The Life and Times of Al Frueh”; Bruce Kellner, “Ralph Barton: Affectionate Insults”; and Edward Sorel, “Anything Goes: Caricature after 1960.”
May Is-16
= Special Event The Office of Membership and Devel- opment welcomed the James Smithson Society to Washington. The Society, the highest circle of Con- tributing Membership, gave its Founder Medal to Shirley Sichel for her generous support of the National Zoo and the work of the Conservation and Research Cen- ter. Sir Christopher Meyer, KCMG, British Ambassador in Washington, and Lady Meyer attended the dinner and were made honorary Smithson Society members.
May 19-22
= International Workshop The “Preservation of Santos” was a three-day conference sponsored by the Smithson- ian Center for Materials Research and Education held at the Universidad del Sagrado Coraz6n, San Juan, Puerto Rico, for an estimated 123 attendees. It included a sur- vey of the history of polychrome Hispanic religious artifacts, their materials, techniques of fabrication and decoration, and preservation and restoration. Following the three-day workshop, which included intensive lecture and laboratory sessions, a unique one-day free gathering was convened at the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico, for practicing santo makers to engage the presenters in thoughtful discussions of history, materials, and techniques.
May 20
§ Board Established The Smithsonian Institution Libraries established a Board, following approval by the Board of Regents. The Libraries’ Board, which held its inaugural meeting with the initial seven members,
will provide leadership during the Institution's capital campaign and help to develop new constituencies and generate support for the Libraries’ services and programs nationwide.
May 28
§ Outreach Director Richard J. Wattenmaker pre- sented a talk on the role of the Archives of American
Art in scholarly research as a part of the Second Biennial Smithsonian-Westminster Symposium, “Public Institu- tions: Access and Cultural Identity,” organized conjointly by the University of Westminster London and the Smithsonian Institution.
May 28
The Coordinator of the Smithsonian Accessibility Program lectured on acces-
& Professional Presentation
sible exhibition design to members of the society for Environmental Graphic Design.
Summer
The National Museum of American Art premiered David Hockney’s 24-foot painting of the Grand Canyon, titled “A Bigger Grand Canyon.” The work, composed of 60 small canvases mounted as one
= Installation
continuous image, presents a sweeping, colorful view of one of America’s most extraordinary topographical wonders.
Summer
® Construction Construction of the NMAI Cultural Resources Center continued during 1998. With the completion of the concrete work and the installation of the dramatic, nautilus-shaped roof, the profile of the building became visible during the summer of 1998.
Summer
§ Training Program Thirty undergraduate students from 18 states and 6 foreign countries took part in the Research Training Program of the National Museum of Natural History. The program, supported by the Na- tional Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, and the director's discretionary fund, brings science students to Washington to do original research projects under the direction of museum scientists.
June
= Award Scott Weidensaul’s article “The Belled Viper” (Smithsonian, December 1997) won first prize in the Conservation/Environment Contest and the President's Choice award (“best of the best” for all winning magazine entries) in a competition sponsored by the Outdoor Writers Association of America, Inc.
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June
8 Award “Ranchers Form a Radical Center to Protect Wide-Open Spaces” by Jake Page (Smithsonian, June 1997) won the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Western Short Nonfiction.
June
8 Awards Program Finance recognition awards recog- nized Finance staff contributions.
June
8 Minority Leadership Program The Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Valerie Wheat, Librarian of the Museum Reference Center, one of the Libraries’ 18 branches, participated in a program designed to prepare librarians from a racial minority group for top leader- ship positions in research and academic libraries. The program, which is sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries, a group whose membership includes the 120 largest research libraries in North America, offers two training institutes and a mentoring network. Ms. Wheat was one of 21 librarians chosen from a highly competitive pool. The Department of Education awarded ARL a grant to establish this program.
June
8 Award The Smithsonian Libraries was awarded $10,000 by the Latino Initiative Fund to purchase Latino newspapers, magazines, and journals in print and microform formats for its collections.
June 2
§ Training Seminar The Smithsonian Accessibility Pro- gram presented a training session titled “Accessibility Critiques of Several SI Web Sites.” The session was offered to accessibility liaisons, web designers, museum educators, and staff responsible for working with the public. Presenting the session was an expert on creating Web sites accessible to people who are blind.
June 4
@ Exhibition “The Collection in Context: Henry Moore’s Stringed Figure No. 1, 1937,” opened at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, continuing a series that uses an interdisciplinary approach to deepen under-
36
standing of an art object. To demonstrate the central source of a carved-wood, stringed sculpture by British artist Henry Moore (1898-1986), Valerie J. Fletcher, curator of Sculpture, borrowed nineteenth-century mathematical models from the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, matching those that inspired the artist 60 years ago. The impact of Moore's innovation— in which organic form is imbued with the logic of engineering—was exemplified in other sculptures from the permanent collection by Constantin Brancusi, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth, Alexander Calder, and others.
June 6, June 11
@ Awards Program The National Science Resources Center, in partnership with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation, hosted programs for teachers who received the 1997 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Elemen- tary and Secondary Mathematics and Science Teaching.
June 16
@ Exhibition opening Colombia exhibition featuring Jose Mutis botanical illustrations opens at Amazonia Science Gallery.
June 17
8 Purchase agreement The Tropical Research Institute formalized a purchase agreement of a six-hectare lot of land on Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro, where it will estab-
lish a research and educational center.
June 18
& Exhibition and Programs Associate Curator Olga M. Viso of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden organized “Triumph of the Spirit: Carlos Alfonzo, A Survey, 1975-1991” for the Miami Art Museum, an exhibition that opened in Washington ina slightly abridged version. The show went far in establishing an international context for Alfonzo, a Havana-born, Miami-based painter (1950-1991) who died of AIDS at age 40. A scholarly catalog with an essay by Viso and contributions from Giulio V. Blanc, Dan Cameron, Julia P. Herzberg, and Cesar Trasobares accompanied the show, and Hilton Kramer of The New York Observer, among others in the local and national press, praised Alfonzo’s expressive, symbol-laden imagery. The exhibition’s Washington presentation received major support from the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Fund,
and for the Smithsonian’s “Art Night on the Mall” program of extended summer hours on Thursdays, a concert series titled “Latin Music on the Plaza,” cospon- sored with the Prince George's Arts Council, attracted some 8,000 visitors.
June 18
= Exhibition/Partnership SITES began a strategic relauonship with Silver Dollar City, a theme park located in Branson, Missouri a popular midwestern vacation spot. The first exhibition to be shown at Silver Dollar City was “Earth to You, Exploring Geography,” sponsored by Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A. In September 1998, “American Glass: Masters of the Art,” an exhibition that examined the work of 13 American glass artists, opened as a part of Silver Dollar City’s National Crafts Festival. The alliance berween SITES and Silver Dollar City is impor- tant because of the park’s large visitorship—1.8 million visitors a year, all ages, drawn mostly from the South and Midwest—generates high visibility for the Smithsonian and its exhibitions. Over 400,000 people visited each exhibition during its run in Branson. In addition, Silver Dollar City has provided financial support to SITES in conjunction with these exhibitions.
June 20
= Elephant Birthday Ambika, one of the Zoo’s Asian elephants, was feted in honor of her soth birthday. Nancy, Shanti, Tony, and Ambika showed their training routine to the public in a series of interpretive demon- strations. Historic photo displays and panels on elephant conservation provided the public with information on the role of elephants in the Zoo’s history. Visitors also had a chance to add handmade cutout fabric decorations to an elephant blanket made for Ambika.
June 23-27
" Seminar The Center for Folklife Programs and Cul- tural Studies held its fifth annual seminar for teachers, “Bringing Folklife into Your Classroom: A Multi- cultural Learning Experience.” The teacher seminar drew upon the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as a “living laboratory” for using multicultural resources
and folklife techniques in the K-12 classroom.
June 24-28 and July 1-5
= Folklife Festival The Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies produced the 32nd annual
Smithsonian Folklife Festival featuring “Wisconsin,” “Pahiyas: A Philippine Harvest,” “The Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin,” and “The Baltic Nations: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.” The Office of Public Affairs developed a local and national publicity campaign for the festival. Media coverage included network and local morning shows, a number of articles in the Washington Post, and coverage in the New York Times, USA Today, and Washingtonian magazine.
June 26 and June 28
® Concerts Smithsonian Folkways Recordings cele- brated “Folkways at 50” with three concerts. A children’s matinee featured Ella Jenkins, Larry Long, and children from rural schools in Alabama. “Folkways Founders” featured Arlo Guthrie, Toshi Reagon, the Willie Foster Blues Band, and Josh White, Jr., who have carried on the traditions of Folkways artists Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Josh White, and Sonny Terry—honored with stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service. And “Heartbeat” honored Native American women singers from across the continent and celebrated the release of a new Smithsonian Folkways album.
June 29-July 10
= Program The Center for Museum Studies and the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR) host the annual seminar, “Interpreting Latino Cultures: Research and Museums.” This program offers hands-on training in methods of researching and interpreting museum and archival collections. This year’s program challenged students to develop strong research skills while exploring issues of interpretation and representation of cultural materials and traditions in museums.
June 30
The Office of Public Affairs issued an updated version of “Native American Resources at the
= Pxublication
Smithsonian,” one in its series of Institution-wide “Resour- ces” brochures. The “Resources” brochures encourage readers to participate in and partake of cultural activ- ities as well as research, employment, internship, and fellowship opportunities at the Smithsonian.
July
@ Research Curator of Paintings Judith Zilczer presented a striking discovery regarding the subject of a Willem
37
de Kooning painting in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; her research was pub- lished in a scholarly article for the summer 1998 issue of American Art, the journal of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art. Based on a comment from a colleague, Zilczer had pieced together evidence that proved that a painting by de Kooning depicting a male with shock of brown hair, heretofore known as Reclining Man with the date 1964, was not a simple figure study but instead the artist’s impassioned response to the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The work was consequently retitled Reclining Man
(John F. Kennedy) and redated 1963.
July
@ Special Event First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton helped launch the second phase of SOS! (Save Outdoor Sculpture), a $1.4 million public-sculpture conservation program funded by generous grants from Target Store and the National Endowment for the Arts. SOS! is a nationwide public program cosponsored by the National Museum of American Art and the Heritage Preservation.
July
8 Award Smithsonian won Best Overall External Magazine in the 1998 Clarion Awards, sponsored by The Association for Women in Communications.
