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S C I E N C E , H I S T O R Y  A N D  T H E  A R T S
N U M B E R  3  ? W I N T E R  2 0 0 4  
2 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004
? ? ? ? ? ?  ?  ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  ? ? ? ?
Published quarterly by the Smithsonian Office
of Public Affairs, Smithsonian Institution
Building, Room 354, MRC 033, P.O. Box
37012, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, for
Smithsonian Contributing Members, scholars,
educators, museum personnel, libraries,
journalists and others. To be added to the
mailing list or to request this publication in
an accessible format, call (202) 357-2627, ext.
119 (voice) or (202) 357-1729 (TTY). 
John Barrat, Editor
Colleen Hershberger, Assistant Editor
Evelyn S. Lieberman, Director of
Communications and Public Affairs
Kathryn Lindeman, Publications Director
Telephone: (202) 357-2627
E-mail: insideresearch@publicaffairs.si.edu
Internet: www.si.edu/insideresearch
Contributing Members who seek information
about the Smithsonian or about their
memberships may write to The Contributing
Membership, Smithsonian Institution, A&I
1130, MRC 410, P.O. Box 37012, Washington,
D.C. 20013-7012, or call 1 (800) 931-32CM or
(202) 357-1699.
On the cover: This image is of the ob-
verse, or back, of The William Lawrence
Saunders Award, a medal for achieve-
ment in mining. Made of cast white
metal and measuring about 3.5 by 2.6
inches, the 1926 medal was created by
American sculptor Anthony de Francisci
and is among a number of medals in the
collection of the Smithsonian American
Art Museum. See story, Page 10. 
??????????? ?????? 
Visual arts of Africa. The Warren M. Robbins Li-
brary at the Smithsonian?s National Museum of
African Art?a major resource center in the Unit-
ed States for the research and study of the visual
arts of Africa?maintains a fast-growing collec-
tion of more than 2,000 files on contemporary
African artists. Although most of these artists are
living and working in Africa, the library also col-
lects information on African artists worldwide. 
Individual files may contain gallery brochures, 
exhibition announcements and invitations, price
lists, press releases, reviews and newspaper clip-
pings. No other library in the United States is
developing or maintaining this type of collec-
tion. A sampling of exhibition announcements
and gallery brochures for 21 African artists
from 11 countries is available at this Smithso-
nian Institution Libraries Web site. A complete list of the Libraries? vertical files on
African artists also can be found here.?www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/afa-vf/intro.htm
Family-friendly. With 17 museums and galleries, nine research centers, the National
Zoo, collections of more than 143 million objects and dozens of fascinating exhibitions,
getting a handle on a place as big as the Smithsonian Institution can be daunting?
particularly for youngsters. With this in mind, the Smithsonian Center for Education
and Museum Studies has created a kid- and family-friendly
Web portal that makes it easy to get to know the 
Institution. Begin your introduction by clicking on a
category??Everything Art,? ?Science & Nature,?
?History & Culture,? ?People & Places??and
be transported to dozens of Smithsonian Web
sites designed with kids and families in mind.
Create modern art at the Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden Web site. At the Na-
tional Museum of American History Web
site, learn to build a sod house just as the pi-
oneers did. Or at the National Zoo?s Web site,
put together a jigsaw puzzle featuring animals
from the Zoo. There?s even a section for teach-
ers, complete with lesson plans, field trips and
publications that can be used in the classroom.
Learn about Smithsonian exhibitions that are cur-
rently traveling around the United States or museum ac-
tivities in Washington, D.C., via this portal to the Smithsonian?s
many educational resources.?smithsonianeducation.org
A brochure for the Goodman
Gallery in Johannesburg, South
Africa, promotes an exhibit of
works by Sam Nhlengethwa.
Everyone can discover and learn at the Smithsonian Education Web site.
A V I A T I O N  H I S T O R Y
Hanging
planes dazzle
visitors at
new facility
R
ising up from the fields just be-
yond the end of runways 1R
and 1L at Washington Dulles
International Airport, the Avia-
tion Hangar of the Smithsonian National
Air and Space Museum?s new Steven F.
Udvar-Hazy Center is a massive steel
building 300 yards long, 10 stories high
and 248 feet wide. 
First-time visitors walking the cav-
ernous entryway into this new facility
might well wonder how to navigate such a
massive space?that is, until they spot
the perky ?Little Stinker,? a sporty red-
striped Pitts Special S-1C aerobatic bi-
plane. Suspended overhead and upside
down, just as pilot Betty Skelton was fond
of flying her, this whimsical 1946 plane
seems to say, ?Come on! Follow me!? 
A few steps further and the air is alive
with more than two dozen classic planes
darting, swooping and rising through the
hangar: A 1941 shark-jawed Curtiss P-
40E Warhawk banks in a 45-degree dive.
A 1944 F4U Corsair, its landing gear
down, comes in for a landing on an imag-
inary aircraft carrier in the South Pacific.
And a 1934 Bowlus Senior Albatross Fal-
con, a fragile glider of rich honey-toned
wood, floats along on air.
The Pitts Special S-1C ?Little Stinker?
is hoisted into position at the Steven F.
Udvar-Hazy Center. (Dane Penland photo) 
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004 3
(continued)
4 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004
Planning and revision
This one-of-a-kind display at the Udvar-
Hazy Center is the result of years of plan-
ning by a team of museum experts who
painstakingly mapped the location of
dozens of airplanes at three different lev-
els?two suspended from the ceiling and
a third on the floor. Using scale models
and 3-D architectural software, some 50
different arrangements were considered
before the team was satisfied. 
