??????????????
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???? ????? ???? ??????
?
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??? ???? ?? ????????? 
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Smithsonian 
Institution
N U M B E R  1  S U M M E R  2 0 0 3  
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  1  ? S U M E R  2 0 0 3  
w20995  7/17/03  12:28 PM  Page 1
2 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003
? ? ? ? ? ?  ?  ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  ? ? ? ?
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). 
Evelyn S. Lieberman, Director of
Communications and Public Affairs
Kathryn Lindeman, Associate Director
John Barrat, Editor
Colleen Hershberger, Assistant Editor
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: In 1803, an aeronaut named
Etienne Robertson conducted scientific
experiments in a balloon that lifted off from
Hamburg, Germany, and remained aloft for five
hours. This 19th-century French vase, which
will be on view in the National Air and Space
Museum exhibition ?Balloonamania,? honors
his achievement. (Photo by Eric Long) 
??????????? ?????? 
Birth of a museum. No proud parent ever snapped as many photos of a new baby as
can be found on the National Air and Space Museum?s Web site about its new Steven F.
Udvar-Hazy Center. This facility for the restoration and display of the Smithsonian?s
historic collection of aviation and space artifacts is slated to open Dec. 15 at Wash-
ington Dulles International Airport. 
From its groundbreaking in October 2000 to the hanging of the first aircraft for dis-
play, a team of photographers has captured each stage of building this spectacular struc-
ture and posted it in color for all to see. 
Want to see how the concrete thrust blocks
that anchor the aviation hangar to the ground
were built? It?s here. How about the topping
out of the Engen memorial tower with its cab
of steel beams? Ditto. Ever wonder how spe-
cialists move historic aircraft in a semi-trailer?
Want to see how the center?s large-format the-
ater was put together? Click away. 
With all the maps, videos and other informa-
tion on this site, there?s almost enough infor-
mation here to begin building your own
museum. There?s even a clock counting down
the days, hours, minutes and seconds until this
museum opens. ?www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/
ext/hazycenter.htm
Smithsonian 
Institution
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the first issue of Inside Smithsonian Research. I am delighted to send you
this new publication that highlights the remarkable range of research in art, history and
science being done here at the Smithsonian.
Inside Smithsonian Research is a quarterly publication that replaces Research Re-
ports. In addition to lively feature articles, each issue will give you the inside story on
current research-related news from around the Institution and also will offer a look at
the latest in Smithsonian books and recordings.
With this inaugural issue, two new columns are being introduced as well. ?Smithso-
nian Online,? on Page 2, offers details and addresses of compelling Smithsonian sites on
the World Wide Web. ?New to the Collections,? on Page 16, highlights an object the
Smithsonian has recently acquired.
I welcome your comments on our new look and content. Please contact me by elec-
tronic mail or regular mail at the addresses provided on this page.
I hope you enjoy your journey inside Smithsonian research.
John Barrat
Editor
w20995  7/17/03  12:28 PM  Page 2
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003 3
W
hen the first American
astronauts rocketed into
space in the early 1960s,
they instantly became
household names. Magazines and televi-
sion imprinted their faces and spacecraft
upon the mind?s eye of an adoring nation.
Most Americans would have had little
trouble identifying Alan Shepard or his
Mercury capsule and the spacemen and
spaceships that followed. 
Nearly 200 years earlier, when equally
daring aeronauts took to the sky in gas-
filled balloons, their faces and their craft
also were publicized, but on household
items, such as porcelain teacups, snuffbox
lids and embroidered chair seats. 
?In their time, these folks were like as-
tronauts,? says Tom Crouch, senior cura-
tor of aeronautics at the Smithsonian?s
National Air and Space Museum, of the
first balloonists. ?And in the days before
People magazine, this is the way people
knew what the aeronauts and their bal-
loons looked like.? 
Ballooning?s impact upon the public
imagination?particularly, how early
flights were celebrated in European and
American decorative arts?is the focus
of ?Balloonamania,? an exhibition
scheduled to open in December with the
opening of the Air and Space Museum?s
new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at
Washington Dulles International Air-
port. The show will feature select items
chosen after careful research from the
museum?s rich collection of bal-
looning memorabilia.
Much commotion
?Balloonamania? viewers will expe-
rience the excitement and thrill
that these first balloon ascensions
injected into the popular con-
sciousness of the time. The first
balloon flight?sent aloft from
the town square of Annonay,
France, in June 1783, when broth-
ers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier
filled a paper-and-fabric bag with
hot air?generated as much commo-
tion as the first airplane flight elicited
more than a century later. 
That first balloon ascent had no passen-
gers. A few months later, the Montgolfier
brothers launched a second balloon 
carrying a sheep, a duck and a rooster.
Manned flight followed quickly. In No-
vember 1783, two noblemen from the
court of Louis XVI rode a Montgolfier
balloon more than five miles from Paris
to a rural vineyard, landing amid startled
farmers. 
Within a decade, balloonists had
crossed the English Channel, U.S. Presi-
dent George Washington had witnessed
the first aerial voyage in America and bal-
loons were being used for battlefield re-
connaissance. Ballooning was the rage,
and the populace was eager for scenes of
aeronautical achievement. 
A V I A T I O N  H I S T O R Y
First balloon flights swept
Europe and America up
in balloonamania!
By Michael Lipske
Special to Inside Smithsonian Research
(continued)
This French 18th-century walnut chair
depicts Jacques Alexander Charles and 
M. Noel Roberts lifting off from the
Tuileries Garden in Paris on the first
hydrogen balloon flight, Dec. 1, 1783.
