SECRETARY'S REPORT 61 



mens were loaned to the American Museum in Britain, at Claverton 

 Manor near Bath, England. 



A reproduction of the figure 8 stellerator developed by Dr. Lyman 

 Spitzer of Princeton University was placed on exhibition in the west 

 window area on the first floor of the new museum shortly before the 

 building was opened to the public. It is symbolic of the research in- 

 volving the generation of temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees 

 Centigrade. 



Three of the four halls of the Department of Civil History were on 

 public view when the new museum opened in January. The fourth, 

 the Hall of Historic Americans, was formally opened to the public in 

 June. 



The Hall of Everyday Life in the American Past, comprising the 

 largest exhibition gallery in the museum, displays the material evi- 

 dences of domestic life in America before 1900. The furnishings, 

 utensils, decorative arts, and other objects illustrating aspects of the 

 cultural life of the country are presented in a series of cases, period 

 rooms, and platform groupings progressing chronologically from an 

 initial series of displays devoted to the European backgrounds of early 

 settlement groups. Among the outstanding exhibits are a reproduc- 

 tion of a room from an 18th-century Spanish New Mexican adobe home 

 and objects of religious art from the Franciscan missions of the South- 

 west; displays ranging from artifacts obtained archeologically to fine 

 furniture, pewter, and silver of the English colonies of the eastern 

 seaboard, and an entire log house from Mill Creek Hundred, Del., 

 dating from about 1740 showing both the exterior and interior con- 

 struction and the furnishings of this home. This hall was planned 

 and installed under the direction of C. Malcolm Watkins, curator-in- 

 charge, assisted by associate curators Eodris Roth and John N. Pearce 

 of the division of cultural history. It was designed by John E. Ang- 

 lim, exhibits chief, with the assistance of exhibits designer Deborah 

 Bretzfelder. Period rooms and the log house were executed by George 

 H. Watson and his staff of restoration specialists with the professional 

 assistance of Mrs, E. Boyd, curator of Spanish Colonial art. Museum 

 of New Mexico, and architects Robert L. Raley of Newark, Del., and 

 Robert E. Plettenberg of Santa Fe, N. Mex. 



The new First Ladies Hall provides a more appealing medium for 

 continuing the Smithsonian Institution's tradition of exhibiting the 

 dresses worn by the wife or official hostess of each President of the 

 United States. These dresses show the changes in American costume 

 from the 18th-century style worn by Martha Washington to the simple 

 lines and elegant fabrics of more recent First Ladies. The dresses 

 are displayed upon mannequins in a series of eight room settings, each 

 appropriately finished and furnished to indicate the periods and en- 