?Our goal was to be sure every artifact
had at least one vantage point offering
visitors an intimate view,? Exhibition De-
signer William Jacobs explains.
Enhancing the view is the fact that
many of the planes hang at angles. This
technique, explains Dik Daso, curator of
modern military aircraft, lets visitors see
more of each plane. ?By tilting and turn-
ing an aircraft, more of the top and bot-
tom of the wings is visible. It also adds
beauty and motion.?
Attitude of flight
For the Smithsonian, accuracy is every-
thing, explains Dorothy Cochrane, one of
several Air and Space Museum curators
who made certain that the aircraft at the
Udvar-Hazy Center were hung in realistic
postures or attitudes of flight. 
?Before we acquire an aircraft, we get as
complete a history of it as possible,? she
says. ?What did it do? Who flew it? What
type of military action did it support??
Cochrane?s knowledge of the Louden-
slager Laser 200, for example, led her to
have it suspended vertically, its propeller
pointed to the ceiling?a familiar posi-
tion for an aircraft that won seven U.S.
National Aerobatic Championship titles.
The Laser hangs just 5 feet from a second-
tier walkway, where visitors can see every
detail of its colorful exterior and peer into
its cockpit. 
In World War II, the Curtiss P-40E
Warhawk was used mostly for ground at-
tack, says Don Lopez, Air and Space Muse-
um deputy director and a former P-40
pilot. ?That is why the museum?s P-40 is
hung starting into a slight dive and at a
slight bank. You?d get the wing down to
look out and pick out a target on the
ground. Then, you?d go into a steeper turn
and steeper dive and go down to attack.? 
The Corsair, used in World War II and
the Korean War, hangs in a turn, but with
its landing gear and tail hook down. ?The
nose is so long on that airplane that you
can hardly see around it,? Lopez explains.
?Banking into the final approach, a pilot
had to look down over the wing for the
landing signal officer on the carrier deck.? 
Bolts and brackets
Determining a plane?s position is one
thing; devising a way to hang it in that
position is another. Museum Specialist Al
Bachmeier and a team of museum engi-
neers, mechanics and restoration special-
ists worked out the details of how to safely
suspend thousands of pounds of aircraft
over the heads of trusting tourists.
The museum?s standard is a ?five-times
safety factor,? Bachmeier explains, mean-
ing each aircraft is suspended by materials
that can bear five times its weight.
After locating an aircraft?s center of
gravity?which is normally about one-
third of the way back from the leading
edge of the wing?the team pinpointed
load-bearing structures on the aircraft
where stainless-steel suspension cables
could be attached, such as factory lifting
points; landing gear; or the support beam,
known as a spar, that runs the length of
the wing. 
?Our first rule is to tolerate no degrada-
tion of the object,? Restoration Specialist
Bob McLean points out. 
In the case of the aerobatic 1941 Mono-
coupe 110 Special ?Little Butch,? for ex-
ample, ?we replaced the four main bolts
that attach the wing to the plane and re-
placed them with longer bolts,? McLean
says. ?Using the extra room on the bolts,
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004 5
Above:The aerobatic de Havilland DHC-1A
Chipmunk was hung in a 75 degree left
bank with a slight nose-down attitude.
Here, a museum employee covers the plane
in plastic prior to the center?s opening.
(Photo by Carolyn Russo)
Far left:Visitors to the National Air and
Space Museum?s new Udvar-Hazy Center
use elevated walkways to get a closer look
at the many hanging planes in the facility,
including the F4U Corsair and Curtiss P-40E
Warhawk at center. (Photo by Dane
Penland) 
Left:Workers use a scissors-lift to raise a
Nieuport 28C, an aircraft developed in 1917
and used during World War I, into position.
(Photo by Dane Penland)
we then fastened a suspension assembly
equipped with mounting ears. Cables
were then attached to these ears.? 
If an access panel had to be cut or
drilled to connect a cable, a replica was
created and used instead of the original,
which was removed, tagged and stored,
McLean says.
Finding an airplane?s center of gravity is
essential to ensure each support cable
bears its share of the weight. For the 1936
Grumman Gulfhawk-22, another aero-
batic plane, McLean consulted factory
blueprints to be certain of the plane?s cen-
ter of gravity. 
Cranes and cables
Finally, to hang the aircraft, workers used
bucket lifts to suspend pre-measured ca-
bles from some of the 19 steel trusses
(each of which can support 20,000
pounds) that span the Udvar-Hazy Cen-
ter?s domed roof. 
The design team did such a thorough
job of pinpointing each plane?s position
that construction workers were able to
weld the metal connecting links, from
which the aircraft now hang, to the truss-
es while the trusses were still lying on the
ground. 
After hoisting an aircraft into position
with slings and a construction crane, the
cables were securely attached. Then the
aircraft?s weight was gingerly and gently
transferred to the cables. ?At that point,
there?s no room for error,? Jacobs says. 
Both Bachmeier and McLean agree that
the most difficult plane to hang was Art
Scholl?s de Havilland DHC-1A Chip-
munk, a star of 1970s air shows. After un-
told hours devising a way to suspend the
plane in a 75 degree left bank with a slight
nose-down attitude, they concluded on
installation day that the two slings de-
signed to lift the Chipmunk to the ceiling
could not do the job. A second crane was
brought in to help raise the aircraft and
gently lower it into position. 
More to come
It will take another three or four years to
complete the installations at the Udvar-
Hazy Center, suspending more aircraft
from its 11 remaining empty trusses. 