(Photo by Eric Long)
w20995  7/17/03  12:28 PM  Page 3
4 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003
Images galore
Ceramic tiles and vases, medallions, a
mirror, a clock and scores of other 18th-
and 19th-century objects were manufac-
tured to commemorate these historic as-
censions. ?We have many porcelain
teacups and saucers that show famous
balloon flights,? says Suzanne Lewis, cura-
torial assistant in the Aeronautics Divi-
sion?s art collection, who worked with
Crouch to choose and prepare artifacts
from the National Air and Space Museum
collections for ?Balloonamania.?
?What makes these things so neat is that
they showed people what balloons and
ballooning looked like,? Crouch says.
?Communications worked differently in
the 18th century. Visuals were much
harder to reproduce,? he adds, and peri-
odicals of the day seldom printed images.
But ?Balloonamania? will have images
galore: ceramic saucers from the 1780s
with painted illustrations depicting the
apparatus for generating hydrogen gas to
fill balloons; a tortoiseshell box sports im-
ages of the sheep, duck and rooster
launched by the Montgolfiers; ashtrays;
pocket watches; paperweights; a tooled
leather scent-bottle case; and boxes of
ivory and of amber?all beautifully deco-
rated with ballooning scenes. 
?Balloonamania? also will include je-
tons, coins struck to commemorate bal-
loon-related events. Among them is a
depiction of the dramatic escape from
Paris of French statesman Leon Gambetta
during the 1870 siege of the city in the
Franco-Prussian War. 
Lady in the Clouds
One of the few artifacts in the exhibition
that was actually used in ballooning is a
barometer carried by American physician
John Jeffries on the first balloon crossing of
the English Channel, in January 1785. ?It?s
a venerable object,? National Air and Space
Museum Conservator Ed McManus says.
?Balloonamania? also will display sev-
eral 18th-century walnut chairs from
France, their seats embroidered with rep-
resentations of ballooning firsts. One
chair marks the July 1785 deaths of Pilatre
de Rozier and Jules Romaine?balloon-
ing?s first fatalities. 
One of the museum?s prized ballooning
possessions will not be seen at the Udvar-
Hazy Center right away. It?s a wooden
panel from an interior wall of an old barn
from upstate New York. Pasted on the
panel are posters advertising balloon as-
censions of the 1860s and 1870s. Along
with a ?Base Ball Match? and horse trot-
ting, the posters promise such delights as
?A Lady in the Clouds . . . Miss Nellie
Thurston,? who is described as the ?Pio-
neer Lady Aeronaut of America.? 
Discovered in 1990, the posters are
among ?the earliest surviving examples of
ballooning history in America,? McManus
Tom Crouch stands next to a barn wall covered with posters from the 1860s and 1870s
advertising balloon ascensions. (Photo by Eric Long)
Ballooning was the rage, and the populace was 
eager for scenes of aeronautical achievement. 
w20995  7/17/03  12:28 PM  Page 4
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003 5
points out. Unfortunately, the posters are
also torn, insect-damaged, stained and
firmly stuck to the rough-hewn panel
with animal-hide glue. Too fragile for ex-
hibition, reproductions of the posters
may be exhibited eventually.
Until Sputnik
Items on view in ?Balloonamania? are but
a tiny portion of the National Air and
Space Muse-
um?s bal-
loon 
holdings, a collection Crouch calls ?one of
the world?s best.? Other holdings include
many balloon baskets and envelopes?as
the overhead, inflated part of a balloon is
properly called?as well as famous gon-
dolas such as Double Eagle II, used in the
first balloon crossing of the Atlantic in
1978, and the Bud Light Spirit of Free-
dom, used in the first solo circumnaviga-
tion of the globe in 2002. 
Well into the 20th century, the oldest
way to fly remained one of the best.
?Until Sputnik?the first artificial
satellite, launched by the Soviet
Union on Oct. 4, 1957?bal-
loons flew higher than any-
thing else,? Crouch says.
?For most of the history of
flight, balloons were capa-
ble of doing things 
airplanes could not.? 
And as ?Balloonamania?
suggests, balloons have yet
to be surpassed in their style
and romance. After all, can
you imagine decorating the 
cover of your snuffbox with a 
jumbo jet? ?
Left: The ascension of aeronauts Barral
and Bixio from the observatory garden in
Paris on June 29, 1850, to study the
atmosphere and solar rays, was deemed 
a fitting subject to decorate this 19th-
century French plate. (Photo by Eric Long) 
Above: This whimsical 19th-century
French fan depicts the fanfare and
excitement that surrounded Europe?s first
balloon flights. (Photo by Eric Long) 
As ?Balloonamania?
suggests, balloons
have yet to be 
surpassed in their
style and romance.
w20995  7/17/03  12:28 PM  Page 5
6 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003
A
giant panda?s life isn?t all
chewing bamboo and taking
naps, at least not at the
Smithsonian?s National Zoo-
logical Park in Washington, D.C. As
members of one of the rarest, most en-
dangered species on Earth, captive pandas
are the focus of intense research and sub-
ject to constant veterinary observation. 
Fortunately, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian,
the Zoo?s female and male giant pandas,
are a zoo doctor?s dream. When it is time
to record their blood pressure, take their
temperature or even examine a sore
knee, the bears scarcely object. In fact,
they spend the entire doctor visit calmly
munching fresh fruits and vegetables.
Using positive reinforcement in which
behavior is shaped by doling out food re-
wards, the Zoo?s keepers have trained the
bears to cooperate during checkups. For
example, the pandas have learned to poke
an arm through a hole in their cage and let
a veterinarian strap on a blood-pressure
cuff or even draw blood. 