July
w Web site Redesign A new look for Smithsonian's home page on the World Wide Web (http://www. smithsonian- mag.si.edu) made its debut with the July 1998 issue. The new design provides expanded promotion of editorial coverage each month, as well as easier navigation to popular contests, image galleries of photographers’ work, and a powerful search engine.
July
@ Teacher Training SERC hosted a two-day intensive training session on the ecology of Chesapeake Bay for deaf teachers and teachers of deaf students. The training was carried out by Gallaudet University as part of the National Science Foundation’s Summer Institute in Biology.
July I
@ Special Event The National Postal Museum served as the site for the First Day of Issue ceremony for the 1998— 1999 Federal Duck Stamp.
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July I
@ Exhibition The permanent exhibition in the National Postal Museum's Jeanette Cantrell Rudy Gallery reopened with a new presentation of rare and valuable Federal Duck Stamps from Dr. Rudy’s collection.
July 2
® Concert The Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies held the fourth annual Friends of the Festival Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert, featuring “Klezmer! The Triumphant Return of Yiddish Music.”
July 2
@ Exhibition and Programs “Directions—Tony Oursler: Video Dolls with Tracy Leipold,” which opened at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden as the first solo museum show in Washington for this New York— based artist (b. 1957), continued through September 7. Organized by Public Affairs Head Sidney Lawrence, the show presented six of Oursler’s unusual doll-like cloth figures—from puppet- to effigy-size—wherein “talking heads” in the form of live-action video projections of expressive, loquacious, anguished faces confront and amuse the viewer. The artist’s most frequent model and collaborator, performer Tracy Leipold, was the focus of this group of works. In a series of public programs, Oursler’s interest in film, the media, and psychology (specifically a condition known as multiple personality disorder) was explored.
July 4
@ Exhibition An exhibit of more than 40 rare state, local, and tribal waterfowl stamps opened in the Nation- al Postal Museum's Rarities Gallery. This exhibit was loaned to the museum from the prize-winning collec- tion of David Torre of Santa Rosa, California.
July 13-17
= Program The Center for Museum Studies col- laborates with the Institutional Studies Office to offer “Introduction to Visitor Studies,” a five-day workshop for staff at small museums in the United States.
July 15
@ Pxzblication The publication of A Garden for Art: Out- door Sculpture at the Hirshhorn Museum by the Hirshhorn
Museum and Sculpture Garden with Thames and Hud- son was announced by the museum. The 96-page, copiously illustrated guide, researched and written by Valerie J. Fletcher, Curator of Sculpture, provides a clear, in-depth overview of the subjects, styles, materials, and conservation issues presented by the museum’s comprehensive collection of modern and con- temporary sculpture, with particular emphasis on foster- ing understanding and appreciation of each work. The book was made possible by a generous gift from Board Chairman Robert Lehrman and supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee.
July 18-23 and July 25-30
@ Institutes The National Science Resources Center conducted two K-8 Science Education Leadership Insti- tutes for 29 teams from school systems in 18 states, and Sweden. Most teams included a school superintendent or assistant superintendent, a science coordinator or director of curriculum and instruction, an experienced teacher, and a senior scientist representing a company or academic institution. The teams worked with nationally recognized experts to develop strategic plans to improve the teaching of science in their elementary and middle schools.
July 20-24
® Courses Three courses, “Humidity,” “Mold and Mil- dew,” and “Pests,” held at the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, were grouped around the theme of “Preservation Fundamentals.” Each course dealt in depth with a particular environmental issue that has been highlighted by recent conservation developments in North America. “Humidity” reviewed the measurement of moisture in the air, psychrometric values, and the control of moisture in buildings with and without HVAC units. With the instructor, the class toured Smithsonian facilities containing recently installed humidity controls. “Mold and Mildew” divided fungal damage between organic materials and inorganic sub- strates so that participants could gain a broader under- standing of the issues and so that the speakers could focus attention on the particular test methods and research associated with specific museum materials. In addition, the susceptibility for museum staff to potential pathogenic microorganisms was discussed. The third course was devoted to pest control in museums, including changes in the regulations of pesticides and of fumigants, as well as the development of alternative treatments.
July 23
8 Publication The Smithsonian Accessibility Program wrote and delivered to the Provost the annual report on the Institution's progress in improving access to people with disabilities in the areas of programs, publications, and exhibitions.
July 26-30
@ Scientific Meeting The National Museum of Natural History hosted the first world conference on mollusks— squids, oysters, and snails. The two largest mollusk- studying societies in the world—the American Malacological Union and Unitas Malacologica—met together for che first time and discussed their findings on biodiversity and conservation issues. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of mollusks, more than 10 million specimens, and the preeminent collec- tion of North American mollusk species.
July 30—Present
@ Exhibition “A Collector's Vision of Puerto Rico”— This National Museum of American History exhibit contained art, photographs, and other artifacts that offer insight into Puerto Rico's distinctive history and cul- ture from the 1700s to the present. The artifacts are part of a vast collection created over 40 years by Puerto Rican philanthropist and businessman Teodoro Vidal Santoni.
July 30
@ Special Event The National Postal Museum cele- brated its fifth anniversary with a party that included more than 2,400 well-wishers.
July 30
@ Exhibition The creativity of everyday Americans was celebrated at the National Postal Museum with the opening of “Rural Routes: Folk Art Mailboxes of Amer- ica.” This exhibition featured 11 unusual and whimsical mailboxes chosen through a nationwide contest.
August
= Symposium SERC organized a special symposium at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America and the American Institute of Biological Sciences in Bal-
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timore, Maryland. The symposium focused on the ecol- ogy of Chesapeake Bay and featured presentations from four SERC scientists.
August
@ Sponsorship SITES secured a pledge for funding from Lockheed Martin as the sole corporate sponsor of an exhibition on the Hubble Space Telescope. The pledge from Lockheed completes the funding needed for the project, which includes a highly interactive large exhibi- tion (3,000 square feet) designed to travel to science museums and centers in large urban areas; a small- format version of the exhibition designed for museums, space centers, and educational institutions with smaller facilities; and a museum education trunk that will in- clude hands-on classroom lessons on the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomy, and mathematics. To create the exhibition SITES has partnered with the Space Tele- scope Institute. The exhibition is also generously supported by a grant from NASA.
August
8 Exhibition Design The Office of Contracting negotiated and awarded a contract to Douglas Gallagher to redesign the Mammal Hall exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History. The Kenneth E. Behring Gift supports this design effort.
August 20-23
a Exhibition Restaging The 1998 “Wisconsin” program was restaged in Madison, Wisconsin, and presented music, crafts, foodways, work, recreational, and religious traditions to celebrate Wisconsin's 150th anniversary of statehood. The “Wisconsin” program was produced for the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies’ annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Fall
= Exhibition The National Museum of American Art’s exhibition “Eyeing America: Robert Cottingham Prints” celebrated the acquisition of a set of the artist's photorealist prints spanning three decades that focus on signs, storefronts, and marquees, the emblematic details of the urban American landscape.
Fall
= Exhibitions The Renwick Gallery, a department of the National Museum of American Art, introduced the
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work of a relatively unknown artist working with pure gold, steel, fossil ivory, and precious gems to create extraordinary objects featured in “Daniel Brush: Gold without Boundaries.” Beautifully installed at the Renwick Gallery, it drew unusually large attendance (almost 50,000 in four months).
September
8 Repatriation During 1998, the NMAI continued its commitment, under federal law and museum policy, to repatriate human remains and objects of religious and cultural patrimony to Native groups throughout the hemisphere. Among the most significant recurns this year was to the Haudenasavnee (Ironquois Confederacy) in September.
September
= Exhibition “The Art of Being Kuna: Layers of Mean- ing Among the Kuna of Panama” opened in September at the George Gustav Heye Center with Kuna tribal leaders in attendance. The exhibition featured approx- imately 300 works of art, including vibrant molas— colorful, richly decorated appliques that express all aspects of Kuna culture. “The Art of Being Kuna” was organized by the UCLA Fowler Museum and included molas from the NMAI collection. The Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives provided additional support for the Heye Center venue.
September
SERC and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research of New
8 International Agreement
Zealand signed a memorandum of understanding to formally facilitate research collaborations between the two organizations. Their cooperative programs and professional training will focus on global change, land- scape ecology, and coastal ecosystems at land-sea inter- faces in both the United States and New Zealand.
September
@ National Meeting SERC hosted a national meeting on global change for the U.S. UV Monitoring Work Group. Present at the meeting were representatives from several universities and all federal agencies in- volved in measuring changes in the penetration of ultraviolet solar radiation to the Earth’s surface.
September
= Publication Smithsonian Institution Archives issues the brochure, Research Resources at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, featuring an overview of many little-known but highly useful ready-reference collections at SIA.
September
8 Exhibition The Smithsonian Institution Libraries opened the yearlong exhibition “Frontier Photographer: Edward S. Curtis” in the Libraries’ exhibition gallery (located in the National Museum of American History). Curtis's own Reversible-back Premo camera and tripod were displayed with gold- and silver-tone prints Curtis made in his studio along with 13 original photogravures and two copper-plates. Curated by William E. Baxter, head of the Libraries’ Special Collections Department, the exhibition was accompanied by an educational brochure prepared for high school curricula, as well as large-print and Braille versions of the brochure's text.
September
® Public Program Environmental Law Seminar—OGC in conjunction with the American Law Association— American Bar Association and the Environmental Law Institute hosted this annual seminar in Washington, D.C.
September
= Web Site Addition In September 1998, “Kids’ Castle” made its debut on the Smithsonian Web site. The new educational area gained immediate popularity through “kid-worthy” articles drawn from Smithsonian editorial, interactive message boards, a “facts and photos” section, and a free monthly newsletter. Additional content for the site is provided through Smithsonian's partnership with Cricket Magazine.
September
= Special Event The Smithsonian Associates’ National Outreach program facilitated a three-day residency of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra for the Public Corporation for the Arts in Long Beach, Califor- nia. Members of the orchestra presented master classes, an open rehearsal, and an improvisation workshop for students and teachers in the California community, and it sponsored a youth concert. The event culminated with a public concert for an audience of 2,000 people
that also launched Long Beach's celebration of October as the city’s arts month.
September
Publicity Campaign The Office of Public Affairs’ publicity campaign for Hispanic Heritage Month in- cluded news releases, radio advertisements on a Spanish- language station, ads in three local Spanish-language newspapers, and Spanish-language telephone recordings at the Smithsonian Information Center. In addition, the office produced 15,000 post cards advertising Smithson- ian activities for Hispanic Heritage Month and had them placed in racks throughout the Washington area from September 13 through 30.