For now, Cochrane can?t wait to get Bob
Hoover?s 1972 Rockwell Shrike Comman-
der aloft. ?Hoover is a legend in his own
time, a well-known ambassador for avia-
tion,? she says. He used this business air-
craft for aerobatics, flying deadstick?
engines off?inverted, completing an
eight-point roll and a 180-degree turn
into a smooth landing.
?When people see the inverted plane,
they?ll understand and appreciate Hoover?s
signature maneuver,? Cochrane says with a
smile. ?And some will say, ?I remember
that.? ? ?
?Barbara Wells and John Barrat 
Our first rule is to tolerate no 
degradation of the object.
6 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004
B
reak out the popcorn and take
an aisle seat. The Smithsonian?s
National Portrait Gallery?that
august institution filled with
paintings of founding fathers and presi-
dents?is going Hollywood. Or, more ap-
propriately, Hollywood is coming to it.
Among its recent acquisitions is an oil
painting of actress Katharine Hepburn by
Everett Raymond Kinstler, one of Ameri-
ca?s pre-eminent portrait painters. Donat-
ed by Kinstler last year after Hepburn?s
death in June, it was Portrait Gallery His-
torian Amy Henderson who nourished
Kinstler?s idea to give it to the Smithso-
nian in homage.
Since the 1970s, Henderson has been
helping National Portrait Gallery curators
boost their collections of caricatures,
posters, photographs and prints of Holly-
wood luminaries and present exhibitions
on contemporary and popular culture.
?Our growing collection of movie im-
ages is a terrific statement about the vari-
ety of people we think have had an impact
on American culture,? she says.
Now Henderson is working on a book
highlighting these portraits, Star Quality:
A Hollywood Portrait Gallery, due to be
published in 2005. In it, she examines
?not just the stars, but directors, produc-
ers, moguls, designers, writers and oth-
ers?all the fascinating personalities that
built the movie industry.? 
Star Quality will open with director Ce-
cil B. DeMille, actor Charlie Chaplin and
actress Mary Pickford, then follow the
motion picture industry right up to pre-
sent-day megastars, including Meryl
Streep and Jack Nicholson, and directors,
such as George Lucas and Stephen Spiel-
berg. In between, Henderson plans to
cover the likes of Bette Davis, Lena
Horne, Walt Disney, Shirley Temple, Al-
fred Hitchcock and Woody Allen. 
?Our country has been captivated by
the movies and fascinated with movie
celebrities since film was first slapped on
P O P U L A R  C U L T U R E
Historian focuses in on Hollywood?s
extraordinary personalities 
the wheel more than a century ago,? Hen-
derson says. ?Movies show us how to
dress, how to talk, how to act. They reflect
what?s going on in our culture and are a
wonderful social chronicle.?
Two levels 
Portraits do not come easily into the col-
lection of the National Portrait Gallery,
once described as ?the only place in
America where American culture can be
read through the faces of the people.?
Before an individual?s portrait is ac-
quired, ?a judgment must be made on
This watercolor (detail) by John Decker 
is a study for a mural installed in Holly-
wood?s Wilshire Bowl restaurant in 1941.
Depicted here are, from left, Bob Hope, Joe
E. Brown, Charles Winninger, Marlon
Brando, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Shirley
Temple, Humphrey Bogart,W.C. Fields, Mae
West and George Arliss.
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004 7
two levels: the biographical significance
[of the sitter] and its quality as a work of
art,? Henderson explains. ?Just as there
are presidential and Civil War historians
working here, my research field is movies
as a cultural chronicle of modern Ameri-
can life and culture.? She gladly focuses
on the personality angle and leaves the
art history to the gallery?s curators. 
After a portrait is acquired, Henderson
continues to flesh out biographical de-
tails of its subject, as well as the circum-
stances surrounding the sitter?s career at
the time an image was created. Decades
of studying and writing about hundreds
of film and stage personalities have made
her an astute authority of America?s en-
tertainment history. 
For example, in a recent article on cos-
tume designer Edith Head, Henderson
pointed out that Head was a pioneer de-
spite working at a time that saw both the
heyday and demise of Hollywood?s highly
competitive studio system. She ?flour-
ished, in that fluctuating atmosphere,?
Henderson writes, ?proving herself per-
fectly capable of the kind of ruthlessness,
arrogance and self promotion necessary
for success. But perhaps the key reason
Edith Head succeeded was a supreme
ability to make herself essential.?
Hepburn
Movie posters and books on Hollywood
personalities and history fill Henderson?s
office. These tools are indispensable, yet
like any good historian, Henderson
prefers interviewing her subjects in per-
son. ?Hollywood icons are the primary
?documents? of my research, just as more
traditional historians use letters, diaries
and other texts to weave their stories.? 
Through meetings, interviews and ca-
sual conversation, Henderson has earned
the confidence of such legends as dancer
and actress Ginger Rogers; director-
writer Garson Kanin; and Katharine
Hepburn, the Academy Award-winning
star of the ?The Philadelphia Story? and
?The African Queen.? 
This 1982 oil-on-canvas portrait of Katharine Hepburn, by Everett Raymond Kinstler, was
the actress? favorite portrait of herself. (Images courtesy National Portrait Gallery)
Henderson first met Hepburn in 1988,
when the historian was invited to the ac-
tress? row house in New York City to view
Hepburn?s portrait collection. ?She was
shorter than I expected, with the bluest
eyes I?ve ever seen,? Henderson recalls.
Henderson returned many times for
coffee and conversation, taking notes and
absorbing information about Hepburn?s
life and career. ?It was an illuminating
chance to observe the personality of a leg-
endary movie star?what drives her, how
she invented her persona and how she
maintained that image, how she con-
structed her career and managed to get
what she wanted,? she says. 