Training an animal to participate in its
own physical exam has several advan-
tages. For one, it means not having to
anesthetize the animal for routine proce-
dures. This also means getting a more ac-
curate medical profile.
?Anesthesia alters values? such as blood
pressure and blood chemistry, as well as
heart rate, Zoo Curator Lisa Stevens ex-
plains. By using positive reinforcement,
?we?re getting real values.?
Busy and happy
One recent morning, Stevens and other
Zoo staff gathered at the Panda House for
a training-and-data-collection session.
Keeper Laurie Perry had filled two plastic
bowls with chopped-up apples, pears and
carrots and red ?leaf-eater? biscuits. With
little prompting, 4-year-old Mei Xiang
came through a side door from her in-
door night room and entered an adjacent
?squeeze? cage used for the sessions. 
Z O O L O G Y
Fruit, biscuits and kind words coax
cooperation from Zoo?s new pandas 
By Michael Lipske
Special to Inside Smithsonian Research
Left: National Zoological Park Animal
Keeper Laurie Perry practices getting Tian
Tian to mimic her body movements. 
Zoo staff eventually hope to be able to
perform ultrasound examinations on the
pandas. (Photo by Jessie Cohen)
Opposite: Female panda Mei Xiang takes
a stroll around her enclosure. (Photo by
Jessie Cohen)
w20995  7/17/03  12:28 PM  Page 6
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003 7
Separated by the bars at the front of the
cage, Mei Xiang and Perry sat down on
the pavement facing each other. While
Perry hand-fed the panda treats from one
of the bowls (?the whole idea here is to
keep Mei Xiang busy and happy,? Stevens
explains), the curator reached into the
cage with a sterile swab to take a vaginal
sample from the panda. 
Collecting vaginal cells is part of the
Zoo?s effort to monitor Mei Xiang?s estrus
cycle. ?This gives us the ability to corre-
late changes in her vaginal cytology with
behavioral and hormonal data collected
during the breeding season,? Stevens says. 
When Stevens stepped aside to prepare
a microscope slide from the swab, veteri-
narian and Zoo Director Lucy Spelman
began wrapping a large blood-pressure
cuff around the panda?s arm, which the
obliging bear had extended through the
side of the cage. With the cuff in place,
Veterinary Resident Carlos Sanchez con-
nected it to a monitor that recorded the
panda?s blood pressure?a healthy 159
over 91. 
Dental exams
Throughout the procedure, Perry kept her
own eyes locked on the panda?s. She also
kept up a soothing patter: ?Good stuff,
Mei Xiang . . . . Good girl, what a good girl.?
From time to time, Perry extended her
index finger as a ?target? for the panda.
Part of the panda training has involved
teaching them to touch their noses to
their keeper?s finger. Once a panda learns
to target the keeper?s finger this way, it be-
comes easier to guide the animal into a
desired position.
The pandas also have learned to mimic
their keeper?s body movements. At one
point, Perry stretches out on her side, and
inside the cage, so does Mei Xiang. By
getting a panda to lie down this way, Zoo
vets expect to soon be able to perform ul-
trasound examinations on the animals. 
?That was something the trainers at
Ocean Park emphasized: getting the pan-
da to pay attention to where your body
goes,? Stevens says. Ocean Park is a com-
bination amusement and animal park in
Hong Kong, and its trainers created the
techniques now being used with the Na-
tional Zoo pandas. Stevens and Perry vis-
ited Hong Kong two years ago to observe
panda training at Ocean Park. Last year,
Ocean Park Panda Trainer Paul Ng visited
Washington, D.C., to launch the National
Zoo?s training program. 
Stevens thinks the Zoo?s pandas some-
day will even be taught to hold their
mouths open for dental exams and teeth
cleaning. Similar training is going on with
the National Zoo?s apes and elephants and
several other species. 
Laid back
After the Zoo doctors are through with
Mei Xiang, she is allowed to wander out-
side and get back to eating bamboo. Giant
pandas spend 10 to 15 hours a day con-
suming 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo.
Now Tian Tian takes his turn in the ex-
amination cage. He seems, if possible,
even more relaxed than Mei Xiang about
the encounter with Zoo people. While
Perry gets the panda to sit and distracts
him with food and talk, Stevens reaches
through the cage bars with a pair of
calipers to measure Tian Tian?s testicles.
Although a panda?s testicles are known
to change in size over the course of breed-
ing season, little research has been done
on male hormones and associated physi-
cal changes, Stevens says. 
As part of the Zoo?s work on panda re-
production, the animals? urine and feces
are also collected daily and analyzed for
changes in hormone levels. 
When Tian Tian?s blood pressure is be-
ing read, he gobbles the treats offered by
Perry?all except carrots. Tian Tian 
doesn?t like carrots. Occasionally, the bear
burps. ?Oh, what a piggy,? coos Perry, 
offering a biscuit. ?Good boy. You?re so
good.?
?You could train any animal to do this,?
Stevens says, watching Tian Tian respond
to Perry?s directional cues during the
exam. ?But it helps that pandas are pretty
laid back.? ?
Perry kept her own
eyes locked on the
panda?s. She also
kept up a soothing
patter: ?Good stuff,
Mei Xiang . . . .
Good girl, what a 
good girl.?
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 7
8 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003
W
histler?s mother raised a
radical son. A masterful
artist, he shook up the art
world by taking over the
very rooms in which his art was displayed. 
In 19th-century Europe, when art 
galleries were cluttering their walls with
dozens of paintings by myriad artists,
American expatriate painter James 
McNeill Whistler helped invent the one-
man show. He hung his works spaciously
and dictated down to the smallest ambi-
ent detail how they were to be presented. 
