148 



Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 1 999 



preservation. The exhibition was further supplemented by a 

 lecture organized by the Department of Botany with Sir 

 Ghillean Prance, Directot of Royal Botanic Gatdens, Kew. 



June 



■ Award The Archives of American Art submits final re- 

 port of the Latino Pool Allocation Fund for FY 1999, 

 detailing the completion of the Puerto Rican Art Documen- 

 tation Project, as well as the completion of the processing of 

 papers and oral history interviews for a Chicano art docu- 

 mentation project in San Francisco and Los Angeles. 



June 



■ Discovery decks During fiscal year 1999 the National Sci- 

 ence Resources Centet completed the development and 

 publication of its elementary curriculum, Science and Tech- 

 nology for Children (STC), by publishing the last Discovery 

 Decks. Discovery Decks are sets of imaginatively illustrated 

 resource cards that expand on the major topics of the fourth- 

 through sixth-gtade STC units. Each Discovery Deck in- 

 cludes about 30 cards that focus on a set of closely related 

 topics and that provide historical accounts of scientific dis- 

 coveries, interviews with scientists, and investigations 

 students can do themselves. Discovery Decks are now in- 

 cluded in all STC kits for grades 4 through 6. The 

 publication of the final four Discovery Decks — Motion and 

 Design, Animal Si '11 dies. The Technology of Paper, and 

 Ecosystems — showcases some special partnerships that the 

 NSRC established during their development. For example, 

 the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry 

 supported the development of The Technology of Paper Dis- 

 covery Deck. The completion of these Discovery Decks 

 brought to a close the NSRC's STC elementary curriculum 

 project. 



June 



■ Exhibition The National Postal Museum installs "Posted 

 Aboard RMS Titanic" in the Postmaster's Gallery, The Aus- 

 tralia Post, Melbourne, Austtalia. 



June 



■ Exhibition Two temporary exhibits were added to the Na- 

 tional Air and Space Museum's Space Race gallery. "The 

 Soviet Challenge in Space: Illustrating the Thteat" is a dis- 

 play of 12 paintings created for the Defense Intelligence 

 Agency to illustrate Soviet weapons systems and advanced 

 technology duting the Cold War. The other exhibit is on the 

 Faint Object Spectrograph from the Hubble Space Telescope. 



June 



■ Rare book purchased Guido Guidi's Chirurgia P Graeco in 

 Latinum Conversa (Paris, 1644) was purchased by the Smith- 

 sonian Libtaries with funds provided by the Smithsonian 



National Board Annual Giving Fund and the Office of the 

 Provost. This exquisitely illustrated, very rare folio has vi- 

 sual and descriptive text valuable to the study of the early 

 medical arts. 



June and September 



■ Archives acquisitions The National Museum of African 

 Art's Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives acquired three 

 important collections: The Kyriazis Photographic Collection 

 of images of activities and places in Ethiopia taken from 

 1950— 1970, The Robert and Nancy Nootet Ethiopian Col- 

 lection of images of activities and places in Ethiopia taken in 

 1988, and The Leon de Sousberghe Collection of images of 

 the Pende peoples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 

 taken in 1955-1957. 



June-December 



■ Conservation Four large cast concrete screens by Nigerian 

 artist Adebesi Akanj, donated to the National Museum of 

 African Art in 1994 by Mr. and Mrs. Waldemar A. Nielsen, 

 were restored by the museum's conservation department. 

 The scteens will be featuted in an exhibition on several 

 artists from the important Oshogbo art movement in south- 

 western Nigeria. 



June 2 



■ Panda illness The National Zoo's giant panda, Hsing- 

 Hsing, experienced a severe deterioration in his health. He 

 develops kidney dysfunction in June. 



June 3 



■ Summer program "Latin Music on the Plaza," a 12-week 

 evening concert series presented outdoors by the Hirshhorn 

 Museum and Sculpture Garden, was launched with 

 contemporary music inspired by Latin American poerry. 

 The free series, a central component of the Hirshhorn 's 

 programming to accompany extended Thursday hours for 

 the Smithsonian's "Art Night on the Mall," continued 

 with a variety of Caribbean and Central and South Ameri- 

 can musical petformances that attracted an estimated 

 8,300 visitors to the Plaza. Meanwhile, a program of inde- 

 pendent films and gallery talks by artists and curators 

 brought these visitors inside the museum to explore 

 exhibitions. 



June 3-September 2 



■ Summer hours The National Museum of African Art's ex- 

 tended summer hours drew hundreds of visitors on Thursday 

 nights as part of Art Night on the Mall. Youngsters made 

 colorful hats and then showed them off as they paraded to 

 the exhibition "Hats Off!: A Salute to African Headwear," 

 while art lovers had the opportunity to talk with South 

 African artist Rudzani Nemasetoni. In addition, the mu- 