On one New York visit, Henderson first
saw the Hepburn painting at Kinstler?s art
studio. Hepburn later told Henderson it
was her favorite portrait. 
In Star Quality, Henderson is working
to show readers a larger picture of how
movies gave voice and vision to American
culture. ?And the way I get ?at? meaning,?
she says, ?is to look at the people who
shaped the movie industry. Personalities
are a fascinating perspective on culture.
The Portrait Gallery?s angle is on extraor-
dinary personalities, but with a humanity
that still keeps them accessible to us mere
mortals.? ?
?Janice Kaplan and John Barrat
8 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004
T
he little brown bird was living a
lie. Hopping about amid the
rocks and grasses of the Tibetan
plateau, digging for insects in
dirt and clods of yak dung, Pseudopodoces
humilis, or Hume?s ground jay, had mas-
queraded as the smallest member of the
jay and crow family since it was described
by scientists in 1871. 
But recently, the bird?s true identity was
revealed in an article published in Ibis,
the journal of the British Ornithologists?
Union. Despite its long legs, pale plumage
and long downcurved bill, Hume?s
ground jay is no jay at all. Rather, it is a
member of the tit and chickadee family:
birds with short, conical bills common in
forests and woodsy suburbs of Europe
and North America?Paridae to bird ex-
perts. 
In birding circles, the discovery was big
news. ?It?s a dramatic thing for a bird to
be moved from one family to another,?
explains Helen James, chief author of the
Ibis article and an expert in bird anatomy
at the Smithsonian?s National Museum of
Natural History. 
By closely studying beaks, bones, feath-
ers and other physical characteristics of
birds collected from around the world,
James and her colleagues are working to
nail down the evolutionary links among
all birds. Someday, ornithologists hope to
?reconstruct the evolutionary tree that
joins all birds together,? James says.
In the case of Hume?s ground jay, envi-
ronment and evolution conspired to be-
stow upon it an appearance that fooled
scientists for more than a century.
Morphology transformed
Created when the Indian subcontinent
collided with the Eurasian plate, the Ti-
betan plateau is geologically youthful?
?the high steppe habitat is only about a
million years old,? James explains. Long
ago, an ancestor of Pseudopodoces humilis
came to live on this dry, treeless plateau.
Over time, it adapted and evolved into a
bird that no longer resembled any living
tit or chickadee. Externally, ?its morphol-
ogy was transformed beyond our ability
to recognize it,? James says.
Because of its strong resemblance to
birds belonging to an Asian genus of
ground jay, Podoces, the bird was classi-
fied among this group. But despite its
similarities?pale plumage, long down-
curved bill and long legs?there also were
marked differences. For example, other
jays in the genus were larger, had promi-
nent white wing patches and built ex-
posed stick nests. Hume?s ground jay was
smaller and, like the tits and chickadees,
built nests of grass and moss in cavities.
Both birds rarely fly, but true ground jays
are fleet runners. Hume?s ground jay is a
hopper.
Fused vs. open suture
James began investigating the case of the
misclassified tit in 1998, after other or-
nithologists cast doubts about its family
credentials. She began by studying the
skull of a Hume?s ground jay from the Na-
tional Museum of Natural History collec-
tion. Observing the skull through a
dissecting microscope, she looked for the
sort of discrete characters?such as
O R N I T H O L O G Y
Smithsonian ornithologist corrects 
century-old mystery of Tibetan bird 
By Michael Lipske
Special to Inside Smithsonian Research
?It?s a dramatic
thing for a bird to
be moved from one
family to another,?
explains Helen
James. 
DNA analysis
But James wanted further evidence. She
requested DNA tests on the bird from col-
leagues Per Ericson, a former postdoctor-
al fellow in the Natural History Museum?s
Department of Zoology and now a cura-
tor of ornithology at the Swedish Muse-
um of Natural History in Stockholm, and
Beth Slikas, former Smithsonian postdoc-
toral fellow and now the manager of a
molecular biology laboratory at the Uni-
versity of California at Berkeley. 
Ericson and Slikas each performed inde-
pendent tests on the evolutionary history
of Pseudopodoces based on sequences of
genes?the nuclear c-myc and mitochon-
drial cytochrome b genes?commonly
used in phylogenetic studies of birds. Evi-
dence from these tests also points to a
close kinship with the tits and chickadees. 
?Our results indicate that Pseudopodoces
is actually an evolutionary branch of the
family of tits and chickadees?a very un-
expected result,? James says. In fact, the
bird?s closest relative appears to be the
well-known and well-studied great tit. 
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004 9
whether two bones are fused together or
separated by an open suture?that
anatomists use to analyze relationships
among species. 
The characters she identified were un-
like those of any of the bird families she
was most familiar with?finches, crows,
thrushes and a number of island birds
known only from fossils. She next decided
to compare the skull with museum speci-
mens from a variety of other bird fami-
lies. 
?It was serendipity,? James says, that the
first skull she examined came from a great
tit, a much-studied species native to Eu-
rope and Asia. It was a good choice. Even
though the ground jay and great tit don?t
resemble one another externally and have
differently shaped bills, they share a sur-
prising number of skull characteristics.
Next, James compared Pseudopodoces
skeletons with those of a number of other
birds species. Osteological data suggested
that, indeed, the ground jay had been
misclassified and belonged among the tits
and chickadees.
This new understanding of its evolu-
tionary history, James says, opens the
door to ?further comparative studies of
the behavior, physiology and life history
of this most aberrant of tits.? ?