Not only did Whistler color-coordinate
the walls, furniture, lighting and frames
of his paintings, he also dressed gallery
guards to match. One art critic dubbed
the yellow-and-white uniformed atten-
dant in Whistler?s 1883 exhibition the
?poached egg man.? 
Ribbing aside, in Whistler?s day, the art-
going public of Europe was hungry for
change, and they simply wanted to be able
to see the art better. Whistler didn?t mere-
ly stir up this hidebound art world, says
Kenneth Myers, associate curator of
American art at the Smithsonian?s Freer
Gallery of Art, ?he offered a whole new
way of seeing.?
Whistler offered a segue from the real-
ism of Gustave Courbet and the visual
narratives of his Victorian contempo-
raries. He championed ?art for art?s sake,?
believing that the value of a work depends
A R T  H I S T O R Y
Whistler?s ?Arrangements?
launched a whole new way
of seeing art
By Hope Cristol 
Special to Inside Smithsonian Research
solely on its visual appeal?not represen-
tational accuracy or storytelling ability. 
In November 2003, two of Whistler?s
most influential one-man shows?in
which he first presented his aesthetic phi-
losophy in grand style?will be re-creat-
ed and displayed side-by-side in a special
exhibition at the Freer Gallery of Art. 
The exhibition, ?Mr. Whistler?s Gal-
leries,? will revisit Whistler?s ?Arrange-
ment in White and Yellow,? which opened
in London in 1883, before traveling to six
cities in the United States?the first one-
man Whistler show ever seen by his coun-
trymen. ?Arrangement in Flesh Colour
and Grey? was presented in London the
following year. ?Mr. Whistler?s Galleries?
is a collaboration between the Freer and
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in
Richmond.
The jaundice
Whistler?s work as an exhibition designer
played a key role in the development of
modernist styles of displaying art, says
David Park Curry, curator of American
arts at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
who explored this issue in a 1987 article
published by the National Gallery of Art. 
Working in conjunction with Curry,
Myers researched Whistler?s two ground-
breaking shows for three years before
planning ?Mr. Whistler?s Galleries.? The
two scholars pored over microfilm of pe-
riod newspaper and journal reviews,
gathering information on every possible
detail of the two exhibitions.
Among the decorative touches that will
be re-created from ?Arrangement in
White and Yellow? is a skylight hung with
a replica of Whistler?s patented yellow-
light scrim. The walls will be swathed in
soft white fabric offset with molding
painted brilliant yellow to set off plain
white frames, which were, in their time,
as radical as his etchings, Curry says. 
?Now my rooms,? Whistler once pro-
claimed, ?are pictures in themselves.?
?Although critics complained [in 1883]
that the superabundant yellowness of the
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 8
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003 9
gallery ?almost gives one the jaundice,? ?
Curry says, ?there was a general consen-
sus that Whistler had created a back-
ground admirably suited to display his
etchings.?
Decor in the resurrected 1884 ?Arrange-
ment in Flesh Colour and Grey? will be
slightly less detailed, with walls draped in
pink serge and a mantelpiece covered in
gray velvet.
In the 1883 and 1884 shows, Whistler
didn?t label his works with titles. Instead,
he used small gold numbers, in keeping
with his assertion that a name should
have no bearing on a work?s success. 
Myers and Curry plan to replicate these
numbers, as well as Whistler?s brown-
paper-covered exhibition catalog that list-
ed the painting titles. The catalog for
?Arrangement in White and Yellow,? Cur-
ry points out, included reprints of ?criti-
cal quotations taken out of context by the
artist to hoist journalists on their own
petards.?
And the Freer exhibition would be in-
complete without a guard dressed in the
tints of a poached egg. ?I?m expecting
we?ll hire an actor who will dress in yellow
and can be a docent on weekends,? Myers
says. ?We?d like our own poached egg
man.?
Masterful artworks
No citron-clad docent nor painstakingly
replicated d?cor can compete, however,
with the real heart of any Whistler exhibi-
tion?his masterful artworks.
The Freer owns impressions of 49 of the
51 etchings exhibited in 1883 in ?Arrange-
ment in White and Yellow.? These etch-
ings, mostly of Venice, range from spare
maritime glimpses to meticulously de-
tailed street scenes. 
Half of the 67 impressionistic paintings
exhibited in ?Arrangement in Flesh
Colour and Grey? in 1884?most smaller
than a sheet of notebook paper?also are
in the Freer collection. These oils, pastels
and watercolors convey mood with ges-
Above: This artist?s concept in watercolor
and ink of James McNeill Whistler?s 1883
exhibition ?Arrangement in White and
Yellow? was created by architect Jared
Edwards in 1994. (Photo by Katherine
Wetzel, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
Opposite top: Henri Fantin-Latour painted
this ?Portrait of Whistler,? oil on canvas,
in 1865. 
Opposite bottom: ?Pink Note?Shelling
Peas,? a watercolor on paper painted in
1883 or 1884 by James McNeill Whistler,
will be on view in the exhibition ?Mr.
Whistler?s Galleries.? 
tural strokes and, in Whistler?s later noc-
turnes, with amorphous depictions of
commonplace scenes. 
Myers? favorite? ?Nocturne: Silver and
Opal?Chelsea? from ?Arrangement in
Flesh Colour and Grey.? He explains, ?It?s
this blue-gray silver and opal evocation of
a late night on the Thames, looking
down-river from Whistler?s home toward
the Houses of Parliament, with just a few
lights on a distant bridge, that?s sort of
vaguely visible through the thin, dark
night.? 
