May 



May y-io 



■ Agreement An agreement was made with Sony Music 

 Special Products to clear rights to recordings for the 

 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings rerelease of "The 

 Anthology of American Folk Music Edited by Harry 

 Smith" as a six-CD set, which received strong popular 

 acclaim. 



May 



■ Agreement An agreement with IMAX Corporation 

 and Lockheed Martin for National Air and Space 

 Museum participation in the IMAX format film 

 "Mission to Mir." 



May 5 



■ Special Event The Office of Membership and 

 Development's Smithsonian Corporate Membership Pro- 

 gram held its Annual Luncheon Meeting, which was at- 

 tended by 120 corporate representatives. Attendees 

 joined Secretary Heyman, Regent Thad Cochran, and 

 Smithsonian National Board Member Joan Noto for a 

 luncheon to discuss the theme "Innovative Relation- 

 ships: How Public and Private Sector Goals Converge to 

 Create Economic and Cultural Value." Regent Frank 

 Shrontz gave the keynote address. Nissan Motor Cor- 

 poration U.S.A. received the inaugural Smithsonian 

 Institution Corporate Leadership Award. 



May 5 



■ Exhibition The National Postal Museum opened the 

 Undercover: The Evolution of the American Envelope. 



May 7 



■ Public Program The Office of Membership and 

 Development's Smithsonian Treasures, the annual behind- 

 the-scenes tour for Contributing Members, brought 70 

 people to Washington, D.C. for tours of the National 

 Portrait Gallery exhibition Red, Hot & Blue: A Salute to 

 the American Musical, the Smithsonian Environmental 

 Research Center (SERC), the National Museum of 

 American History's Hall of Musical Instruments, and 

 other events. 



May 7 



■ Exhibit "Los Insectos: Amigos y Enemigos" (Insects: 

 Friends and Foes) produced and curated by Annette 

 Aiello of the STRI staff opened to the public at the Earl 

 S. Tupper Exhibit Hall. 



May p 



■ Publication Science magazine published a cover story 

 on research by Dr. Bruce Smith, curator in the Depart- 

 ment of Anthropology at the National Museum of 

 Natural History. By studying early seeds under an 

 electron microscope, Dr. Smith established that people 

 in the Americas cultivated squash as early as 10,000 

 years ago — much earlier than previously thought and 

 close to dates published for early agriculture in other 

 parts of the world. 



May 9 



■ Visit Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balla- 

 dares and members of his cabinet visited STRI's new 

 construction crane donated by the Government of Den- 

 mark and located in a very wet forest on the Atlantic 

 side of Panama. 



■ Training Seminar The Smithsonian Accessibility Pro- 

 gram conducted a "Two-Cents Seminar on Accessible 

 Publication Design" for staff and people with dis- 

 abilities from its Advisory Council. A panel composed 

 of a person who has low vision, a person who is blind, 

 and a person with cognitive disability examined a 

 sampling of Smithsonian publications for access and 

 discussed their reactions with the staff participants. 

 The presentation was one of four training sessions 

 focusing on guidelines prepared by the Accessibility 

 Program to improve access to museums for visitors 

 with disabilities. 



May 10 



■ Milestone The National Postal Museum created an 

 international Council of Philatelists to advise and guide 

 the museum in philatelic matters. 



May 15 



■ Wet and Wild Zoo¥ an ZooFari, Washington's wild- 

 est party and the Friends of the National Zoo's largest 

 fundraiser, drew a large crowd. The theme, Wet and 

 Wild, reflected the UN's designation of 1997 as the year 



33 