Above:This illustration shows just how
much the bird known as Hume?s ground jay
(center) resembles the Xinjiang ground jay
(bottom). Hume?s ground jay is, in fact, more
closely related to the Turkestan tit (top).This
drawing accompanied Helen James?
reclassification of Hume?s ground jay,
published in Ibis, the journal of the British
Ornithologists? Union. (Illustration by Julian
Hume)
Far left: Examining and comparing
specimens from the National Museum 
of Natural History?s collection of birds,
Ornithologist Helen James discovered that
Hume?s ground jay was no jay at 
all, but, in fact, a member of the family 
of tits and chickadees. (Photo by James
DiLoreto)
Externally, 
the bird?s 
?morphology was
transformed
beyond our 
ability to
recognize it,?
James says.
O
ne of the largest paintings in
the collection of the Smithso-
nian American Art Museum
in Washington, D.C., ?Grand
Canyon of the Yellowstone,? is 8 feet high
and 14 feet wide. Artist Thomas Moran
worked and reworked this colorful land-
scape for seven years. Since its acquisition
in 1928, it has been a favorite of visitors?
perhaps because it gives the impression
one can step inside and walk around. 
Not all artworks at the museum enjoy
such adoration, however. In fact, some
have never even been on public view. Case
in point: the odd discs of bronze, copper,
silver and gold that make up the muse-
um?s little-known collection of commem-
orative medals. Many are the work of
some of America?s finest sculptors. As for
their beauty, flip a coin. ?Some are
breathtaking,? observes Chief Curator
Eleanor Harvey. ?Some are not.? 
Visitors will be able to make their own
assessment of these treasures when the
Smithsonian American Art Museum re-
opens in 2006, following the renovation
of the Patent Office Building, its historic
home. Thanks to a $10 million grant
from the Luce Foundation, many of the
medals are to be rescued from the obliv-
ion of the storeroom and put on public
view for the first time. They will debut
with some 4,000 other artworks, rarely
seen by the public, in a series of glass dis-
play cases. 
Industry and art 
Traditional medals, like coins, are mostly
flat and circular and bear relief renderings
A M E R I C A N  A R T
Medal collection occupies interesting realm
between art and currency 
By Michael Lipske
Special to Inside Smithsonian Research
Above: Sculptor Paul Manship created an equestrian scene for the front of this 
bronze Jeanne d?Arc medal in 1915.This medal measures nearly 3 inches in diameter.
Far right: An unidentified child was used as the model for this unusual medal,
titled ?Portrait of Murray,? designed between 1925 and 1930 by sculptor Anthony 
de Francisci.The purpose of this medal, just 3 inches in diameter, is unknown.
10 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004 11
of mythical figures, captains of industry
and old soldiers. Some offer allegorical
scenes, like the A.D.T. Burglary and Fire
Protection Medal, by Joseph E. Reiner, with
its bas relief of a kneeling Greek soldier, his
shield raised protectively against a back-
drop of flames that threaten a modern city. 
The United Parcel Service 50th Anniver-
sary Medal sports the profiles of four
stern-visaged company founders on the
medal?s front and a boxy 1937 UPS truck
on the reverse. 
The 1926 William Lawrence Saunders
medal for achievement in mining is a cast
white metal rectangle with a nude female
figure kneeling amidst a rocky landscape. 
Both the Saunders and the UPS medals
are the work of Anthony de Francisci, a
sculptor who also designed the famous
1921 Peace Dollar, a silver U.S. coin com-
missioned to celebrate the end of World
War I. 
Commissions and committees
Clients for de Francisci?s many commem-
orative medals included corporations, as
well as universities and professional soci-
eties. Creating for such organizations was
was no walk in the park. Artists were of-
ten fettered by rigid requirements im-
posed by a sponsoring organization. 
?In most cases, an artist had to put
someone?s profile on the medal?s front,?
Harvey explains. ?The backs are the most
interesting. It was there that an artist had
the most freedom to create.? 
Medal design committees could be hard
to please. For a 1926 United States Steel
Corp. medal, de Francisci created and cast
five variations for the medal?s reverse.
Each is a different detailed rendering of
men at work. Squeezed onto a brass disk
measuring little more than an inch across,
these industrial scenes represent de Fran-
cisci?s multiple attempts to create a win-
ning design. 
?There are a lot of annoying pragmatic
reasons,? Harvey says, ?why medals, even
those created by gifted sculptors like de
Francisci or Paul Manship, sometimes
come up short as great art.? 
Thanks to a
$10 million grant
from the Luce
Foundation, many
of the medals are to
be rescued from the
oblivion of the
storeroom and put
on public view for
the first time. 
American sculptor Paul Manship, who
may best be known as creator of the 1934
Prometheus Fountain at Rockefeller Cen-
ter in New York, also has a number of
medals in the Smithsonian American Art
Museum collection. Like de Francisci,
Manship designed medals for a range of
clients, from the Carnegie Corp. to the
U.S. military.
A 1919 U.S. Navy Distinguished Service
medal designed by Manship is in the col-
lection, as is his 1916 St. Paul Institute
medal, its warm red-brown rendering of a
mythological figure the result of an acid
wash?a process called patination. 
Among the 152 medals in the collection
are the American Heart Association
medal, designed by Reiner; the United
Fruit Co. medal, designed by Manship;
and the 1922 British-American Cup
medal, designed by de Francisci. 
Scholarly inquiry
Harvey hopes that the medals scheduled
for the exhibition she is now preparing
will intrigue regular museum visitors and
also grab the attention of more special-
ized audiences, including numismatists
(students of currency, such as paper mon-
ey and coins) and art historians. Neither
group has tended to focus much on
medals as a subject of scholarly inquiry. 