?Mr. Whistler?s Galleries? will offer
21st-century museum visitors something
of the surprise and wonder felt by 19th-
century viewers who found their way 
to Whistler?s innovative and influential 
exhibitions. ?
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 9
10 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003
N
early 308,000 whales, dol-
phins and porpoises die
each year in commercial
fishing nets, according to a
new study released in June. Incredibly,
some of the marine mammals taken as
?bycatch? by commercial fishermen may
belong to species still unknown to sci-
ence.
During the last dozen years, Smithsoni-
an marine mammal expert James Mead
has helped identify two new species of
marine mammals?the Peruvian beaked
whale, found off the coast of South Amer-
ica and identified in 1991, and Perrin?s
beaked whale, found off the California
coast and identified in 2002. What?s more,
Mead says, ?there are certainly other un-
known whale species? swimming the
world?s oceans.
But whales live in places where humans
infrequently venture. Many species are
rarely seen, and a few have never been
seen alive. For decades, scientists who
study and name new whale species have
had to wait for dead specimens to wash in
with the tide.
But the use of a powerful new tool,
DNA analysis?the equivalent of taking a
genetic ?fingerprint? of an animal from
samples of skin, bone and other tissue?
has the potential to speed-up discovery of
new marine mammal species. DNA analy-
sis can also help scientists keep better
track of populations of whales, dolphins
and porpoises in the wild.
Remarkable finding
Perrin?s beaked whale marks the first
whale species named with the help of
DNA analysis. The discovery was sparked
in 1997, when Mead received an e-mail
from a graduate student in New Zealand
who had doubts about a species classifi-
cation Mead had given to four whale car-
casses found near San Diego in the
mid-1970s. Remains of the whales had
been collected and stored at the Smith-
sonian?s National Museum of Natural 
History in Washington, D.C., and the
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
County.
By analyzing tissue taken from a tooth
and jaw of one of the whales in storage,
the student, Merel Dalebout, now at Dal-
housie University in Nova Scotia, ob-
tained the DNA ?fingerprint? of the
animal. 
Z O O L O G Y
DNA analysis may turn tide on 
the discovery of new species at sea
By Jeffrey Cohn
Special to Inside Smithsonian Research
Perrin?s beaked whale marks the first
whale species named with the help of
DNA analysis.
Above: Pieter Folkens? illustration depicts
a Perrin?s beaked whale, officially named
by scientists in 2002. Short tusks at the
end of its beak and battle-scarred skin
indicate this individual is a male.  
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 10
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003 11
Dalebout?s sample did not match DNA
of tissues taken from other Hector?s
beaked whales, the species Mead had clas-
sified the specimens as in the 1970s. Nor
did it match other animals in the data-
base. 
At the time he first examined the speci-
mens?three male calves and an adult fe-
male?Mead had been uncertain that his
classification was correct. For one, no Hec-
tor?s beaked whales, native to the Southern
Pacific, had ever been found in or near
California waters. Although the speci-
mens were remarkably similar to Hector?s,
Mead had a strong hunch they might be
something else, but lacking enough evi-
dence, he listed them as Hector?s.
Using Dalebout?s DNA data as a depar-
ture point, Mead conducted a second ex-
amination of the 1970s carcasses and
documented minute differences in the
mandibles, teeth and skulls of the new
species?differences that, in addition to
the DNA data, distinguished them as a
new species. It was named Perrin?s beaked
whale after contemporary marine mam-
mal scholar William F. Perrin.
?This finding is remarkable,? says whale
expert John Heyning, deputy director of
research and collections at the Natural
History Museum of Los Angles County, in
that it ?exemplifies how museum speci-
mens collected decades, or even centuries,
ago continue to contribute to our current
understanding of the natural world. It is
also remarkable that the new species
washed ashore along the California
coast?waters considered relatively well-
known biologically,? Heyning adds. ?It
highlights how little we know about the
ocean.?
DNA database
With the increasing acceptance of DNA as
a tool for species identification, Mead
now recommends that museums begin
keeping and maintaining a universal data-
base of genetic ?fingerprints? of all ma-
rine mammal species, along with the
physical remains of animal specimens.
DNA from newly collected specimens can
then be checked against DNA from
known specimens. 
In the past, scientists had to depend
upon chance to find new whale species.
Both the Peruvian beaked whale and Per-
rin?s beaked whale, for example, were
named only after their remains were
found washed up on a beach, Mead points
out. 
?There is no reason to assume that all
whale, dolphin and porpoise species liv-
ing in the ocean can be described in this
way,? he says. Some species may live in ar-
eas where ocean currents do not take their
remains toward land. Others may wash
ashore in areas where no humans live.
To help ensure that new species of ma-
rine animals are documented, Mead now
recommends that, whenever possible, tiny
samples of skin tissue be taken from living
animals encountered at sea. These sam-
ples can then be compared to material in
a museum?s DNA database. Scientists can
take skin samples using a small hollow
dart that is shot and retrieved from the
deck of a boat. This method does not in-
jure the animals. 
DNA obtained in this way may aid in
the identification of new marine mam-
mals and help scientists get a better un-
derstanding of this mysterious family of
ocean-dwelling creatures. ?