September 8
8 Reorganization The Center for Museum Studies begins a reorganization, merging with the Smithsonian Office of Education. The new alignment will preserve the center's mission to advance and enrich knowledge about museum theories and practices. It will also serve to enhance the capabilities of both offices to build a rich mix of constituencies for the Smithsonian.
September r5
= Public Event The National Portrait Gallery, with the Hispanic Heritage Month Planning Committee of the Smithsonian Office of Education, presented the Latino Film Festival Opening Celebration. The opening celebration was made possible with major support from Home Box Office and a generous contribution from the Washington Post and the Embassy of Argentina. Wel- come and opening remarks were given by Alan Fern and I. Michael Heyman. Panels included “Immigration and Public Education” and “Latino Images in Film and Television.”
September 15-16 ® Course The two-day course “Just in Time: Disaster Preparedness for Paper-Based Collections,” part of the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Educa- tion’s RELACT program, focused on developing a dis- aster plan, as well as preservation management of collections before, during, and after emergencies. A workshop included a hands-on exercise for rescuing water-damaged documents.
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September 18-November 29
@ Exhibition “Andy Warhol's Flash—November 22, 1963” was on view at the National Portrait Gallery. Warhol's portfolio of 14 silkscreen prints reinterprets the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the barrage of print and broadcast coverage that ensued. The color prints, manipulating the photographic images that the public saw repeatedly in the press and on tele- vision, cover the four days between the shooting and the funeral. Accompanied by a stark narration based on tele- type reports, the portfolio combines verbal and visual ele- ments to capture the overwhelming public experience of the assassination.
September 19
© Special Event The Smithsonian Associates’ Young Bene- factors produced its ninth annual black-tie gala ar the National Air and Space Museum. This glittering event raises more than $100,000 each year for the Smithsonian Institution.
September 19 and October 17
@ Public Programs National Museum of American His- tory launched a new series of family programs under the name “OurStory” as part of an effort to bring history to life for museum visitors from preschoolers to adults. OurStory explores America’s rich cultural heritage through Museum objects, quality children’s literature told by the authors or by storytellers, and hands-on activities.
September 20-February 28
@ Exhibition The exhibition “South Africa 1936-1949: Photographs by Constance Stuart Larrabee” was the first public presentation of an important collection of black- and-white photographs of South Africa given to the museum by the photographer in 1997. In addition to the photographs, the collection includes Larrabee’s en- tire personal documentation of her photographic ac- tivities in South Africa, which has never before been made available to researchers. The collection is the basis of ongoing study and future publication.
September 21-22 = Symposium “Patterns and Process—A Symposium in Tribute to Edward V. Sayre” was sponsored by the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Educa- tion to honor the outstanding contributions made at the intersection of science and the humanities by retired
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staff member Dr. Edward V. Sayre. His many ground- breaking endeavors, which range widely from conservation science to analytical and technical studies of historic and ar- tistic works, and his leadership efforts in the area of the characterization of archaeological materials, have brought him international acclaim. Not only have his immediate achievements been of exceptional merit, but his accomp- lishments as both a formal and informal teacher have ex- tended his influence far beyond his own specific research efforts. Symposium participants included former colleagues and students from the United States, England, and Greece.
September 21-25 @ Course The course “Applied Optical Microscopy,” the first in a series, provided the foundation for ad- vanced optical microscopy applications and training at the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education. Subjects addressed included sample selection and preparation; microscope specifications, selection, and set-up; design and layout of microscopy spaces; function and use; imaging and photomicrography; specialized techniques and limits of material identifica- tion; documentation and analysis; and introduction to specialized applications, such as archaeobotany, coating materials, and natural history specimens.
September 24
@ International Technical Assistance The Smithsonian Accessibility Program presented information on the application of Universal Design principles in museums to barrier-free design professionals with the NEC
Corporation.
September 26—-January 4
ws Exhibition “Mathew Brady’s Portraits: Images as His- tory, Photography as Art,” was on view at the National Portrait Gallery. This was the most comprehensive ex- hibition devoted to Brady's career in more than a cen- tury. More than one hundred images were on view representing Brady's work in every form, including, for the first time, examples of his collaboration with artists to create oil paintings, lithographs, and wood engrav- ings based on photographs.
September 26—January 25
@ Exhibition “Edith Wharton’s World: Portraits of People and Places” was on view at the National Portrait Gallery. Born into an atmosphere of material luxury,
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) transformed her careful observations of the elite, cosmopolitan society in which she moved into such American classics as The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth.
September 26-27
§ Fiesta Musical Fiesta Musical, a festival for Hispanic Heritage Month, brought Latino jazz and traditional dances to the Zoo for a celebration of Hispanic culture.
September 29
= Exhzbition Smithsonian Institution Archives and its
Institutional History Division open the exhibition
“Baird's Dream: The Arts and Industries Building,” tracing the history of the A&I Building from Secretary Baird's initial ideas of a U.S. National Museum to the innovative exhibitions of today. An on-line version of the exhibition is available on SIA’s Web site.
September 30
8 Award The Tropical Research Institute's Game Warden Force received the Panama Canal Honorary Public Service Award in recognition of the important service to the community by protecting the Barro Colorado Nature Monument, an integral part of the Panama Canal Watershed.
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Reports of the Bureaus and Offices of
the Smithsonian Institution for Fiscal Year 1998
Office of Planning, Management, and Budget
L. Carole Wharton, Director
Mission Statement
The Office of Planning, Management, and Budget (OPMB) as- sists the Secretary and Board of Regents in setting priorities, determining the best allocation of resources, and measuring performance. OPMB gathers, analyzes, and presents resource needs and information to the Office of Management and Budget, Congress, and the Board of Regents to facilicate wise and favorable evaluation. OPMB also provides services to central and unit managers that foster the planning, allocation, and management of Institutional resources.
In addition, the Office also develops and disseminates In- stitutional announcements and policy directives.
Budget Management, Planning and Policy Systems (BUMPPS)
The BUMPPS team developed a new security foundation and implemented it with the new release of BUMPPS in FY 1998. The Unit Budget Allocation and Budget Transfer modules were modified to include the enhancements submitted by the users in 1997 survey.
The Call for Plans and Call for Budgets were fully automated in 1998. This included the mission statement, in- itiatives, fund-raising priorities, fund-raising development plans, risk assessments, items of increase, workyear resource summary, resources by program category, and information technology.
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BUMPPS released four new modules. The Salaries and Projections Worksheet allows units to project their salaries and benefits for the current year. The Initial Budget Spending Plan allows users to create and spread their initial budget spending plans for nonallocated funds to the detailed account- ing classification key. The Working Budget Spending Plan module allows the user to increase, decrease, and create new budget spending. The OMB Non-Allocated Resources module allows the user to review and update current fiscal year income and expenses projections and enter outyear in- come and expenses projections for nonallocated funds.
Strategic and Performance Plans
OPMB continued to work with senior management and various units across the Institution to update the annual per- formance plan for inclusion in the FY 2000 budget request to the Office of Management and Budget and Congress in the fall of 1998. Additional targets and measures linked to the five- year strategic plan and tied to the Instirution’s programs were developed and included in the FY 2000 plan. OPMB also worked with the Under Secretary and Provost to develop a process for collecting information on the status of the various goals and measures included in the FY 1999 performance plan. This information will be used to prepare the first annual per- formance report, in line with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, which will be submitted to OMB and the Congress in March 2000.
Team-Based Organization (TBO)
Faced with the multiple challenges of office mergers, highly specialized staff, and an increasingly complex set of needs on the part of client’s offices, OPMB has abandoned its formerly hierarchical structure and has become a team-based office. A steering committee was formed to define the structure of the new team organization. The experience of the BUMPPS team provided valuable experience that formed part of the founda- tion upon which OPMB began to plan and develop itself as a team-based organization. In March 1998, the committee presented the new concept to the rest of the staff, and by June the structure was in place for the work of OPMB to be per- formed by self-managing teams.
Office of Membership and Development
Robert V. Hanle, Execuitve Director for Development
Research is integral to everything we do at the Smithsonian. It uncovers new knowledge, enriches our exhibitions, and provides the foundation for our education programs. It keeps the Smithsonian vital, and it inspires millions to return year after year seeking fresh insights and stimulating challenges.
The many facets of research at the Smithsonian provide ways for our supporters to share their love for the Institution and their commitment to the spirit of inquiry in which it was founded.
This was an excellent year for private giving at the Smithsonian. We focused on helping our supporters build their relationships with the Institution by exploring their interests in different ways and by finding the right match for them in the Smithsonian mosaic. Research was a guiding presence, and throughout the Smithsonian development com- munity, our perspectives are constantly evolving as the excite- ment of discovery sparks new opportunities for giving. The Institution received more than $92 million in fiscal year 1998 through the generosity of individuals, corporations, founda- tions, and other friends, or 187 percent of private gifts raised in 1997. Donations from individuals constituted $25.7 mil- lion, or 27.7 percent of the total, including planned gifts from individuals, such as charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and bequests. Corporations and foundations, including those established by individuals, contributed $60.9 million (65.5 percent). Of the total funds raised, $75.3 million was restricted to specific programs.
This major increase in support is evidence of the growing recognition by a wide variety of audiences that the Smithson- ian is a national treasure that needs philanthropic investment to continue meeting the standards of excellence for which it is known. The hard work of many volunteers and staff was responsible for this success, and the momentum is building as we enter our first national capital campaign. The Smithsonian is indeed fortunate to have so many friends and supporters. One thing remains constant: Our friends want the Smithson- ian to keep pushing the envelope of knowledge and experi- menting with ways to share it worldwide. Many are exploring their interests through deepening relationships with our re- search centers. Gifts this year included a large anonymous unrestricted gift to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Insti- tute, a gift to help the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center fund an internship program, foundation support for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Multiple-Mirror Telescope project, a generous gift that helped us reconstruct and plant new public gardens, and many unrestricted gifts to help the Archives of American Art build, preserve, and catalogue its collections.
The Smithsonian gratefully acknowledges the many in- dividuals, corporations, foundations, and organizations that have supported the Institution over the years, as well as those whose generous contributions during fiscal year 1998 helped us achieve the successes described in this annual report.
