Chronology 



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October 



■ Special went In collaboration with the National Museum 

 of American History, the Office of Public Affairs held the 

 first event in its plan to encourage media coverage of the 

 Star-Spangled Banner Preservation Project — the infrared 

 examination of the flag by scientists from the National Aero- 

 nautics and Space Administration. 



Archives of American Art" in the Gallery Space of its New 

 York Regional Center. 



October 6 



■ Exhibition "As Precious As Gold," documenting the role 

 of the Post Office in the 1896 Alaskan Gold Rush opens at 

 the National Postal Museum. 



October-December 



■ Public programs The Smithsonian Associates presents a 

 collage of 40 public programs entitled "L'esprit de France," 

 focusing on the contributions of France to world civilization. 

 A highlight of the celebration was an elegant gala evening 

 hosted by Mary Ourisman and the Ambassador of France. 



October-September 



■ Training and information briefings The Procurement and 

 Training Branch, Office of Contracting, continued to con- 

 duct procurement-related training courses and 

 small-purchases informational briefings to Smithsonian staff. 



October 1 



■ Exhibit opens Great Cats, a new walk-through exhibit fo- 

 cusing on tigers and lions and their tenuous hold on 

 survival, opens at the National Zoo. 



October 3 



■ Event The 20,000-pound Skylab module, a laboratory 

 that fits inside the space shuttle's payload bay, arrived for 

 storage at Washington Dulles International Airport, where it 

 will remain until it goes on display at the National Air and 

 Space Museum's Dulles Center. 



October 5-8 



■ School program The Smithsonian Associates launched the 

 first of four three-day presentations by Smithsonian scien- 

 tists to students, teachers, and community residents of the 

 Spring Branch Independent School District, Houston, Texas. 

 Subsequent visits occurred on November 16—19, 1998, Jan- 

 uary 25—28, 1999, and April 5-9, 1999. Topics included 

 volcanology, forensic anthropology, Mexican-American folk 

 life, and planetary geology. 



October 6 



■ Benefit The Archives of American Art honors TIME critic 

 Robert Hughes at its annual gala benefit dinner in New 

 York City. 



October 6 



■ Exhibition The Archives of American Art opens the exhi- 

 bition "The Critic Sees: A Century of Art Criticism from the 



October 7 



■ Management excellence The Board of Trustees of the 

 Archives of American Art meets in New York City at the 

 Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. 



October 7-9 



■ Smithsonian Affiliations roundtable The first annual meet- 

 ing of Smithsonian affiliates took place at the Smithsonian, 

 welcoming 44 representatives from each of the 20 affiliates. 

 The first Smithsonian Affiliations Web site was launched as 

 part of the conference. 



October 1 5 



■ Exhibition and programs "Chuck Close," a 30-year retro- 

 spective featuring this American artist's labor-intensive, 

 often arresting images of the human face — many of them on 

 canvases as tall as eight feet — opened at the Hirshhorn Mu- 

 seum and Sculpture Garden. In a well-attended lecture at 

 the 67 5 -seat amphitheater of the International Trade Cen- 

 ter's new Ronald Reagan Building, the artist (b. 1941), who 

 has worked from a wheelchair since 1988, discussed his evo- 

 lution from Photo-Realism to recent expressive grids of 

 brighr color. The exhibition, organized by the Museum of 

 Modern Art in New York, attracted as many as 4,000 visi- 

 tors a day and generated favorable reviews in print and on 

 television. 



October 1 5-1 8 



■ Meeting The Tropical Research Institute cosponsored the 

 Environmental Economic Workshop with the Ford Founda- 

 tion and Fulbright at the Earl S. Tupper Research and 

 Conference Center. The workshop was organized by the 

 Latin American Scholarship Program for American Universi- 

 ties (LASPAU). 



October 1 6 



■ Exhibition "Mayhem by Mail," exploring the activities of 

 the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and crimes in the mail 

 opens at the National Postal Museum. 



October 1 7 



■ Exhibition A new National Air and Space Museum plane- 

 tarium show, "And a Star to Steer Her By," opened in the 

 Einstein Planetarium. Narrated by Sir Alec Guinness, the 