During an autopsy of a beaked whale at the National Museum of Natural History, James
Mead carefully records details of the animal?s morphology. Tissue samples are used for
DNA analysis, as well as to determine the presence of toxic chemicals in an animal?s
organs. (Photo by Don Hurlbert) 
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 11
12 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003
Supersonic. A Concorde supersonic
passenger jetliner owned by Air 
France landed at 
Washington
Dulles 
International Airport on June 12 
and was donated to the Smithsonian for
display at the National Air and Space Mu-
seum?s new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
The plane will be the first Concorde ex-
hibited by a museum in the United States
and is the oldest of five in the Air France
fleet. Air France ended 27 years of Con-
corde service in May. The sleek, delta-
winged Concorde cruised at more than
twice the speed of sound and at an alti-
tude of up to 60,000 feet. The Udvar-Hazy
Center, located at Dulles Airport, will
open to the public Dec. 15, 2003.
Japanese prints. A collection of more
than 4,000 Japanese wood-block prints
ranging from the mid-19th to the mid-
20th century was bequeathed recently to
the Smithsonian?s Arthur M. Sackler
Gallery by Robert O. Muller of Newtown,
Conn. Long regarded by art historians,
collectors and curators as the finest of its
type in the world, this major collection is
particularly rich in works by designers
who adapted traditional, idealized print
subjects?theater, the pleasure quarters,
birds-and-flowers and landscapes?to
modern tastes. Muller?s extensive cata-
loging records, papers and library will be
housed as a discrete unit within the Sack-
ler. Plans for an exhibition, a dedicated
research center and a related fellowship
program are under way.
Academy honor. Bruce Smith, director
of the Archaeobiology Program at the
Smithsonian?s National Museum of Nat-
ural History, has been elected a member
of the National Academy of Sciences in
recognition of his distinguished and con-
tinuing achievements in original research.
Smith?s research interests focus on the in-
teraction between past human societies
and their environments, particularly the
spatial distribution of human settlements;
subsistence activities on ancient land-
scapes; human patterns of reliance on
plant and animal species; and the impact
of humans on plants and animals. Smith
also serves as curator of North American
archaeology and is a senior research sci-
entist in the museum?s Department of
Anthropology.
Black holes. Evidence is mounting, say
scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics, for the existence
of an exotic new type of ?intermediate-
sized? black hole. Recent X-ray data, com-
bined with optical and radio observations,
strongly indicate that two objects in a dis-
tant galaxy, now classified as ultra-lumi-
nous X-ray sources, may actually be
intermediate-mass black holes. These mys-
terious phenomena appear to be hundreds
of times larger than the stellar black holes
that dot our galaxy, yet thousands to mil-
lions of times smaller than the supermas-
sive black holes thought to power quasars.
Forest donation. Ninety-six acres of
forested land was donated recently to the
Smithsonian Environmental Research
Center on the Chesapeake Bay by the
Exxon Mobil Land Development Corp.
The new property adjoins the center?s es-
tablished Edgewater, Md., land holdings.
Local citizens? groups, which advocated
for land conservation under the center?s
stewardship, were key to the the successful
negotiation of this donation.
?Courtesan,? a 1916 woodblock print by
Ito Shinsui, is one of more than 4,000
prints bequeathed recently to the Arthur
M. Sackler Gallery by Robert O. Muller. 
An artist?s concept illustrates an
intermediate-mass black hole feeding
from a star that has wandered too close.
(Illustration by David Aguilar) 
???? ??? ?????
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 12
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003 13
More than 600 volumes of the land-mark book by 16th-century Polish
astronomer Copernicus, De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium (On the Revolution of
Heavenly Spheres), exist in libraries and
private collections around the globe. In-
credibly, one man has laid eyes upon vir-
tually all of them: Owen Gingerich, senior
astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge,
Mass.
In 1971, Gingerich launched a survey of
all known copies of Copernicus? book; the
book described a universe in which the
sun, not the Earth, lay at the center. 
Recently, Gingerich compiled the re-
sults in a publication of his own, An An-
notated Census of Copernicus? De
Revolutionibus (Brill Academic
Publishers, $132). The book de-
scribes the provenances, annota-
tions, marginal notes and physical
condition of each volume. It also
gives insight into how scientists
communicated in the 1500s.
Because Catholic authorities were
displeased by passages that seemed to con-
tradict scripture, a papal decree in 1620
demanded text alterations in 10 places. 
Gingerich learned that only about 60
percent of the copies of De revolutionibus
in Italy at the time of the decree were ?cor-
rected.? Virtually none of the copies out-
side Italy were touched. ?Clearly, the rest of
the continent viewed the Copernicus con-
troversy as a local dispute,? Gingerich says.
Marginal notes inscribed by the books?
original owners showed a pattern of mul-
tiple entries of the most important anno-
tations, demonstrating a network of
communication. ?It is the 16th-century
equivalent of e-mail,? Gingerich observes. 
D rawing on memory and responding to necessity, enslavedAfricans in the American South became masters of cultivat-
ing plantation crops?and geniuses at foraging for wild fruits
and vegetables.
?What is amazing,? says Portia James, senior historian at
the Smithsonian?s Anacostia Museum and Center for African
American History and Culture, ?was the many foods available
to them?hundreds of varieties of greens, including dandelions,
lambs quarter, chicory, purslane and Good King Henry; such fruits
as paw paw and may pop; and many root vegetables no longer available.?
Fishing and snaring small game also were popular. A tiny ?ricebird? that fed in the
rice fields was common table fare in South Carolina. The same holds true for roast
groundhog and stewed squirrel in Virginia. 
James is in the midst of an extensive study of African American food traditions, be-
ginning with the plantation diet and moving through time to modern diets. Narratives
from former slaves, as well as cookbooks and newspapers, have been a gold mine of in-
formation, she says. 