Smithsonian National Board
The Smithsonian National Board's generous gifts and unsel- fish donation of its time and expertise are among the Institution's greatest assets. Led in 1998 by Chair Jean Mahoney and Vice-Chair Frank A. Weil, the board’s 51 cur- rent, 116 alumni, and 14 honorary members worked tirelessly
as goodwill ambassadors across the country and often laid the groundwork to help bring the Smithsonian to their com- munities.
The Board Annual Giving Committee, chaired by Mrs. John M. Bradley, this year focused on Secretary I. Michael Heyman’s priorities of expanding the Smithsonian's electronic presence and increasing opportunities for access to our un- paralleled resources. The National Board gave generously to shape education programs that experiment with new ways of engaging people in learning. The Board Annual Giving Fund raised more than $1.6 million for these purposes and for other programs for which board members have a special affinity.
We extend our deepest thanks to Jean Mahoney, who com- pleted seven years of board service this year, the last three as board chair. Under her guidance, the board, working through the Office of Membership and Development, played a key role in organizing activities for the 1soth anniversary celebration. Mahoney was a driving force in recruiting leaders for board committees and engaging volunteers in productive work. During Mahoney’s tenure as chair, regional constituency development work advanced significantly, as teams of current, alumni, and honorary board members organized working groups to discuss ways of bringing local friends into a closer involvement with the Smithsonian. Mahoney also dramatically increased the board’s commitment to annual giving. This change was due in part to strengthened ties between the board and Smithsonian museums, research institutes, and offices, which allowed members to pursue personal interests and understand how the many parts of the Institution relate to the greater whole.
In April, the New York Committee of the board organized a special event at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in cooperation with the National Museum of the American Indian and the New York regional center of the Archives of American Art. A cocktail reception brought together new and old friends of the Smithsonian, including supporters of the New York “America’s Smithsonian” gala, for a concert by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. New York is one of our strongest bases beyond the National Mall, and we were happy to showcase for our supporters the many ways the Smithsonian is active in their region. With the National Board’s assistance, we continue to build on the strong relationships we established around the nation during our historic anniversary year.
Contributing Membership
The Contributing Membership is the Smithsonian's annual fund, an important source of unrestricted contributions that provides support for research and other initiatives where it is needed most. This year, the Contributing Membership raised nearly $9 million.
The program also presents Smithsonian research to large national audiences through its publications and events and helps engage people across the country more closely with the Institution. “Smithsonian Treasures,” the popular annual
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series of behind-the-scenes tours, this year welcomed 70 Con- tributing Members for an insider's look at exhibition develop- ment at the Office of Exhibits Central, a curator’s perspective on the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals at the National Museum of Natural History, a concert on a classic piano in the National Museum of American History's Hall of Musical Instruments, and an opportunity to explore the Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ rare-book collection.
In September, the Contributing Membership introduced a second behind-the-scenes tour series, “Smithsonian Focus,” concentrating on a specific aspect of the Institution. This year's program, “Smithsonian Architecture: Preserving Our Buildings for Today and Tomorrow,” brought 20 participants to Washington for an in-depth look at our buildings: their preservation, their role in housing our collections, and their stature as works of art.
In addition to their dues, Contributing Members gave generously to special needs. This year was one of the strongest ever for generating unrestricted support for research and education initiatives. Many Contributing Members also strengthened their support by upgrading their memberships to higher levels, such as the James Smithson Society.
James Smithson Society
Research at the Institution requires a commitment for the long haul, so that Smithsonian scholars can put emerging knowledge into perspective over many years. The unrestricted gifts of the James Smithson Society are one important means of sustaining this commitment. This year, the society's 450 members gave nearly $600,000 through membership dues and special gifts.
Six new members joined the James Smithson Society En- dowed Life Program. Mrs. Alton Grimes, William Hopkins, Richard and Elaine Kaufman, Shirley P. Sichel, and an anonymous donor made this generous commitment to the long-range work of the Smithsonian. An endowed Life Mem- ber makes a one-time gift, and part of the proceeds is used for the member's annual dues over his or her lifetime. This grow- ing program helps provide essential support for our efforts to focus on the big picture and plan ahead.
Shirley Sichel was also recognized with the James Smithson Society Founder Medal for her longstanding support of the Na- tional Zoological Park, its Conservation and Research Center, and its New Opportunities in Animal Health Sciences Program. She has founded the Sichel Family Endowment for Research to ad- vance the vital work of these units. At the Smithson Society's an- nual dinner, Sir Christopher Meyer, KCMG, British Ambassador in Washington, and Lady Meyer joined Secretary Heyman in presenting the medal to Sichel. The Meyers were also granted honorary membership in the society.
Highlights of Corporate Philanthropy
The business community is a growing segment of support for a wide range of Smithsonian activities. This year, corporate
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support opened new avenues of exploration for millions of people through research, education, and exhibition initiatives.
As planning for the upcoming capital campaign proceeded, we drafted a policy for corporate associations that will help us maximize corporate support while finding the best match berween Smithsonian programs and the interests of our cor- porate supporters. A Director for Corporate and Foundation Relations was named earlier this fall, who will work with Smithsonian administrators, directors, and development officers to coordinate a strategy for engaging more corporations in the Institution and maximizing their philanthropic support.
The Smithsonian Corporate Membership Program welcomed 17 new members and raised $1.027 million in unrestricted funds. The program’s annual luncheon in May featured Marie Knowles, executive vice president and chief financial officer of ARCO and a member of the Smithsonian National Board, as the keynote speaker. Education at the Smithsonian was high- lighted in a new video produced by the program. The Smithson- tan: America’s Classroom demonstrates the wide-ranging educational impact of Smithsonian research in the classroom, exhibitions, public programs, and behind-the-scenes activities.
The Corporate Membership Program awarded the second annual Corporate Leadership Award to NOVUS Services, Inc. (now Discover® Financial Services, Inc.). Thomas Butler, then president of NOVUS, accepted the award and described how the partnership berween the Smithsonian and Discover® Card has benefited the company while improving education nationwide.
The generosity of the business community makes a positive difference in the number and quality of programs that the Smithsonian is able to undertake. We especially want to recog- nize the contribution this year of Polo Ralph Lauren Corpora- tion, whose pledge to the Star-Spangled Banner Preservation Project will enable the Smithsonian to preserve one of our country’s most important icons and later rehang it ina redesigned exhibition space with fresh educational and inter- pretive materials. Polo Ralph Lauren’s partnership with the Institution is an outstanding example of how corporations are making a difference in the lives of all Americans through our national museum and education center.
The National Air and Space Museum's Dulles Center cam- paign also benefited from the generosity of the business com- munity this year. The Boeing Company made a leadership pledge to the center. Lockheed Martin Corporation pledged major support in addition to its support for a Smithsonian In- stitution Traveling Exhibition Service show on the Hubble Telescope. Federal Express Corp. also pledged its support for the center. Discover® Card gave a significant unrestricted gift to the Smithsonian this year. The gift was part of the company’s five-year commitment to fund specific programs and provide unrestricted support. Discover® Card also con- tinues its association with the Institution through an affinity card program, which generates donations to the Smithsonian with every purchase made using the card and makes a con- tribution with every card issued or renewed.
NAMM/International Music Products Association gave a generous gift to support the National Museum of American History's “Piano 300” project, which will explore the history and life of this influential instrument on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of its invention.
Foundations
Foundation support was strongly felt this year with programs as varied as the historically significant Star-Spangled Banner Preservation Project (through a leadership gift from the Pew Charitable Trusts), the inventive Web hit “Revealing Things” (supported by the Rockefeller Foundation), and the exhibition “Speak To My Heart: Communities of Faith and Contem- porary African American Life” (underwritten by the Lilly Endowment and the Henry Luce Foundation). Foundations value the Smithsonian as a partner for leveraging change in people’s lives, both on the community and the national levels. Through their investments in scholarly and popular education programs, research endeavors, professional development and training, collection sharing, and access to unparalleled exper- tise, foundations help the Smithsonian apply its considerable resources to enhance the quality of life for people around the world.
Smithsonian Benefactors Circle
The Smithsonian Benefactors Circle this year honored two longtime friends who continue to have a strong impact on re- search. Dr. and Mrs. Herbert Axelrod received the circle’s an- nual award in recognition of their gift this year to establish the first endowed chair at the Smithsonian. The Herbert and Evelyn Axelrod Revolving Chair of Systematic Ichthyology at the National Museum of Natural History will have a three- year occupancy and rotate among curators in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology’s Division of Fishes. Dr. Axelrod’s gift ensures the vitality of research in the field to which he has devoted his professional life.
The Axelrods also established two chamber music endow- ments in the Division of Cultural History at the National Museum of American History to support care for their other major gifts—four Stradivarius instruments and four 17th-century instruments by Jacob Stainer—and to enable wider audiences to hear these priceless instruments in live performance.
The Benefactors Circle continues as a way to honor friends who have made significant commitments to the Institution.
Smithsonian Women’s Committee
The Smithsonian Women’s Committee, a volunteer group chaired in 1998 by Paula Jeffries, continued outstanding service through its coordination of the 16th annual Smithson- ian Craft Show. One hundred rwenty artists were chosen from 1,600 applicants to exhibit at the prestigious show, chaired by Eleanor Carter and held again at the National Building Museum. Nearly 17,000 people attended the four-day event in April.
The Women’s Committee raised more than $320,000, which it will distribute in a competitive grants program. Proceeds from the 1997 show, distributed in the spring of 1998, funded 27 projects in 12 museums and offices across the Smithsonian. Research was a strong component, with such projects as an ex- hibition on the famous and mysterious “Iceman” mummy and a program of biology and wildlife management courses in Uganda, Brazil, and China.
A New Rose Garden and Fountain
Outside the east door of the Smithsonian Insticution Build- ing, a beautiful rose garden flourishes through the generosity of individual donors. The renovated Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden is the gift of Lee and Juliet Folger and the Fol- ger Fund in memory of Lee Folger’s mother. At the center of the garden is the Gur-Karma-Rana Keith Fountain, restored and installed as a gift of the Keith family: Gurdit Singh Keith, Karam Kaur Keith, Mahinder Singh Keith, Rajinder K. Keith, and Narinder K. Keith.
Juliet and Lee Folger are Contributing Members, and Mr. Folger is the former chair of the Smithsonian Luncheon Group and a supporter of the Smithsonian Luncheon Group Endowment Fund. The Folgers and the Folger Fund are generous contributors to many philanthropic causes in the Washington area. Narinder K. Keith, a member of the Smithsonian Legacy Society and a Smithsonian volunteer, has supported the Fund for the Future, as well as the Freer and Sackler Galleries.
