wirh additional interest in the conservation and biota of Ha- 

 waii. These researchers have filled positions vacated through 

 retirements and will strengthen scientific and public pro- 

 grams in both the Department and the Museum. 



On October 14, 1994, Museum board member Gilbert S. 

 Kahn announced a gift of $2 million from his mother, Janet 

 Annenberg Hooker, to the Campaign for the Hall of Geology, 

 Gems and Minerals. The donation also included a four-piece 

 jewelry suite of rare fancy yellow diamonds. Mrs. Hooker had 

 contributed $3 million to the campaign in 1992, and the new 

 hall will be named in her honor when it opens in 1996. 



The Smithsonian Marine Station at Link Port in eastern 

 Florida this year benefited from two generous supporters. The 

 John D. and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation agreed to a 

 discounted sale of eight acres of land in Fort Pierce, Florida, 

 which will provide a permanent site for the facility. In addi- 

 tion, the station received a 1995 Ford Explorer from Ford 

 Motor Company, a sponsor of the Museum's "Ocean Planet" 

 exhibition. 



The Museum expanded its outreach significantly this year 

 via the information superhighway. Online services now avail- 

 able include an NMNH "home page" on the World Wide 

 Web, an electronic version of the "Ocean Planet" exhibition, 

 scientific and general-interest publications, collection informa- 

 tion, specialized bibliographies, comprehensive species list for 

 some groups of organisms, and discussion centers that link re- 

 searchers around the world. 



The Fall meeting of the NMNH Board took place in An- 

 chorage, Alaska, in early September. This venue was chosen to 

 provide Board members a first-hand look at the NMNH Arc- 

 tic Studies Center. 



Department of Anthropology 



The Asian Cultural History Program celebrated its 10th anni- 

 versary (1985-95) with several publications and new pro|ects, 

 including Chung-su Houchins' monograph, "Artifacts of Di- 

 plomacy: Smithsonian Collections from Commodore Matthew 

 Perry's Japan Expedition (1853-1854)," (Smithsonian Contribu- 

 tions to Anthropology, volume 37), and Dr. Paul Michael 

 Taylor's edited volume, "Fragile Traditions: Indonesian Art in 

 Jeopardy," (Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press, 1994). 



Under the leadership of Dr. William Fitzhugh, The Arctic 

 Studies Center was particularly active in outreach activities in 

 1995. The exhibition "Crossroads: Alaska" toured 15 small vil- 

 lages throughout Alaska this past year. The objects from na- 

 tive cultures of the Bering Straits region have special meaning 

 for many of those who live in rural Alaska. The materials 

 were made all the more accessible by means of the accompany- 

 ing library of videos, educational materials, and related out- 

 reach programs. 



After two years of planning. Dr. Dennis Stanford began ex- 

 cavations and archival research in the Toluca Valley of centtal 

 Mexico. This project, designed to study the processes of 

 human-induced landscape change, found evidence of massive 

 erosion and deforestation coinciding with the Spanish con- 



quest of the Aztec empire almost 500 years ago. As a result of 

 this discovery, new research collaborations were established 

 with the Mexican National Institute for Anthropology and 

 History, the National Autonomous University in Mexico City, 

 Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology, and the govern- 

 ment of the State of Mexico. 



Drs. Douglas Owsley and Douglas Ubelaker collaborated in 

 the development of "Standards for Data Collection from 

 Human Skeletal Remains," the published proceedings of a 

 seminar at the Field Museum of Natural History. Drs. Owsley 

 and Ubelaker were also instrumental in providing anthropo- 

 logical contributions to the investigation of the events at the 

 Branch Davidian Compound near Waco, Texas, in early 1993, 

 and, as a result of these investigations, published a paper de- 

 scribing the role of forensic anthropology in the recovery and 

 identification of the Compound victims. 



During Fiscal Year 1995, the Department ot Anthropology's 

 Collections staff — working in conjunction with the Museum's 

 MOVE staff — cleaned, rehoused, packed, bar coded and relo- 

 cated approximately 56,000 catalogue records, equivalent to 

 more than 100,000 objects, to the Smithsonian's Museum Sup- 

 port Center in Suitland, Maryland. These objects are represen- 

 tative of cultures throughout the world. In addition, the 

 Department captured digitized images of its catalogue records 

 for the ethnology, archaeology, and physical anthropology col- 

 lections. This documentation system, which will be made 

 available on CD ROM, will facilitate collections access and re- 

 search for both scholars and the general public. 



Department of Botany 



Drs. Warren Wagner and Vicki Funk, Department of Botany, 

 were the editors of a book, "Hawaiian Biogeography: Evolu- 

 tion on a Hot Spot Archipelago" (Smithsonian Institution 

 Press, Washington, D.C., 1995). This volume represents the 

 first detailed biogeographic study of Hawaiian organisms and 

 brings together the work of a majority of the contemporary bi- 

 ological researchers on the terrestrial Hawaiian biota. In col- 

 lecting and synthesizing the available data, the publication 

 offers not only a new understanding of the biogeography of 

 the archipelago, but is certain to kindle new ideas concerning 

 evolution on islands. 



As published in "Science, " Drs. Mark and Diane Littler, 

 Department of Botany, discovered a new bacterial pathogen of 

 calcareous coralline algae that occurs in South Pacific reefs and 

 spans a geographic range of at least 6,000 kilometers. Because 

 of the important role played by coralline algae in reef build- 

 ing, this pathogen has the potential to greatly influence coral 

 reef ecology and related processes. 



On June 9, 1995, "Science" magazine featured an article en- 

 titled "Multiple Origins of the Lichen Symbioses in Fungi 

 Suggested by SSU rDNA Phylogeny" ("Science" 268: 1492- 

 x 495> '995)- The article was co-authored by Drs. Andrea Gar- 

 gas and Paula DePnest, members of the Department of 

 Botany, NMNH, in collaboration with Martin Grube and An- 

 ders Tehler. The piece provided a phylogenetic placement 



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