In the case of numismatists, that lack of
attention may be due to the fact that
medals don?t make the cut as money. Art
historians, Harvey believes, may have
problems with the uneven quality of
medals. Medals produced after World War
II, Harvey says, just don?t have the same
look and high quality. 
What is clear, however, is just how
many of the museum?s medals stand out
as objects of true beauty. Working on
scant surfaces, laboring under constraints
of limited depth and color, struggling
against the restraints of a committee,
medal artists still managed to sculpt many
lifelike scenes rich in symbolism and sat-
isfying as art. ?
12 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004
African American Museum. On Dec.
16, 2003, President George W. Bush
signed legislation to create a new National
Museum of African American History
and Culture as part of the Smithsonian
Institution.
The museum will be devoted to the
documentation of African American life,
art, history and culture. Structured and
administered like all other Smithsonian
museums, this new museum will be under
the ultimate governance of the Smithso-
nian?s Board of Regents in all respects. 
The legislation gives the Regents one
year to choose among four Washington,
D.C., sites for the museum. It also re-
quires that the Regents appoint a 17-
member advisory council, within six
months, and a director. The Smithso-
nian?s ability to begin this project is largely
contingent on the re-
ceipt of federal
funds.
Mammal Hall. A sloth hanging from a
branch in a South American rain forest, a
North American spotted skunk preparing
to defend itself and an African giraffe
drinking from a water hole are three of
the many animals on display in the new
Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mam-
mals at the Smithsonian?s National Muse-
um of Natural History. 
Encompassing nearly 300 specimens
and fossils, the exhibition offers a journey
through four continents and examines
how, during the last 210 million years,
mammals have evolved, become more di-
verse and adapted to their environments. 
Other creatures on view are tree kanga-
roos, lions, water buffalo, tapirs, bears,
zebras, gray seals, dolphins, deer, bush
dogs, black-footed ferrets, wild sheep,
bats and apes.
Coral reefs. Many of the world?s
coral reefs were substantially de-
graded by overfishing and pollution
even before our great  
grandparents were born, concludes a
recent long-term study of the world?s
coral reefs led by John Pandolfi of the
Smithsonian?s National Museum of
Natural History.
Using historical records, the researchers
rated groups of reef organisms from 14
reef ecosystems on a scale from pristine to
extinct for each of seven different periods
of human culture, ranging from prehu-
man and hunter-gatherer to late-modern
and present. 
Once humans began hunting the reefs,
the study shows, large carnivores and reef
grazers were the first to disappear. No reef
system in the world has escaped human
disturbances. 
?Aliens? egg. The large green egg used in
the 1986 Twentieth Century Fox science
fiction film ?Aliens? was donated in De-
cember to the Smithsonian?s National
Museum of American History. Construct-
ed of plaster of Paris, the egg is 3 feet tall
and 2 feet in diameter and sports a crack
that reveals an eerily glowing interior. It
was added to the museum?s popular cul-
ture holdings, along with a script and
original advertising poster from the film.
Actress Sigourney Weaver presented the
President George Bush signed H.R. 3491, the National Museum of African American History
and Culture Act, in the Oval Office on Dec. 16.The act authorizes the creation of a
Smithsonian museum dedicated to the legacy of African Americans in America.
???? ??? ?????
Sigourney Weaver and the egg from
?Aliens? (Photo by Jeff Tinsley)
A jaguar from the Kenneth E. Behring
Family Hall of Mammals
Awidely publicized study by the Envi-ronmental Working Group linking
unsafe levels of PCBs, dioxin and other
cancer-causing toxins to farm-raised
salmon has some fish-lovers searching for
a substitute for salmon?long a reliable
favorite of health-conscious consumers. 
One excellent resource for seafood fans
in a quandary over what to serve for din-
ner is a new cookbook, One Fish, Two
Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian
Sustainable Seafood Cookbook, by Carole
Baldwin, an ichthyologist at the Smithso-
nian?s National Museum of Natural His-
tory, and Julie Mounts, a research
assistant at the museum. 
Written with conservation in mind, the
author?s intent is to get people to diversify
their seafood consumption and stop rely-
ing on the same species??mainly im-
ported farmed Atlantic salmon and
shrimp,? the authors write. ?Neither is a
good choice from an environmental per-
spective, and the burden can be spread to
a greater diversity of species fished or
farmed in an ecologically sound manner.? 
Baldwin and Mounts present a delec-
table range of alternative seafood choices,
from oysters, mussels and clams to octo-
pus, squid and prawns?and more fin-
fish species than most cooks know exist. 
Recipes in One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish,
Bluefish?supplied by 104 professional
and celebrity chefs, including Jacques
P?pin, Julia Child and Emeril Lagasse?
are divided into sections, which provide
information about the natural history,
commercial importance and conservation
status of each species to be cooked. The
book also includes a guide to seafood
species, a section titled ?Issues Regarding
U.S. Seafood? and a list of retail sources
for different types of seafood.
?Whether eating out or cooking at
home,? Baldwin and Mounts urge,
?broaden your seafood selections. It?s
good for you and good for the fish.? One
Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish
is published by Smithso-
nian Books.
An opah, or 
moonfish
(Illustration by 
Charlotte Knox) 
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004 13
To solve the frustration of poor radioreception in their vehicles, many
long-distance highway drivers are turning
to satellite radio to get a clear signal, no
matter where they are or what the weather. 
In Hilo, Hawaii, staff of the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory have improved
reception for their new radio telescope by
building it 14,000 feet above sea level on
Mauna Kea volcano.