A tree planted in the garden honors the memory of Joseph Coudon VII, special assistant to the Secretary from 1980 to 1988. His mother Katherine H. Coudon Murphy established the Joseph Coudon VII Fund for Acquisitions for the Archives of American Art after his death in 1988 and has been a generous contributor to the fund.
The Folger Rose Garden space has had a number of uses over the years—a curved gravel entrance, a lawn, shrubbery, and eventually a rose garden, created in 1978 and redesigned in 1998. The three-tiered Victorian fountain was made in the late nineteenth century by the J.W. Fiske Iron Works of New York City. The Smithsonian acquired it in 1977 from the estate of Nanette F. Dunlop. A new fountain in the courtyard of Blair House, the President’s guest quarters, was cast from a mold of the Smithsonian fountain.
The new Folger Garden is a tangible reminder of how valu- able individual support is to the Smithsonian. The generous gifts of Lee and Juliet Folger, the Keith family, and Katherine H. Coudon Murphy have helped to create a restful spot that thousands of visitors will enjoy in the years to come.
Smithsonian Washington Council
The Smithsonian Washington Council, established last year by the Secretary and regional leaders, remained dedicated to expanding the Smithsonian's relationship with the Washington region. Chaired by Washington attorney and
civic leader R. Robert Linowes, the council gave unrestricted gifts that will benefic research and education projects. Members’ gifts also supported the Institution’s partnership with the D.C. Public Schools, the Museum Magnet School program; helped ensure that the Smithsonian Office of Education's Web site reaches teachers locally and nationally with lesson plans and other resources; made possible Teachers’ Night, an annual event showcasing ways educators can use the Smithsonian in their teaching; and helped advance a planned Education Resource Center on the National Mall.
Smithsonian Legacy Society
The Smithsonian Legacy Society, founded in 1996 to honor our friends who carry on James Smithson’s tradition by making legacy gifts to the Smithsonian, gained momentum this year. Supporters continue to explore bequests, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, pooled income fund gifts, gifts of retirement and life insurance plans, and other giving vehicles. Legacy gifts are a growing and impor- tant source of future support at the Smithsonian. Those whose planned gifts are made known in future years will be wel- comed into the society.
Smithsonian Luncheon Group
Chaired by C. Benjamin Crisman Jr., the Smithsonian Luncheon Group is a circle of supporters from the Wash- ington area who meet regularly to learn about Smithsonian programs, from art to zoology. The group met five times this year and visited the National Museum of American History's Hall of Musical Instruments, explored Japanese art at the Ar- thur M. Sackler Gallery, attended a showing of Ansel Adams photographs at the National Museum of American Art, delved into research at the National Zoological Park's “Think Tank” exhibition, and attended a leccure about Mars by scien- tists from the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum. The endowment that the group established two years ago for education programs to benefit Washington, D.C.-area youth continues to grow.
Capital Campaign
This year, we began planning in greater detail for a capital campaign in which we will ask the American people for their support to ensure that their Smithsonian remains a vital na- tional resource. The campaign received a significant boost from philanthropist Kenneth E. Behring, whose gift to the National Museum of Natural History will enable the renova- tion of the popular Mammal Hall and the development of out- reach activities that teach budding scientists across the country about biology and conservation. The Smithsonian Board of Regents recognized Behring for his generosity, and he was inducted into the Order of James Smithson, a distinc- tion given to only four people in the Institution's history. Another project benefiting from the early stages of the cam- paign is the National Museum of American History’s Star-
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Spangled Banner Preservation Project. Through research, education, and exhibitions, the project illustrates the wide- ranging support the Smithsonian must seek during its capital campaign. Gifts this year ranged from $10 million from Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation and a $5 million pledge from the Pew Charitable Trusts to $5 donations from individual sup- porters. In between, foundations, individuals, and many other friends made gifts and shared their expertise so that the Smithsonian can undertake the research necessary to conserve the flag, better understand its history and context, and pro- vide fresh educational and interpretive materials.
The Smithsonian Fund for the Future, an important vehicle for the campaign and the foundation for a solid base of long- term support, continued to grow this year. The fund is a living endowment established through the generosity of the Smithsonian National Board.
We also developed a strategic plan for implementing the capital campaign and a case statement detailing the Smithsonian's needs and its benefits to the nation. In mid- September, the Smithsonian Regents gave the campaign their official endorsement and committed resources to support its implementation. This momentum and the early gifts to the campaign point to a strong national interest from people in all regions and all walks of life. We will also deepen our relationship with the friends whose generosity and active involvement with the Smithsonian are described in this
report.
Preserving the Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner—an American icon and a great treasure of the national collections—is undergoing what may be the largest single textile conservation effort ever under- taken by a museum. The three-year project, which is recog- nized by the White House Millennium Council's Save America’s Treasures program, has attracted wide public attention, as well as generous support from corporations, foundations, and individuals.
Polo Ralph Lauren pledged $10 million to the National Museum of American History, the largest single corporate gift ever received by the Smithsonian Institution in its 152-year history.
“The flag is an inspiration for all Americans,” said Ralph Lauren, chairman and CEO of Polo Ralph Lauren Corpora- tion. “It captures the dreams and imagination of men and women all over the world. Iam a product of the American dream, and the flag is its symbol. We at Polo Ralph Lauren are incredibly honored to be able to make this possible.”
The flag preservation project is also supported by a $5 mil- lion grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts and a special $3 million appropriation from the Congress of the United States.
Other organizations that had contributed to the flag by the close of fiscal year 1998 include the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Brown Foundation, Ivan and Nina Selin Family Foundation, Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation,
Warren Winiarski and family, Montgomery Watson Americas, Robert Hemphill, Abell-Hanger Foundation, Rockwell Fund, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Society for the War of 1812.
The complex preservation process involves first wrapping the Star-Spangled Banner in protective fabric and carefully removing it from the metal framework that has supported it since 1963. Then a team of conservators, led by Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss, will examine the flag and develop a com- prehensive treatment plan. Early in 1999 it will be moved toa custom-designed lab in the museum for conservation work.
When the 185-year-old flag returns to public view in 2002, it will have been cleaned, restored, and installed in a four- story climate-controlled display case—all made possible through Smithsonian partnerships that preserve America’s treasures for the public to enjoy.
Support for Online Innovation
Can an electronic museum experience be just as enjoyable as the real thing? As online technology and content continue their explosive growth, a Smithsonian program called Smithsonian Without Walls is testing the possibilities. The challenge is to create engaging Internet presentations that cap- ture the sense of wonder and discovery visitors feel when they come face-to-face with real objects in museum exhibitions.
With generous support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Merck Family Fund, the program has launched the prototype for “Revealing Things,” an inventive online exhibi- tion about the multiple meanings of everyday objects (www.si.edu/revealingthings). A pair of patched bell-bottom jeans, a chemistry set, and a Victorian-era gas meter are just a few of the objects presented in the prototype. Using Smith- sonian collections and scholarship along with material from other museums and collections, the exhibition will combine text, graphics, narration, and music.
Broad-based support is essential for innovative projects like “Revealing Things,” which test the boundaries of public education and outreach. Smithsonian Without Walls receives no federal funds and raises all program and operating expenses from outside sources. The Rockefeller Foundation and the Smithsonian National Board currently provide program
support.
Smithsonian Women’s Committee
Millicent F. Mailliard, Chair
The Smithsonian Women’s Committee serves as an ongoing source of support for a variety of Institutional programs through volunteer fund-raising and public relations services.
In 1998, the Committee distributed $304,992 in competi- tive grants to 27 projects in 10 museums and offices across the Smithsonian.
The committee's awards program is the result of its success- ful and profitable annual Smithsonian Craft Show, which this year celebrated its fifteenth anniversary and was held at the National Building Museum April 22 through 26. From more than 1,500 applicants, 120 exhibitors in all media were selected to show their wares. The annual event presents the nation’s finest contemporary crafts and also raises money for the committee's educational and outreach programs benefit- ing the Smithsonian.
Smithsonian National Board
Jean Mahoney, Chair Frank A. Weil, Vice Chair
Smithsonian National Board members work for the advance- ment of the Institution as advocates and as private-sector ad- visors to the Secretary and Under Secretary, as well as through personal financial support and fund-raising activities.
This year a Campaign Planning/Fund for the Future Committee under the leadership of Allison Cowles and David Silfen commenced work to structure the Smithsonian's first- ever Institution-wide capital campaign.
In calendar year 1998, Mrs. John M. Bradley chaired the board's Annual Giving Committee. Under his leadership, board members’ cumulative annual contributions totaled more than $1 million. This support went toward construction of a donor recognition room and for an Institution-wide mem- bership and fund-raising database for donor cultivation and stewardship in the capital campaign. The board's support is critical to the success of many promising projects that could not move forward without their directed philanthropy.
Archives of American Art
Richard J. Wattenmaker, Director
FY 1998 was an extraordinarily productive year for the Ar- chives of American Art, the largest collection of documents pertaining to the study of the visual arts in America. New col- lections were added to its more than 13 million holdings, and publications, exhibitions, and services to researchers fostered new research in American art history. Highlights from the Archives’ work in FY 1998 follow.
Collecting
After four years of negotiation, the Archives acquired the papers of the Hans Hofmann Estate. Hofmann (1880-1966) was a member of the Abstract Expressionists who achieved fame and influence not only through his abstract paintings but also by means of the school that he established in America. Many American artists, such as Lee Krasner and
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Larry Rivers, and the critic Clement Greenberg studied with Hofmann. The Hans Hofmann Papers span the dates I9II to 1966, with the bulk of the material covering the period 1945— 1965. Roughly one quarter of the collection comprises per- sonal papers. Fully half comprises art books, periodicals, and shorter works collected by Hofmann and frequently annotated by him.
Liza Kirwin, Southeast Regional Collector, traveled to Tesu- que, New Mexico, in 1998 to collect the papers of Chuck and Jan Rosenak. For the past two decades, the Rosenaks have devoted their energies to studying and collecting twentieth century American folk art. Their papers consist of their re- search material gathered in the course of writing three books: Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists (1991), The People Speak: Navajo Folk Art (1994), and Contemporary American Folk Art: A Collector's Guide (1996).
