4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



International Activities 



During the period under review, the Institution made a determined 

 effort to carry its international activities beyond traditional overseas 

 field expeditions and research, which primarily benefit the Smithso- 

 nian, to cooperation with other Government agencies and private insti- 

 tutions in the development of exchange of persons and international 

 exhibits programs, to the benefit of others. 



Beginning in March, William W. Warner was engaged as a Con- 

 sultant to the Secretary for International Activities to explore appro- 

 priate areas of international cooperation. The first of these has been 

 in the field of archeology with the Department of State. The Depart- 

 ment's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has expressed a 

 strong interest in having the Smithsonian exercise a leading role in 

 the administration of overseas archeological research or excavation 

 projects in connection with those nations in which excess foreign cur- 

 rencies are available through agricultural surplus sales under Public 

 Law 480. The Bureau has also welcomed the Institution's offer to 

 help with the selection and programing of foreign scholarship candi- 

 dates in fields of Smithsonian interest. 



The Institution has also assisted the Department's Office of Soviet 

 and Eastern European Exchanges in planning exchange of museum 

 professionals and exhibits, in accordance with the new U.S.-U.S.S.R. 

 Exchange Agreement, which for the first time includes specific men- 

 tion of museums. The Secretary of the Smithsonian serves as chair- 

 man of the American Association of ISIuseums' Soviet Exchange Com- 

 mittee, an advisory group that has helped the Department in the choice 

 of museum professionals and possible exhibits going to and coming 

 from Russia. 



In addition, the Smithsonian has offered its storage facilities and 

 staff assistance to the Department's "Art for Embassies," a project 

 aimed at providing United States Embassies with representative 

 American works of art. Tlie first paintings lent under this project 

 were turned over to the Smithsonian for safekeeping in June. 



Among international organizations, the Smithsonian has supported 

 the concept of American participation in the UNESCO campaign for 

 (he preservation of the monuments of Nubia in the upper Nile Valley. 

 The Secretary has assisted the State Department in its request for 

 a foreign currency appropriation to provide for American participa- 

 tion by explaining the significance of the monuments themselves and 

 the interests of American universities and museums in the Nubian 

 campaign in particular, and in the wider problems of classical archeol- 

 ogy in the Near East in general. 



During May the Organization of American States' Department 

 of Scientific Affairs agreed to announce and fund, through its estab- 



