American families were also celebrated in the exhibition 

 "The Family Car," which displayed classic cars from the 

 museum's collection in settings depicting typical family life. 

 Kids' cars and home photos showcasing the ways American 

 have made automobiles a part of the family since the 1920s 

 were also on display. 



The museum's interests in the history of science and the 

 history of medicine were supported by two significant exhibits. 

 "Science Projects: A Taxonomy of Images" illustrated the use 

 of photography to promote and popularize science. Culled 

 from the museum's Science Service collection, the 

 photographs offered important insights about the authority of 

 science, modernity,, invention, gender relations, and the power 

 of journalistic photographs. "About Faces: The Post-War 

 Boom in Craniofacial Knowledge" explored the assumptions 

 Americans have about what a "normal" face looks like and 

 how these assumptions are influenced by complex relation- 

 ships among society, economics, aesthetics, and especially, the 

 state of medical science. The exhibit further explained how 

 the application of medical research to everyday life in the past 

 fifty years has changed our perceptions and understanding of 

 the way we look. 



The museum's commitment to outreach and education was 

 underscored by the launch of its new website, which featured 

 virtual exhibitions, special activities for children and teachers, 

 music files, finding aids for archival materials, and more. 

 Museum visitors and electronic audiences joined in a rwo-week 

 festival, "Electrified, Amplified, and Deified: The Electric 

 Guitar and Its Makers and Players." Programs included an 

 exhibition of guitars from rhe collection of Scott Chinery, a 

 symposium, films, informal talks with guitar makers, an inter- 

 view with legendary guitarist and inventor Les Paul, evening 

 concerts with guitar greats, and a video conference. 



Beyond Category: The Duke Ellington Education Kit was com- 

 pleted and distributed to classrooms throughout the country. 

 This one-of-a-kind curriculum for grades 6 and up explores 

 Ellington's life and music in the context of social and cultural 

 history. Activities incorporated music, history, art, drama, 

 creative expression, and language arts. The kit took much of 

 its inspiration from The Duke Ellington Youth Project, a con- 

 tinuing collaboration between the museum and the District of 

 Columbia public schools. 



The Lemelson Center continued "Innovative Lives," its 

 lecture-demonstration series that introduced middle school 

 students to the lives of inventors and entrepreneurs. Speakers 

 included Wilson Greatbatch, the inventor of the implantable 

 cardiac pacemaker, and Patsy Sherman, whose discoveries led 

 to the development of Scotchgard. To celebrate the 150th 

 birthday of Thomas Edison, the museum joined the Henry 

 Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Michigan in an 

 electronic field trip for middle students. 



The museum's Hands-on Science Center debuted its new 

 "Water Wonderworks" curriculum kit and activity. Designed for 

 students in grades 5 through 8, the free program focused on 

 drinking water quality, distribution systems, and wastewater 



treatment. The program also included the Hydro-Investigator 

 Casebook, which contains pre- and post-visit classroom ac- 

 tivities and extension opportunities. These programs were 

 developed with the support of the American Chemical 

 Society, with additional assistance from the Hach Company. 



"La Francophonie Noire: The Roots and Evolution of the 

 Franco-Creole Diaspora in the Americas" was this year's 

 African American History Month program, produced by the 

 museum's Program in African American Culture. The film 

 festival, oral histories, demonstrations, music and dance per- 

 formances, symposium, and cultural marketplace revealed the 

 links between modern American culture and the Creole cul- 

 ture of Louisiana, the Caribbean, and Africa. The Program in 

 African American Culture also produced, in commemoration of 

 the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Of Songs, Peace, 

 and Struggle," a program featuring civil rights activists Anne 

 Braden and C. T Vivian, entitled "Two Voices in the Ongoing 

 Struggle for Freedom and Justice." The SNCC Freedom Singers 

 presented "Songs of Struggle." The Duke Ellington Youth 

 Project, also organized by the Program in African American 

 Culture, included the previously mentioned exhibition and the 

 "Duke Ellington Youth Festival," a day devoted to student 

 poetry readings and performance inspired by Ellington. 



Concerts by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra 

 and the ensembles of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society 

 brought audiences great music and performances illuminated 

 by the study of music history. The Chamber Music Society 

 inaugurated "Future Music," a collaboration in education 

 with Washington's Levine School of Music that brought 

 students to the museum for performances, workshops, and 

 tours of the Collection of Musical Instruments. The Smithson- 

 ian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra continued its series highlight- 

 ing the works of seminal figures in American jazz. Concerts 

 included "Celebrating Benny Carter on His 90th," "Blues and 

 the Abstract Truth: The Music of Oliver Nelson," and, 

 "Monk's Mood and Early Autumn: Thelonius Monk and 

 Woody Herman." Discussions and scholarly essays accom- 

 panied each performance. 



Other programs in the "American Sampler Series" and 

 "American Song Series" emphasized combined scholarship, 

 curriculum materials, and public performances as a way of 

 focusing attention on the expressive traditions of the 

 American people and their rich histories. Programs included 

 "Swingtime at the Smithsonian" featuring Kansas City's 

 Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Keter Betts, and Steve Abshire. In 

 conjunction with the exhibition "Women of Southern Appala- 

 chian a program of the same title featured Daron Douglas and 

 Betty Smith performing on fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, autoharp, 

 and psaltery; Ann Grimes and folklorist Joe Hickerson dis- 

 cussing and playing traditional songs; singer-songwriter 

 Hazel Dickens; and photographer Barbara Bierne. 



The "American Song Series" presented "The Streets of New 

 York" in which members of the American Song Company 

 explored the early years of the American musical in the songs 

 of Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, and others. This program was 



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