Among other new acquisitions in FY 1998 was the Lily Harmon's Research Collection on J.B. Neumann, which con- sisted of Harmon's research material for a biography of art dealer J.B. Neumann (1887-1961), who was director of the New Art Circle Gallery, New York. The collection consists of photographs, interview tapes, transcripts of letters berween Neumann and art dealer Karl Nierendorf from 1925 to 1934, and letters to Clifford Odets, as well as the unpublished biog- raphy itself. Another notable addition was the records of O'- Toole-Ewald Art Associates, including files on artists Louise Nevelson, Clyfford Still, Roy Lichtenstein, and Kenneth Nolan, as well as materials on gallery owners and collectors. The Archives also acquired documents from artist Joseph Sol- man (b. 1909) and the Richard Wunder Research Collection on Harriet Blackstone, a painter who was a turn-of-the-cen- tury colleague and friend of William Merritt Chase and Thomas Dewing.
A major addition to the Archives was approximately 100 feet of the papers of sculptor/painter Claire Falkenstein (1908— 1997). More than 60 sketchbooks and a large number of draw- ings complete this significant collection. Among Falkenstein’s famous commissions were the gates at the home (and now museum) of Peggy Guggenheim in Venice. The Archives col- lected an addition to the Jacob Lawrence/Gwendolyn Knight Papers, including three feet of correspondence with art museums, galleries, and friends. Also added were the papers of Los Angeles artist John Altoon [Alroonian] (1925-1969), who was a major figure in the Los Angeles art scene from the late 1950s until his death. The Archives collected the papers of Beniamino Buffano (1889-1970), documenting the life and career of San Francisco's favorite sculptor.
Other collections include additions to the Betty Parsons Papers, comprising correspondence (1944-1982), calen- dars/date books (1933-1981), and exhibition announcements and clippings (1929-1944). Additions were made to the Eugene Goosen Papers, the William I. Homer Papers, and the Reginald Marsh Papers, as well as a gift of papers (1946-1989) from the sculptor Dmitri Hadzi (b. 1921). The Archives ac-
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quired papers from the New York sculptor William Walcutt (1819-1882). These papers include a handwritten journal documenting his voyage from New York City to London in 1852 and a notebook containing notes made during the voyage, as well as a sketchbook dating ca. 1853 and letters writ- ten berween 1878 and 1880. The Archives also collected select papers from the estate of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. (1929- 1998), folk art collector, founder of the Museum of American Folk Art, and Smithsonian benefactor.
On March 18-21, 1998, Director Richard Wattenmaker and Southeast Regional Collector Dr. Liza Kirwin traveled to Puer- to Rico to meet with directors of museums and archives and explore a potential microfilming project documenting art in Puerto Rico. Their trip underscored the significance of the Archives’ current (FY 1998) survey of art-related manuscript material in Puerto Rico as the foundation for future research and microfilming. The trip was underwritten by a generous grant from the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Fund. Dr. Wat- tenmaker and Ms. Kirwin visited Puerto Rico's major cultural institutions, including the Luis Mufios Marin Foundation, the Museum of Art in Ponce, the Institute of Puerto Rican Cul- ture, the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Pedras, and the Athenaeum.
The Archives received a grant from the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Fund administered by the Office of the Provost in the amount of $42,984, which will fund Spanish-to-English translations of 12 oral history interviews with Cuban- American artists that are currently being conducted. The money will also allow the Archives to broaden the current sur- vey of art-related manuscript material in Puerto Rico that was described above to include a field survey of the papers of Puer- to Rican artists in New York, which will be compiled of infor- mation about the papers of prominent Puerto Rican artists living in New York City and will survey personal papers at museums, historical societies, research institutions, and arts organizations. The two surveys, one in Puerto Rico and the other in New York, promise to illuminate the separate but in- terrelared culture of Puerto Rican artists and greatly enhance the Archives’ sources for cross-cultural research.
The Archives held a four-day meeting of its Regional Col- lectors from around the country October 20-23, 1997. The ses- sions provided an opportunity for Washington staff to meet and discuss a wide variety of Archives’ issues with collectors from New York, Boston, the Southeast, and the West Coast. Topics covered included collections management policies and procedures, with particular emphasis on processing of archival collections and registrarial standards; administrative policies and procedures; development planning; and collecting guidelines.
Publications and OnLine Services
The Archives published A Finding Aid to the Rockwell Kent Papers, which was underwritten by a generous grant from The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., which also funded the process- ing of the collection. Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), an energetic
and multitalented man, pursued many interests and careers during his very long and active life, including architect, painter, printmaker, writer, dairy farmer, and political activist.
In FY 1998, the Archives unveiled its newly updated and revised Web site, which encompasses various categories, in- cluding the history of the Archives, its collections, member- ship information, list of publications in print, and its ongoing programs, as well as links to the online catalog and our refer- ence desk. The site is copiously illustrated by images and con- tains selected documents from the collections.
In observance of Black History Month in February, the Archives inaugurated online access to its guide The Papers of African American Artists (1992), which includes photographs and other illustrations describing the Archives’ holdings.
The Archives also presented on its Web site “A Guide to Art Gallery Records in the Archives of American Art.” The online guide contains the name and dates of each collection, size, reel numbers (if microfilmed), and historical notes.
Outreach: Exhibitions, Education, and Research Services
An archival display from the papers of Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, “Tomas Ybarra-Frausto and the Chicano Art Movement, 1965— 1985,” was on view in the American Art/Portrait Gallery Library, in connection with Hispanic Heritage Month, September 18— October 24, 1997. The show consisted of photographs of works by leading Chicano artists, such as Malaquias Montoya and Esther Hernandez; letters, including one signed by Cesar Chavez; and many related objects. The exhibition illustrated the major phases of the Chicano art movement from its incep- tion in the 1960s to the present. The exhibition, organized by Archives Technician Rosa Fernandez and Southeast Regional Collector Liza Kirwin, was expanded and presented in the Archives’ New York Regional Center display space February— May 1998. The Archives opened the exhibit “El Movimiento: Selections from the Tomas Ybarra-Frausto Research Material on Chicano Art” on February 6, 1998, with a reception attended by more than 100 guests, including repre- sentatives of the Latino community in New York from cultural institutions such as E] Museo del Barrio, the Centro de Estudios Puertorriquefios at Hunter College, and the Museum of American Folk Art. The Archives will publish a finding aid to this important collection to coincide with the exhibition.
Dr. Ybarra-Frausto, Associate Director for Arts and Humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation, was former Chair of the Smithsonian Council and Chair of the Latino Oversight Committee. The documents donated by Dr. Ybarra-Frausto to the Archives represent part of his research for the book Arte Chicano: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Chicano Art, 1965-1981, which he coauthored with Shifra M. Goldman in 1985. The collection comprises letters, newspaper clippings, exhibition catalogues and invitations, and rare printed material concerning the Chicano art movement in the United States and Latin America. The Ybarra-Frausto collection com- plements the Archives’ extensive resources on Latin American
and Latino art and artists delineated in the Archives’ publica- tion The Papers of Latino & Latin American Artists (1996).
Paul Karlstrom, West Coast Regional Center Director, spoke at a conference, “El Suefo Americano/O sonho americano/The American Dream: The Reception of Latin American Art in the United States and Europe,” held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in connection with the exhibition “Mexican Masterpieces from the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection” on January 10, 1998. Dr. Karlstrom’s paper, “Mexico, Muralism, and Modernism in Northern California,” concluded with a description of the Archives’ Latino focus in current collecting projects
The Archives completed its Interlibrary Loan Automation Project at the Archives’ Midwest Regional Center where staff bar coded a set of microfilm, consisting of nearly 8,000 reels, that is used to service interlibrary loan requests from re- searchers throughout the world. The software used for this project enables the user to track the movement of reels throughout the Interlibrary Loan System with additional speed and efficiency. The enhancements to the Interlibrary Loan Program will enrich the level of services provided to re- searchers worldwide
Progress continues apace on various grant-funded projects. The Judith Rothschild Foundation funded a project on the Abraham Rattner Papers, including the processing and microfilming of the collection. A descriptive finding aid has also been written.
Thanks to a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., three collections have been processed, arranged, and preserved, including the Rockwell Kent Papers, which was also microfilmed. Also processed were the Downtown Gallery records. Microfilming and the preparation of a finding aid are in progress. The Luce Foundation also funded the processing of the records of the American Federation of Arts, which date from AFA’s founding in 1909 through 1993. The collection is particularly valuable for its documentation of twentieth-cen- tury American art history and the wealth of information about the numerous programs and exhibitions supported and implemented by the AFA to promote and study contemporary American art.
Archives staff also processed the papers of Cuban art his- torian Giulio V. Blanc (d. 1995), which dated from 1923 through 1995 and are particularly valuable for the extensive ar- tists files of both major and lesser known contemporary Cuban artists.
Fund-raising
Lundi Gras XX XVII, “An Evening of Elegance,” was held on the evening of February 23, 1998, in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Benefit chairpersons were Mr. and Mrs. Morton L. Scholnick. Mss. Kim K_ Lie, president of the Detroit Chapter of the Ar- chives, welcomed more than 75 guests to this elegant affair, which is the longest-running fund-raising event for the Archives. The Archives received a $2,000 grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance toward the transcription, editing, and reproduc-
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tion of oral history interviews of California contemporary ar- tists. Mrs. Yoshiko Mori donated $12,000 to fund a video in- terview with Richard Shaw, a Bay Area potter. Richard Shaw: Love of the Common Object describes the ceramicist's artistic philosophy and goals.
The Archives’ Annual Appeal for FY 1998 raised over $35,000 to support Archives’ operations and to fund the Brown Challenge Grant, which will establish the William E. Wolfenden Fund for Archives’ publications. All contributions to the Brown Challenge will be matched on a one-to-one basis by The Brown Foundation, Inc.
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Milo C. Beach, Director
Much of the creative energy of the Galleries’ staff, friends, docents, and volunteers was directed this year toward fes- tivities around the 75th anniversary of the Freer Gallery of Art and the conclusion of last year's observance of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's first decade. An extraordinary outpouring of art from generous donors; successful curatorial detective work resulting in outstanding purchases; writing and production of many publications; planning and funding of exhibitions and research; and expansion of the Galleries’ constituencies through public programs, publicity, and advertising marked the anniversary years as a truly remarkable period of growth.