James also is investigating the farming and food service industries; migration and
diet; and dietary changes imposed by fast food, health food and religion-based food re-
strictions. Her research will culminate in a book and an exhibition at the Anacostia Mu-
seum in Washington, D.C., in 2006. 
?Antebellum African American cooks in the South were largely responsible for
melding European and African food traditions into what is known today as Southern
food,? James points out. ?Southern food traditions are, in many cases, indistinguishable
from African American food traditions.?
Gingerich is now cooperating with law
enforcement officials, as copies of De rev-
olutionibus, which can fetch hundreds of
thousands of dollars, are irresistible to
thieves. Using a computer database, Gin-
gerich can identify copies of De revolu-
tionibus that mysteriously turn up for sale
in antique book markets. 
?Unfortunately, because of thefts,? he
says. ?I hold the dubious distinction of
having seen more copies of the first edi-
tion of Copernicus? work than can now be
located.?
Annotations and margin notes reveal thoughts of 
16-century scientists
Above: Owen Gingerich has examined the
margin notes and annotations of more
than 600 volumes of On the Revolution of
Heavenly Spheres, by Copernicus. 
Below: Collard greens, black-eyed peas
and rice make up a favorite Southern meal.
African American cooking defines taste of the South
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 13
14 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003
Best Addresses:
A Century of
Washington?s Dis-
tinguished Apart-
ment Houses, by
James M. Goode
(Smithsonian
Books, 2003, $65).
An intimate and lively tour behind the
fa?ades of Washington, D.C.?s finest beaux
arts and art deco apartment buildings.
Voyager?s Grand
Tour: To the Out-
er Planets and
Beyond, by Henry
C. Dethloff and
Ronald A. Schorn
(Smithsonian
Books, 2003,
$34.95). A compre-
hensive account of
one of humankind?s foremost scientific
achievements?the building, launch and
incredible discoveries made by the Na-
tional Aeronautics and Space Administra-
tion?s Voyager spacecraft. 
Washington
Odyssey: A Multi-
cultural History
of the Nation?s
Capital, by
Francine Curro Cary
(Smithsonian
Books, 2003,
$21.95). Seventeen
wide-ranging essays trace the growth and
transformation of Washington, D.C.?s eth-
nic and cultural communities. 
Dragonflies of the World, by Steve
Brooks (Smithsonian Books and the Nat-
ural History Museum, London, 2003,
$16.95). Reveals the beauty and complex
lives of these ancient insects.
Space Stations:
Base Camps to the
Stars, by Roger Lau-
nius (Smithsonian
Books, 2003, $35.95).
A highly original
blend of history and
popular culture that
explains why the dream of a permanently
occupied space outpost has captivated so
many for so long.
The Fossils of Florissant, by Herbert
W. Meyer (Smithsonian Books, 2003,
$39.95). The most diverse fossil bed in the
United States provides a unique look at
what life was like 34 million years ago.
Cheating Death: Combat Air Res-
cues in Vietnam and Laos, by George
J. Marrett (Smithsonian Books, 2003,
$27.95). Stories from an Air Force pilot
who flew deadly aerial combat missions in
Vietnam.
Uncovering Australia: Archaeology,
Indigenous People and the Public,
by Sarah Colley (Smithsonian Books,
2003, $24.95). A bold description of ar-
chaeology, not only in Australia but
everywhere indigenous people are fight-
ing for their rights.
The Light Inside:
Abaku? Society
Arts and Cuban
Cultural History,
by David H. Brown
(Smithsonian
Books, 2003,
$44.95). A reveal-
ing inside look at
the remarkable
creativity and experience of artists living
in a fraternal Cuban society.
Jean Ritchie Ballads: From Her Ap-
palachian Family Tradition (Smithso-
nian Folkways Recordings, 2003, $15
CD). One of America?s finest and best-
known traditional singers performs out-
standing Appalachian versions of English
and Scottish narrative songs. First issued
in 1961.
Classic Old-Time Music From Smith-
sonian Folkways Recordings (Smith-
sonian Folkways Recordings, 2003, $15
CD). A collection of 29 social and instru-
mental string-band songs by Dock Boggs,
Roscoe Holcomb, Wade Ward, Tommy
Jarrell and others.
The Singing
Kettle: Singa-
long Songs
from Scotland
(Smithsonian
Folkways
Recordings,
2003, $15 CD).
Contains 17 enchanting children?s songs
sung by a beloved group of performers
from Scotland. 
Books published by Smithsonian Books
can be ordered from P.O. Box 960, Hern-
don, Va. 20172-0960. To order by phone
or for more information, call 1 (800) 782-
4612. There is a $3.50 postage and han-
dling fee for the first book ordered and $1
for each additional book.
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings can
be ordered from Smithsonian Folkways
Mail Order, Victor Building, Suite 4100,
MRC 953, P.O. Box 37012, Washington,
D.C. 20013-7012. To order by phone or
for more information, call (202) 275-1143
or 1 (800) 410-9815. There is a $5.50 fee
for shipping and handling; call for other
shipping prices.
????? ??? ??????????
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 14
INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH ? SUMMER 2003 15
Native American 
Photography at the
Smithsonian: The
Shindler Catalogue
By Paula Richardson Fleming (Published by
Smithsonian Books, 2003, $39.95)
A t-Pe-Tu-To Ka-Tsha, a Sioux warriorwhose name translates as ?The Other
Day,? grips a bow and two arrows across
his lap as he sits expressionless for the
camera. A dark fur hat covers his forehead
and trails down his right shoulder. An ea-
gle feather headdress fans out in a half-cir-
cle backdrop to the Wa-Pe-Ton warrior?s
proud, angular face. 
