Reports of the Museums and Research Institutes 



27 



paintings, watercolors, and drawings from the 1850s, and the 

 nostalgic views created a generation later. The museum was 

 the only East Coast venue for this exhibition. "Silver & Gold: 

 Photographs of the Gold Rush" featured rare daguerreotypes 

 documenting this exciting time in American history. 



"Picruring Old New England: Image and Memory" 

 opened on April 2 and "Abbott Thayer: The Nature of Art" 

 opened on April 22. Both are major loan exhibitions organ- 

 ized by SAAM curators William Truettner and Richard 

 Murray, respectively. A catalogue to accompany the exhibi- 

 tion "Picturing Old New England" was coauthored by 

 curators William Truettner and Roger Stein, along with 

 three guest contributors, and copublished with Yale Univer- 

 sity Press. Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, was 

 the Honorary Patron for the Thayer exhibition. 



"Edward Hopper: The Warercolors," joinrly organized by 

 SAAM and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art in Al- 

 abama, opened on October 22 to great reviews and large 

 audiences. Commissioners Hugh Halff, Jr., Melvin Lenkin, 

 and Peter Lunder contributed to make the exhibition possi- 

 ble. This was the final exhibition before the museum closed 

 for renovations. "Edward Hopper: The Watercolors," by Vir- 

 ginia Mecklenburg, curaror at SAAM, was copublished with 

 WW Norton under a favorable contractual arrangement. 

 The museum shop sold out of its initial order on the first 

 weekend of the exhibition. A year 2000 wall calendar was 

 produced for the show in cooperation with Universe Pub- 

 lishing. In addition, the New Media staff at the museum 

 produced an extensive Web site called "An Edward Hopper 

 Scrapbook" ro complement the exhibition and offer a 

 glimpse into Hopper's life, his friends and the paintings that 

 have fascinated art lovers worldwide ever since Hopper first 

 came ro prominence during the mid 1920s. 



The installation of "David Beck: L'Opera," a miniature 

 opera house with 207 automated hand-carved figures, was 

 adroitly handled despire unusual challenges. The Educarion 

 office arranged for special docents to be in attendance, to 

 protect, explain, and operate this small wonder. For the first 

 time, music was included in an exhibition installation. 



"Daniel Brush: Gold without Boundaries" won the Smith- 

 sonian Exhibition Award for Best Design — justly 

 recognizing this show as the most handsome produced at the 

 Smithsonian (at its Renwick Gallery) during the past 18 

 months. "Glass! Glorious Glass!" continued drawing unusu- 

 ally strong attendance, accompanied by strong publicity. 



On March 19, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian 

 American Art Museum opened two exhibitions: "Shaker: 

 Furnishings for the Simple Life," an exhibition drawn from 

 Commissioner Ken Hakuta's extensive collection of Shaket 

 artifacrs and "Dominic Di Mare: A Retrospecrive," a touring 

 exhibirion of fiber sculptures by Dominic Di Mare from the 

 Palo Alto Arts Center. 



A Memorandum of Agreement with the James Renwick 

 Alliance, signed in March, was implemented with a pledge 

 of $1 10,000 in support for fiscal year 2000 for the Renwick 

 Gallery. Curator-in-Charge Ken Trapp received a two-year 

 $68,000 grant from the Smithsonian's Scholarly Studies Pro- 

 gram to conduct research on American Naval Presentation 



Silver, which is expected to be the subject of a major book 

 and exhibition. 



The Museum's On-line Reference Desk, now renamed Ask 

 Joan of Art, received a 1998 Exemplary Service Award at a 

 Harvard Universiry conference called "Reference in the New 

 Millennium." This on-line reference service is a high priority 

 for fund-raising for the museum. 



In its continuing quest to provide on-line resources, the 

 museum signed an interagency agreement with the National 

 Endowment for rhe Arrs rhat will provide $430,000 over the 

 next two yeats for digitizing 50,000 slides of works by 

 5,000 artists in the NEA's Visual Artists Fellowship Pro- 

 gram from 1967 to 1995. The NEA Artists Archive will be 

 hosted on the museum's Web site. 



The Web site, redesigned and launched in January, won an 

 award as "Best Museum Research Sire" at the 1999 Museums 

 and the Web conference in New Orleans in March. Depth of 

 research informarion — a testament to the museum's long rra- 

 dirion of developing research resources — was cited by the 

 judges. The New Media staff, working with the publications 

 staff who handle fulfillment, introduced rhe capacity to 

 process credit card paymenrs on the Web site. Books and other 

 products can now be purchased on-line with a credit card. 



The museum's Regisrrar's Office successfully booked 60 

 venues for the extensive national tour planned for the reno- 

 vation period, tentatively titled "Treasures to Go," scheduled 

 to run from January 2000 through 2002. The Developmenr 

 office signed a marketing sponsorship contracr totaling 

 $3.75 million with the Principal Financial Group of Des 

 Moines. The sponsorship firm IMG of New York was also 

 signed to help with the project, which will include media 

 appearances, cable television specials, advertising, national 

 media placement, advertorials, product licensing, and special 

 events. Five national public relations companies were inter- 

 viewed for the publicity aspect of the Principal Financial 

 Group component of the contract, and a selection was for- 

 warded to the Conttacting Office for approval. 



The education department continued breaking new 

 ground by hosring artists' lectures including ralks by Jesus 

 Morales, Hung Liu, Robert Cottingham with Chuck Close, 

 Malcah Zeldis, and David Beck. "The NMAA Educational 

 Resources Guide for Teachers" was mailed to 3,500 teachers, 

 and the tout booklet "Explore the National Museum of 

 Ametican Aft" was tepublished. A number of partnerships 

 helped raise funds for education programs at the museum, 

 including the Prince George's County Schools for a "Reading 

 Through Art" kindergarten ptogtam and the Faitfax County 

 Public Schools fot a K-12 Arts Curriculum ($40,000 

 awarded by rhe NEA), and the Caftitz Foundation to de- 

 velop teachet enrichment programs. 



National Museum of American History 

 Spencer R. Crew, Director 



The National Museum of America History dedicates its col- 

 lections and scholarship to inspiring a broader undersranding 