In this desolate location, astronomers
are tuning in signals well above the AM-
FM bandwidth that were emitted by as-
trophysical events millions of light-years
ago from across the universe. Translated
into images, these signals can paint vivid
pictures of the earliest stages of the uni-
verse?at a time when the stars and plan-
ets first formed. 
The Submillimeter Array, as the tele-
scope is called, consists of eight 20-foot-
diameter antenna dishes that work
together as one telescope. Dedicated in
November, it is the world?s first telescope
array to view the universe at submillime-
ter wavelengths. 
The new instrument ?will allow us to
peek into hidden regions of galaxies span-
ning the entire history of the universe and
to image physical processes that have been
impossible to view until now,? says Antony
Schinckel, director of operations for the
telescope. 
Using the Submillimeter Array, as-
tronomers plan to peer into star-forming
regions to learn how gas clouds collapse
to form new stars and how those stars
grow and mature. They also plan to ex-
amine disks of matter surrounding new-
born stars to gain an understanding of the
planet-building process and to examine
the first generation of galaxies formed af-
ter the Big Bang. 
Cookbook offers fish-lovers a healthy range of delectable seafood choices
New telescope seeks
radio wave images of
the ancient universe
Eight 20-foot-diameter antenna dishes
atop Hawaii?s Mauna Kea volcano scan the
heavens for ancient radio waves.
14 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004
Math and the Mona Lisa:The Art and
Science of Leonardo da Vinci, by B?-
lent Atalay (Smithsonian Books, 2004,
$24.95). A masterful examination 
of science and art?painting, architec-
ture, sculpture, music, mathematics,
physics, biology, astronomy and engineer-
ing?and the unity of the two cultures. 
Anthropology Explored, Second Edi-
tion:The Best of Smithsonian An-
throNotes, edited by Ruth Osterweis
Selig, Marilyn R. London and P. Ann
Kaupp (Smithsonian Books, 2004,
$21.95). The 36 lively articles accompa-
nied by cartoons in this book explore re-
cent discoveries in human origins,
archaeology and cultural diversity. 
Seaport: New York?s Vanished Water-
front, Photographs From the Edwin
Levick Collection, text by Phillip Lopate
(Smithsonian Books, 2004, $34.95). This
book brings to life stunning photographs
of the wharves, waterways and markets of
Manhattan during the first half of the
20th century.
Heroes, Lovers and Others:The Story
of Latinos in Hollywood, by Clara Ro-
driguez (Smithsonian Books, 2004,
$26.95). The fascinating history of Lati-
nos in film is told here through stories of
Hollywood?s most famous and enduring
????? ??? ??????????
stars, including Rita Hayworth, Desi Ar-
naz, Anthony Quinn, Raquel Welsh and
Antonio Banderas. 
Gifts and Nations: The Obligation to
Give, Receive and Repay, by Wilton S.
Dillon (Transaction Publishers, 2003,
$24.95). An examination of the delicate
balance of gift exchange and reciprocity
between nations, with a focus on the
United States and France under the Mar-
shall Plan. To order copies of this book,
write to Transaction Publishers, Depart-
ment WWW, 390 Campus Drive, Somer-
set, N.J. 08873, or call (732) 445-1245.
Revision of the Western Atlantic
Clingfishes of the Genus Tomicodon
(Gobiesocidae), with Descriptions of
Five New Species, by Jeffrey T.
Williams and James C. Tyler (Smithsonian
Contributions to Zoology, No. 621). This
taxonomic update includes discovery of
five new species. Smithsonian Contribu-
tions publications can be requested from
Smithsonian Books, Series Division, Vic-
tor Building, Suite 4300, MRC 953, P.O.
Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012.
No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater
Love: A Son?s Journey to Normandy,
by Walter Ford Carter, with Terry Golway
(Smithsonian Books, 2004, $24.95). A
powerful account of a World War II hero
who died at Normandy and his son?s dis-
covery years later of the combat journal
kept by his father.
The Story of Science, Book One: Aris-
totle Leads the Way, by Joy Hakim
(Smithsonian Books, 2004, $21.95). This
is a science book unlike any other?filled
with drama, suspense, heartbreaking set-
backs and great leaps forward. The first of
a lively three-book series.
Sharing Cultures With Ella Jenkins
and Children From the LaSalle Lan-
guage Academy of Chicago (Smithso-
nian Folkways Recordings, $12 CD).
Twenty-eight participatory songs for chil-
dren that are sung around the globe.
Books published by Smithsonian Books can
be ordered from Smithsonian Books, c/o
W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., National Book
Co. Inc., 800 Keystone Industrial Park,
Scranton, Pa. 18512. To order by phone,
call 1 (800) 233-4830. There is a $4.50
postage and handling fee for the first book
ordered and $1 for each additional book.
Recordings can be ordered from Smithsonian
Folkways Mail Order, Smithsonian Folk-
ways Recordings Dept. 0607, Washington,
D.C. 20073-0607. To order by phone, call 
1 (800) 410-9815 or (202) 275-1143. There
is a $5.50 fee for shipping and handling.
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? WINTER 2004 15
At First Sight:
Photography and the
Smithsonian
By Merry A. Foresta (Smithsonian Books,
2003, $60 cloth) 
If one picture is worth a thousandwords, what might one write about
the 13 million photographs housed in
the collections of the Smithsonian In-
stitution? The answer is At First Sight:
Photography and the
Smithsonian, a book
that surveys the Smith-
sonian?s stunning yet
immense collection of
photographs.
Authored by Merry
Foresta, a senior curator
for photography at the
Smithsonian, the book
is a manageable sam-
pling of a vast visual
?inventory of culture??
one that spans more than 150 years and is
held in some 700 special collections 
throughout the Institution.