But his tailored jacket and bow tie be-
tray his connections with the white
settlers and their New World and a
way of life that would soon come to
overwhelm his people.
At-Pe-Tu-To Ka-Tsha?s portrait
was taken in the James McClees Stu-
dio in 1858 when he traveled, as
part of a delegation, from the re-
mote Dakota territory to sign a
peace treaty in Washington, D.C.
The portrait is among 300 repro-
duced in Native American Photogra-
phy at the Smithsonian: The Shindler
Catalogue, a new book written by Paula
Richardson Fleming, a photographic
archives specialist at the National Anthro-
pological Archives of the Smithsonian?s
National Museum of Natural History, and
published by Smithsonian Books.
Fleming?s detailed introduction and
photo captions?accompanying remark-
able portraits of Cheyenne, Sioux,
Pawnee, Cherokee and other Native
Americans?offer a fascinating view of a
quickly vanishing culture on the Ameri-
can frontier. Her work is the first true
identification of these images in regard to
both photographer and sitter.
Westward expansion into the U.S. terri-
tories was facilitated by numerous peace
treaty negotiations between federal gov-
ernment officials and Native Americans,
many of whom traveled to Washington,
D.C., specifically for the negotiations. 
While serving as a delegate in the capi-
tal, The Other Day met and married a
waitress from his hotel. In 1862, he saved
62 settlers from a raid led by Little Crow.
He became a hero to the settlers and, in
1867, returned to Washington, D.C., to
receive a grant of $2,500 from Congress.
Even as the U.S. government negotiated
with the Indians, the overriding realiza-
tion among many in Washington, D.C.,
was that Indian populations would be
greatly diminished by the conquering of
the West. Joseph Henry, the Smithsonian?s
first Secretary, wrote to the Commission-
er of Indian Affairs in 1859 pleading for
government support in photographing
Native American tribes. 
?The Indians are passing away so rapid-
ly,? Henry wrote, ?that but a few years re-
main, within which this can be done and
the loss will be irretrievable and so felt
when they are gone.? The government
agreed to support the photographing of
the Native American delegates. 
At the behest of the Smithsonian, Anto-
nio Zeno Shindler, a Bulgarian-born pho-
tographer based in Washington, D.C.,
gathered some of his own images and
those from a variety of different studios
and photographers. He produced an exhi-
bition of portraits that was displayed at
the Smithsonian Castle in 1869. 
The Shindler collection may well have
been the first exhibition of photography
in a museum in the United States. Copies
of the images were circulated to major
museums worldwide and remain part of
the core Native American collections at
many of these museums. 
?We have no images of the exhibition it-
self, so we don?t know what it looked
like,? Fleming says. One 42-page catalog
held in the National Anthropological
Archives is all that remains of Shindler?s
show. 
Fleming?s book is a revised version of
this fascinating catalog. An excellent gath-
ering of portraits, Native American Pho-
tography at the Smithsonian also is an
important work of scholarship. By track-
ing down, crediting, dating and properly
identifying each of the many images in
this book, Fleming has greatly enhanced
the value of these photographs to scholars. 
?Daniel Friend
??? ??? ?????
Fox Chief Kiyo-Kag (One Who Moves
About Alert), top, and Santee Chief Wa-
Mdi-Ka-Wa-Man-Ni (He Walks Following
Eagles), shown here at age 14, are two of
the many portraits featured.  
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 15
MegaSpinfaktor yo-yo
given to Smithsonian ?
with string attached
Yo-yo maestro Rick Wyatt was wide-awake when he set a world record for
sleeping in April 2001 at the Midwest Re-
gional Yo-Yo Championships in Bloom-
ington, Minn.
Wyatt?s yo-yo spun at the bottom of its
string??sleeping? to yo-yo hounds?for
an unbelievable 13 minutes and five sec-
onds. He wasn?t flinging just any old 
yo-yo that day, but a high-tech Mega-
Spinfaktor, a production model made by
YoYoJam, a mom-and-pop company out
of Tallahassee, Fla. At $85, the MegaSpin-
faktor is a thin, precision-balanced but-
terfly yo-yo with an adjustable gap and
recessed weight rings. Its double ball-
bearing axle and O-ring response system
make this one yo-yo that can really settle
down into some long, long sleeps.
In June, Wyatt donated his well-worn
MegaSpinfactor yo-yo to the Cultural
History Division of the Smithsonian?s Na-
tional Museum of American History. The
museum?s interest in yo-yos reflects its
goal to focus on areas of American enter-
prise emblematic of the material culture
of the United States. 
?YoYoJam and company owner Dale
Bell represent the front-end of yo-yo en-
gineering today,? Museum Specialist
David Shayt explains. ?Their yo-yos push
the envelope of technology and use of
new materials.? 
Shayt has created a museum ?biogra-
phy? for Wyatt?s yo-yo consisting of a
thick file folder packed with reference
material on Wyatt?s career, the YoYoJam
Co., newspaper clippings from yo-yo
competitions, photographs, printouts
from yo-yo Web sites and other informa-
tion. 
Yo-yos and toys may be taken lightly by
some, Shayt says, but they are important
objects of American culture. ?How we
play says a lot about who we are as a na-
tion. The design and popularity of yo-yos
are part of the American experience.?
?John Barrat 
??? ?? ??? ???????????
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
? ? ? ? ? ?  ?  ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  ? ? ? ?
Using the yo-yo that he donated to the
National Museum of American History,
Rick Wyatt demonstrates his world-
record-setting technique for making a 
yo-yo sleep. 
w20995  7/17/03  12:29 PM  Page 16