The anniversaries also have given the Galleries new oppor- tunities to focus on establishing endowment funds to ensure the future of important initiatives and programs, and to launch major multiyear projects that could not be undertaken without significant private support. I am delighted to an- nounce that numerous donors expressed their confidence in the Galleries by contributing funds totaling nearly $10 mil- lion over the last two years. These gifts will support a variery of gallery projects—from major publications, exhibitions, and acquisitions to endowments for research and education.
The anniversary celebrations not only honored the Freer’s distinguished past, but also forecast a bright future in tandem with the Sackler Gallery. Together, the two institutions form the national museum of Asian art for the United States, main- taining separate collections and exhibition policies but shar- ing their staff and a single mission. The Freer also is home to a specialized collection of nineteenth- and early-rwentieth- century American art, including the world’s most important holdings of work by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1919).
Symbolic of this auspicious alliance was the presentation of “Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collec- tions,” an exhibition of painting and calligraphy representing the taste and patronage of Japanese rulers from the ninth cen- tury to the present and held at the Sackler Gallery. Their Im-
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perial Highnesses Prince and Princess Takamado were guests of honor for the gala dinner celebrating the exhibition opening.
The exhibition served as a finale to the Sackler’s anniversary year and the inauguration of the Freer’s 75th—a special tribute to the continuing collegiality between the Freer and the Japanese arts community that was forged by the Gallery's founder during his first visit to Japan in 1895.
“Twelve Centuries” was organized by the Imperial House- hold Agency, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Japan Foun- dation, and the Freer and Sackler galleries and was made possible by generous grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, with additional support from the Smithsonian’s Special Exhibition Fund, the Japan World Exposition Commemorative Fund, and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Its illustrated catalogue won awards from the American Association of University Presses, the Art Director's Club of Metropolitan Washington, and the American Associa- tion of Museums.
Many dedicated individuals merit recognition for the suc- cess of these anniversary events, but one extraordinary volun- teer stands out as deserving our special gratitude. Without the enthusiastic commitment of Cynthia Helms, I suspect the anniversaries would have been far less productive and certainly less memorable. Mrs. Helms served simultaneously as chair- man of the eight-member Anniversaries Committee (with Honorary Chairman Katharine Graham and Vice-Chairman Ann Kinney), planning two years of special events, and the nine-member Gala Opening Committee (with Honorary Chairman Senator Jay Rockefeller), organizing the dinner for “Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collec- tions,” and as co-chairman (with Ada Linowes) of the seven- member Freer Gallery of Art Anniversary Dinner Committee.
In all of these roles, Mrs. Helms was indispensable for her creativity, persuasiveness, and plain hard work. Our ability to expand and refine the Galleries’ offerings to visitors, scholars, and far-flung members of the public will be enhanced far into the future because of Mrs. Helms's leadership as a deft and gra- cious constituency builder.
Incongruous as it may seem, technology is another aspect of the broadening mandate of this and many other museums. As recently as five years ago, I could not have imagined how sig- nificantly computers and the Worldwide Web could advance the business of running a museum. But today, it seems unlike- ly that a museum director exists who does not understand the crucial role technology can play in attracting a wider public and making better use of a gallery's collections.
And so we are particularly grateful for the support we received this year from the Smithsonian's Office of the Provost, which provided funding for the Sackler and Freer photography department to digitize and store on compact disks some 12,000 color transparencies of art in the Galleries’ collections. When the conversion is completed, the images will be accessible electronically for research, education, collec- tions management, and public information. The digitized im-
ages are also being used to create an Institution-wide database that will offer electronic public access to the collections of all the Smithsonian art museums.
To efficiently manage these and other computer-based strategies critical to our mission as a public institution devoted to research and education, I appointed Michael Edson, a staff member who had developed and coordinated several impresive interactive computer-based programs, to head a new Department of Digital Information Services. Working with colleagues in other departments, the digital information services staff is charged with managing and developing effective new uses for technology at the Galleries.
Exhibitions
Summer is the season when museums on the Mall welcome their largest number of visitors, as travelers from around the nation and the globe take advantage of the Smithsonian's wealth of free and enjoyable educational pursuits. To attract them, along with local residents who work during the day, the Freer and Sackler Galleries, joined by the National Museum of African Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculp- ture Garden, and the International Center Gallery, have ex- tended their hours until 8:00 p.m. on summer Thursdays for the past three years.
This year's attendance at the Freer and Sackler during “Art Night on the Mall” was up 54 percent from 1997, due in no small measure to the Galleries’ rich selection of exhibitions, films, and concerts. Just as they have done during previous Art Nights, members of the Freer and Sackler docent corps volunteered beyond their regular service to greet visitors, give impromptu “mini-tours,” and answer questions about the collections.
All the exhibition galleries were open this summer, with “Ikat: Splendid Silks of Central Asia from the Guido Gold- man Collection,” the Gallery’s first major presentation of tex- tiles, attracting a new audience to this colorful and dramatic array of rare woven silk, velvet, and cotton garments and wall hangings from nineteenth-century Central Asia. One admir- ing critic commented that the exhibition “makes a good case for the elevation of textiles to fine-art status.” In conjunction with the exhibition, the Gallery and the Smithsonian Associ- ates cosponsored a two-day symposium on ikat textiles in Asia coordinated by Louise Cort, the Galleries’ curator for ceramics. Participants toured the Sackler exhibition and heard from specialists on the ikat weaving of Central Asia, India, Thailand, Laos, and Japan.
Summer visitors to the Sackler also could see “Sakhi: Friend and Messenger in Rajput Love Painting,” a small but potent loan exhibition that explored Rajput love poetry and the role of the “female friend” in facilitating romance between the heroine and her beloved.
Another summer exhibition, “Poetic Landscapes: Two Chinese Albums,” drew on two seventeenth-century albums in the Sackler collection to show the relationship between cal- ligraphy and image in Chinese painting.
“The Buddha’s Art of Healing,” a presentation of 17 paint- ings from an extraordinary illustrated medical treatise, on loan from the History Museum of Buryatia (Siberia) and one of the greatest surviving treasures of Tibetan civilization, attracted a large audience of visitors interested in Buddhism, Tibet, and the history of medicine.
“Puja: Expressions of Hindu Devotion,” the popular inter- active exhibition and Web site that resulted from collabora- tion among gallery education specialists, members of the local Hindu community, scholars, and representatives from the American Council of the Blind, the National Council of Senior Citizens, the National Federation of the Blind, and Gallaudet University, won the 1998 Accessibility Award from the American Association of Museums and the National Organization on Disability. The JCPenney Company provided a $1,000 prize to the Gallery.
At the Freer, new exhibitions focused on aspects of the collections appropriate to the 75th anniversary. “Arts of the Islamic World” presented many of the outstanding objects from a part of the Freer collection that has developed primarily since the 1950s and grown significantly over the past decade. Today, the Freer collection of Islamic art, together with the rich holdings of the Sackler Gallery, make Washington one of the world’s most important cities for the exhibition and study of arts of the Islamic world.
“Charles Lang Freer and Egypt” featured a display of the founder's acquisitions made during two trips to Egypt, includ- ing examples from what is acknowledged as the best collection of eighteenth-dynasty glass in the world. The exhibition organizer Ann Gunter, associate curator of ancient Near Eastern art, is writing a book on Freer’s interest in Egypt.
“Japanese Art in the Age of Koetsu” looked at the renais- sance that transformed Kyoto into a vibrant hub of artistic ac- tivity in early-seventeenth-century Japan and focused in particular on the creative impact of Honoami Koetsu (1558— 1637), the artist who helped to inspire that rebirth. Koetsu, one of the most notable aesthetic pioneers of the period, was highly regarded by gallery founder Charles Lang Freer, who was able to acquire several important examples of his work. The four examples of Koetsu’s calligraphy and one of his ceramic tea bowls on view were complemented by the works of other major artists of the period who collaborated with or were influenced by the multitalented Koetsu.
Public Programs
Along with a full schedule of exhibitions, public programs attracted many visitors to the Galleries this year, especially over the summer. ImaginAsia, which has become an in- stitution for families and groups seeking intergenerational ways to enjoy museums together, drew unprecedented crowds and nearly overwhelmed education department staff and interns. On Mondays and Wednesdays during July and August, the galleries were filled with children and their “adult companions” exploring exhibitions as part of their ImaginAsia projects. An experiment with a late-afternoon
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session extending into early evening as part of “Art Night on the Mall” was a huge success.
Film programs this year included works by the “Beijing Underground,” the next generation of young filmmakers to follow the celebrated “Fifth Generation” to the Beijing Film Academy; other films from China; and series featuring recent productions from Iran, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Viet- nam, Japan, and Pakistan.
Special programs during Art Night—Korean dance and Indonesian music and dance—were held on the Freer steps, enhanced by splendid sunsets and summer breezes.
Marking the opening of the Sackler exhibition “The Buddha's Art of Healing” were five Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in southern India. During the first nine days of the exhibition, they created a five-foot mandala, or diagram of the universe, in colored sand. The process could be observed by a visit to the Sackler Gallery or from afar on washingtonpost.com, which featured daily up- dates on the process. The monks’ efforts attracted 23,286 fas- cinated visitors to the Sackler. People arrived in a continuous flow, watching as the mandala emerged, first in a pattern of white chalk lines and then an increasingly colorful diagram as they filled in the lines with fine, colored sand. After the man- dala was complete, tradition called for its destruction and deposit into a body of water, so that the sand could carry its healing powers all over the world. Consequently, on the ninth day, the monks performed a closing ceremony, then swept the finished design into a container, and led a phalanx of visitors to the nearby Tidal Basin, where, chanting, they poured the sand into the water.
The highlight and finale of the Galleries’ full schedule of lectures and book events this year was the visit by acclaimed writer Jan Morris, who spoke on “Imperial Everest,” drawing comparisons between British attempts to climb the world’s highest mountain and British imperialism in Asia. Morris had been special correspondent for the London Times and broke the story of Sir Edmund Hillary's successful conquest of Everest in 1953.
Among the ten concerts scheduled this year in the popular Bill and Mary Meyer Concert Series were three concerts by Musicians from Marlboro and performances by the Shanghai Quartet; Cho-Liang Lin, violin, Hai-Ye Ni, cello, and Li Jian, piano; Mitsuko Shirai, soprano, accompanied by Hartmut Holl, piano; and the Brentano String Quartet, winner of the Cleveland Quartet prize.
