330 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 64 



change. From the beginning, the local people could see what the 

 observers were doing and realize immediately that it had no military 

 connotations, was not intended to make money from them, and had no 

 purposes other than those of peaceful scientific work. There was never 

 anything secret about the optical tracking of satellites. 



On the other hand, the actual meaning of the tracking of satellites 

 and the worldwide effort of the IGY were not always readily under- 

 stood in some communities. The observers had to make an effort, 

 therefore, to reach and teach the people. This they did by giving 

 lectures, contributing equipment and photographs for various shows, 

 inviting local school classes to tour the station, and declaring certain 

 days "open house" at the station so that anyone and everyone could 

 visit. In addition, many observers went into the local communities 

 to help out in whatever ways they could. In some instances this meant 

 the loan of tools or the sending of a truck. In others, it meant setting 

 up of classes to teach English to the people. At the station in Peru 

 the observers helped out greatly after the earthquake of 1959. In 

 Iran, the observers taught hospital personnel how to build and use 

 needed medical equipment, and even constructed an incubator for 

 babies. 



Perhaps most important, each station became a center of information 

 about artificial earth satellites, a clearing-house for celestial activity. 

 It was the policy of the Smithsonian and the aim of the observers to 

 have each station function locally in a manner smiliar to that of the 

 Observatory in Cambridge — as a source of public information, as a 

 means of informing people of astronomy and the space program. 



From the first, the Observatory encouraged the observers to take 

 their wives and children with them, a policy that served to broaden 

 the contacts between station personnel and the local people, and that 

 added stability to the whole arrangement. The reactions of the wives 

 varied as one would expect. Their attitudes were reflected in a series 

 of round-robin news letters that were issued from 1958 through 1961. 



For some of the wives, life at the station proved to be flat, stale, 

 and unprofitable. They seemed to lead lives of constant frustration 

 and fear — frustration because life at a foreign station was not like life 

 in America, and fear because disease and other dangers seemed always 

 to be at hand. These women, of course, failed almost completely to 

 integrate with the local community and to learn from the experience. 

 One of the best symbolic expressions of this failure was the inclusion 

 in one of the news letters of an exotic recipe from Hamper's Bazaar! 



For others, however, it was a richly rewarding experience. The 

 wives not only made pleasant homes for their husbands overseas, but 

 also participated as much as they could in community affairs. They 

 taught in local schools, conducted special adult classes in English, 