One image, for example, depicts a large
rag-tag group of Union soldiers camped
near Petersburg, Va., in 1864. Relatively
unknown, it is attributed to Mathew
Brady and is from the Photographic His-
tory Collection of the Division of Infor-
mation Technology and Society in the
Smithsonian?s National Museum of
American History. 
A second is a digital X-ray of a stingray
taken in 2002 by Sandra Raredon for the
Division of Fishes in the Smithsonian?s
National Museum of Natural History. 
A third is a self-portrait by a young
Ansel Adams taken in a commercial pho-
to booth around 1930. That image was lo-
??? ??? ?????
cated among the papers of curator and art
critic Katherine Kuh in the Smithsonian?s
Archives of American Art. 
Foresta spent two years tracking down
collections and examining photograph af-
ter photograph.?The works presented
here merely scratch the surface of the
Smithsonian?s photography collections,?
she says. ?It may surprise everyone who
loves both photography and the Smithso-
nian to realize that never before has the
Institution been mined systematically as a
photographic resource.? The images in At
First Sight, she says, ?were selected be-
cause they hold our attention and make
us think not only about beauty but also
about purpose.?
Within 30 years of its 1839 advent in
France and England, ?photography had
become an indispensable means by which
Americans experienced the present, en-
countered the future and made sense of
the past,? Foresta writes. These pho-
tographs ?reveal how the Smithsonian, in
the name of all Americans, has used pho-
tography as a means of describing and
comprehending the world.?
For example, cameras were taken on
many Smithsonian expeditions around
the globe by anthropologists, geogra-
phers, biologists and geologists. One 1892
photograph in At First Sight depicts for-
mer Smithsonian Secretary Charles
Doolittle Walcott at a fossil quarry in the
Canadian Rockies. Another is of President
Theodore Roosevelt standing next to an
African elephant he shot in 1909 for the
collections of the Smithsonian?s National
Museum of Natural History. 
In the laboratory, photography created
visual records of biological specimens, geo-
logical structures and all manner of physi-
cal phenomena. Foresta?s book brings to
our attention such images as an 1844 pho-
tograph, taken through a microscope, of
platelettes in the blood of a frog. An 1890
series shows the beautiful crystalline indi-
viduality of snowflakes.
Among the pages of At First Sight are a
number of examples of humankind?s fa-
vorite use of the camera: celebrity por-
traits. P.T. Barnum and his 25-inch
sidekick Tom Thumb are here, as are
Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch; pilot
Amelia Earhart; singer Marian Anderson;
and actress Lucille Ball.
By recording the act of seeing, and of
what was seen, both photography and the
Smithsonian have shaped our sense of our-
selves as individuals, as a people and as a
country. At First Sight is an invaluable
guide that illustrates how photography has
consistently put forth strange and beauti-
ful views of the world, views that consis-
tently outdistance our ability to describe
with words.                           ?Daniel Friend
A 1910 color postcard showing a man from
Dakar, Senegal, Africa (left), and 
a 1940 photograph of a worker at the
Tennessee Coal, Iron and
Railroad Co. are two of 
many images from the
Smithsonian used in the book
At First Sight.
??? ?? ??? ???????????
Presorted Standard 
U.S. Postage Paid 
Smithsonian Institution
G-94
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
MRC 033 PO Box 37012
Washington  DC 20013-7012
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
? ? ? ? ? ?  ?  ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  ? ? ? ?
Liberace plays on at the
Portrait Gallery 
When Al Hirschfeld?s color drawingof Liberace graced the cover of
Collier?s magazine in September 1954, the
pianist was at the zenith of the entertain-
ment world. He was host of his own syn-
dicated television show that was broadcast
on more stations than ?I Love Lucy? and
seen by 35 million people around the
world. Women dressed up just to watch
him on TV, sent him marriage proposals,
and were incurably smitten by the tender
romance and sentimentality he embodied. 
Liberace played to over-capacity crowds
that year in Carnegie Hall, Madison
Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl and
Chicago?s Soldier Field. He was America?s
biggest solo attraction.
On television and stage, Liberace always
made his fans feel as if they had spent
time alone with him. ?I always look into
the camera,? he once explained. ?That?s
how I get the feeling of intimacy that puts
the show over.?
Hirschfeld?s vivid caricature ?distilled the
allure of Liberace?his wink, his charm,
the pinkie ring and the shameless sentimen-
tality that helped him connect so powerful-
ly to his audience,? explains Wendy Wick
Reaves, curator of prints and drawings at
the Smithsonian?s National Portrait Gallery.
Soon after the drawing appeared on
Collier?s cover, Hirschfeld received a letter
from Liberace?s agents asking for the orig-
inal. They balked, however, at Hirschfeld?s
asking price, suggesting that the portrait
should be given to the entertainer.
?I promised faithfully to dispatch, with-
out further ado, the original painting to
Mr. Liberace posthaste without payment
of any kind, to hang in his living room,?
Hirschfeld said. ?On one condition?
that they send Mr. Liberace to hang in
mine.?
Liberace never owned Hirschfeld?s cari-
cature, which was acquired at auction in
September by the National Portrait
Gallery. Not that the entertainer, whose
name was synonymous with extrava-
gance, could not have afforded it. 
Early in his career, Liberace responded
to critics of his music and lifestyle with
the line, ?I cried all the way to the bank.?
Later, he was fond of asking, ?Remember
that bank I used to cry all the way to??
Then, with a wicked grin, he?d say, ?I
bought it.                                 ?John Barrat
?Liberace,? by Al Hirschfeld, gouache on
board, about 19 by 17 inches,1954