As the season finale, the Takacs Quartet devoted two even- ings to the six string quartets of composer Béla Barték (1881- 1945). Included in the program notes was an essay, “Barték, the Chinese Composer,” by Bright Sheng, who explains how his own music is influenced by his encounters with folk music in rural China during the Cultural Revolution, and by his later interest in Bartok, who incorporated Hungarian folk traditions into his work.
Presentations of Asian music regularly filled the Meyer Auditorium and sounded from the Freer steps in concerts by
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such acclaimed artists as virtuoso Wu Man, pipa (Chinese lute), and Joseph Fung, guitar; actor Iraj Anvar and vocalist Reza Derakshani presenting an evening of Persian poetry and music; Asad Ali Khan, the last surviving master of the “rudra vina” (bin), and Mohan Shyam Sharma, “pakawaj” (drum); Sanjay Mishra, guitar, and friends; Ilyas Malayev and En- semble Maqam, performing music and dance from Central Asia; Karma Gyaltsen of the Tibetan pop band Chaksam-Pa playing Tibetan traditional songs; the Gamelan Mitra Kusuma Ensemble, a full Balinese gamelan; the Gundecha Brothers performing Hindustani vocal music; South Indian dancer Swati Bhise and vocalist Savithri Ramanand and her ensemble interpreting the twelfth-century love poem “Gita Govinda”; and Reiko Kimura, koto. Kimura is a longtime member of the Japanese new music ensemble, Pro Musica Nipponia.
Research
The Galleries’ research mandate has been enhanced significantly this year by gifts that have allowed us to initiate important research projects and publications. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation gave $600,000 to support a four-year study, “Materials and Structures of East Asian Paintings,” that is allowing researchers in the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research to address long-standing problems in the history and survival of works of art based on scientific knowledge of their components. Designed and directed by Dr. John Winter, the Galleries’ senior conservation scientist, the project uses laboratory methods to examine the materials used in Asian paintings, how they are made, and how they deteriorate under various conditions.
In addition to a gift of funds to purchase an outstanding group of Chinese paintings and calligraphy in honor of the Freer’s 75th anniversary (see Acquisitions), grants from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation made possible the initiation of rwo important research and publication projects on Chinese art: A catalogue of the Freer and Sackler jade collections by Jenny F. So, curator of ancient Chinese art; and a catalogue of the Song- (960-1279) and Yuan- (1279— 1368) dynasty paintings in the Freer Gallery by Joseph Chang, associate curator of Chinese art.
The Galleries initiated a series of Occasional Papers reviv- ing a Freer tradition. The first of the new papers, Dara-Shikoh shooting Nilgais: Hunt and Landscape in Mughal Painting, by Ebba Koch of the University of Vienna, focuses on an impor- tant Mughal hunt scene in the Sackler Gallery collection. A second Occasional Paper, The Jesuits and the Grand Mogul: Renaissance Art at the Imperial Court of India (1580-1630) by Gauvin Alexander Bailey of Clark University accompanied an exhibition of the same title. As guest curator, Dr. Bailey ex- amined the exchange of visual imagery that occurred as a result of Jesuit missions to India.
Two imposing monographic studies—Sultan Ibrahim Mir- zaos Haft Awrang, A Princely Manuscript from Sixteenth-Century Iran (1997), by Marianna Shreve Simpson with contributions
by Massumeh Farhad, and The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biog- raphy (1998), by Linda Merrill—were copublished by the Freer and Yale University Press this year. The Haft Awrang volume was produced with the assistance of the Getty Grant Program and with funds provided by the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Studies Program. The Peacock Room was made pos- sible by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Acquisitions
We were surprised and particularly delighted with the num- ber of related objects, even whole collections, that benefactors generously presented in observance of the Freer’s anniversary. Among the gifts, for example, were the most important existing set of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Chinese calligraphies—the Ellsworth collection; the finest group of paintings and calligraphies outside of China by the seven- teenth-century eccentric Zhu Da (more commonly known by his sobriquet Bada Shanren); 15 paintings by the rwentieth- century master painter Qi Baishi; a superb group of Chinese seals; an assembly of tea ceremony objects that animates the Freer collection of tea wares; a significant number of Islamic manuscripts; and a single Persian manuscript of such com- plexity that it too is a virtual collection within the covers of one book. Those groups, and the magnificent individual gifts as well, have almost all been gathered by true connoisseurs— people who have spent years assembling a meaningful group of objects, and whose knowledge of them often surpasses that of scholars in the field. We are especially honored that they chose the Freer to be home for these gifts, which have also in- spired other collectors to make important donations. These ac- quisitions can be seen in a continuum with art donated for the tenth anniversary of the Sackler Gallery last year, when this distinctive giving pattern emerged: A group of 181 Japanese prints describing life in the port city of Yokohama, the entire group shown ina very popular 1990 Sackler exhibition; two major collections encompassing some 100 examples of callig- raphy, painting, and drawing from the Islamic world; and highly important groups of ceramics from West Asia, the Khmer em- pires, and other regions in southeast Asia. In total, 898 important works have been designated as anniversary acquisitions for the na- tional collections of Asian art. We are grateful to those founda- tions and private individuals who have contributed so generously in honor of these important anniversaries.
Staff
Vidya Dehejia, a scholar who has served as the curator of South and Southeast Asian art at the Sackler and Freer Galleries since 1994, was appointed to a new position as the Galleries’ associate director and chief curator, supervising four curatorial areas (Japan; China; South, Southeast, and West Asia; and American art) and the education department. She continues to oversee the Galleries’ South and Southeast Asian collections, which include some 4,000 works dating from the second to the twentieth centuries.
With a single staff managing the complex exhibition schedules of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, the systematic and prompt circulation of accurate information has emerged as a critical aspect of the Galleries’ exhibition program. In response to the need to standardize gallery procedures for ex- hibition development and implementation, Cheryl Sobas was hired this year as the Galleries’ first exhibition coordinator. Ms. Sobas comes to the Smithsonian from the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where she was exhibitions manager.
In closing, I wish to personally pay tribute to the entire staff of the Freer and Sackler Galleries: These are people of extraordinary talent, who have worked long hours, continually suggested new ideas, carefully assessed possibilities, and made all the achievements of this year possible. They deserve the full appreciation of our expanding circle of friends and Visitors.
Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies
Richard Kurin, Director
Collaborations with associations, communities, and individuals marked the year with work on festival programs and restagings, Folkways Recordings, ongoing projects, and educational programs. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s success was felt not only on the National Mall, but also back in Wisconsin, the Philippines, the Baltic Nations, and throughout the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin. The Center worked closely with the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Commission to feature Wisconsin as a state rich in ethnic diversity, with presentations that included Hmong, Latvian, Finnish, Mexican, Tibecan, Polish, Greek, Croatian, Swiss, African American, and Norwegian crafts, foodways, and, of course, music. Displays on the dairy and agricultural in- dustries underlined the state’s slogan, “America’s Dairyland,” with a red, Gambrel-style barn, holsteins that were milked several times a day, a pigpen and show ring for presentations on showing and raising pigs, and other agricultural presenta- tions that revealed some of the lesser known yet widely produced crops in Wisconsin: a cranberry marsh, ginseng gar- den, a Three Sisters garden, and an Ojibwe Indian rice camp. A decorated tavern was the scene for fiddle, tuba, and accor- dion workshops, as well as sheepshead and euchre card games and narrative sessions. Two music stages featured a wide variety of music; one featuring soloists and small ensembles, and the other presenting polka and dance music that reflected a mix of ethnic sources, national traditions, and classical and popular influences. Occupational and recreational traditions were also highlighted, with presentations of cheese and beer making, logging and wreath making, lure making and boat building, and ice fishing. A highlight of the program came
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on July 3 with a tailgate party. More than 150 members of the University of Wisconsin marching band came to open the tail- gate party by marching onto the mock football field on the Mall and giving a performance of band music, and then closed the event with a rendition of the “fifth quarter.” Governor Tommy Thompson joined other dignitaries, including Packer Hall of Famer Willie Wood, former Packer Tom Brown, director of the University of Wisconsin marching band Mike Leckrone, and Jim Irwin, voice of the Packers, who spoke about football community traditions. The Wisconsin program was made possible by and was produced in cooperation with the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Commission on the occasion of Wisconsin’s 150th anniversary of statehood. Wisconsin corporate contributors included AT&T, SC Johnson Wax, and The Credit Unions of Wisconsin.
“Pahiyas: A Philippine Harvest” marked the centennial of the Philippine declaration of independence from Spain at the Festival. This program was the result of several years of re- search and development by the Smithsonian Center and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Pahiyas, a Tagalog word meaning “gems” or something of value, given to strengthen a relationship, became a theme of a program that was or- ganized, in part, to connect Americans and particularly Filipino Americans with the cultures of the Philippines. Some of the very best community-based artists who demonstrate mastery of their tradition came to represent their country, and they were presented in contexts familiar to all Filipinos. A bas- ketball court, always a focal point of any barrio or barangay in the Philippines, hosted £u/intang gong performers from Min- danao Island, Kalinga and Talaandig community groups from upland regions of the country, and martial artists. An elaborately decorated chapel was the venue for presentations by a bamboo marching band, devotional singers and dancers, and a rondalla ensemble. The chapel was lit up with elaborate colored lights for Philippine-American Day and the Fourth of July celebrations. Craft traditions were presented in three cluster areas that highlighted the technical process used by the artist: weaving, pounding, and carving. The small sari-sari (general goods) store on the site, “4 Marias,” was the venue for some very thought-provoking narrative sessions on topics as varied as “concepts of home,” “Philippine centennial,” “Filipino time,” and the “faces of gender.” On Philippine- American Day, June 27, seven Filipino-American groups from across the country performed on the basketball court and then joined the Philippine delegation for a traditional procession around the Mall. Afterward, all the performing groups joined in presenting an evening concert. The Philippines program was produced in collaboration with the Culrural Center of the Philippines and the Philippines Centennial Commission and was supported by the American International Group, Inc., The Starr Foundation, Bell Atlantic, the Philippine Centen- nial Foundation/USA, and the Asian Cultural Council.
Issues of identity and resistance were at the heart of the pro- gram “The Baltic Nations: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.” During the Soviet occupation, native languages and traditional customs
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were suppressed; the large song festivals, held every four to five years, provided one of the few opportunities for the expression of cultural identity. Thus music and song took ona special meaning, and music was heard everywhere in the Baltic Nations program. In one very moving session at the Lithuanian Village Table, participants from the Marcinkonys Village Folk Ensemble