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Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 2000 



portant story of the American experience. Other OurStory 

 events included "High Flight: A Story of World War II"; 

 "The Symbols of Our Nations: Iroquois Tales and Tradi- 

 tions"; "Home Sweet Home: Five Generarions of Little 

 House"; and "Riding Freedom's Rails: Women and the 

 Underground Railroad." 



April brought the Duke Ellington Youth Festival 2000, 

 "Duke Ellington: The Spirit of Music," to the museum. The 

 annual festival, celebrating the life and legacy of Edward 

 Kennedy (Duke) Ellington as interpreted by students in the 

 Washington, D.C., public schools, began with poetry and 

 music, followed by the opening of an exhibition of art 

 works. Students in grades 6 through 12 perform works by 

 Ellington in concert. In May the Smithsonian Jazz Master- 

 works Orchestra presented "The Music of Mary Lou 

 William." SJMO and the Kennedy Center presenred two 

 evening concerts featuring guest artist Geri Allen, as well as 

 a youth concert in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. 



The public program highlight of the year was the confer- 

 ence "American Slavery in History and Memory," which took 

 place March 16 through 18 and was cosponsored by the 

 David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Africa Dias- 

 pora of the University of Maryland, Howard University, the 

 National Archives and Records Administration, and Delta 

 Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. The conference married academic 

 scholarship, public perceptions, and the construction of his- 

 torical memory to create a discussion about what the public 

 "knows" and "feels" about slavery. It was the first of an an- 

 nual symposium exploring the questions of history, memory, 

 and American Identity. 



The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Inno- 

 vation continued with its 1999—2000 theme, "Invention at 

 Play." The Center sponsored behind-the-scenes tours of Six 

 Flags ("Inventing the Scream Machine," a look at roller 

 coasters), Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles 

 ("Field of Dreams, Illusions and Technology") and the 

 carousel at Glen Echo Park. In December, the Center spon- 

 sored "Working and Playing with Robots: A Family Robot 

 Day," a day-long exploration of real robots. Akhil Madhani 

 discussed his award-winning robot inventions, including a 

 robotic arm. Curator Steve Lubat discussed robots in the col- 

 lection including one of the original C-3PO costumes. The 

 RoboCup teams of Carnegie Mellon and Cornell Universities 

 demonstrated soccer-playing robots. 



In coordination with "Piano 300," the Center sponsored 

 "The Keyboard Meets Modern Technology" in April 2000. 

 The program included an inventor's expo, a video confer- 

 ence, a concerr, and a panel discussion with rock keyboardist 

 Keith Emerson and the inventor of the electronic synthesizer, 

 Robert Moog. In May, the Center sponsored " Re-Inventing 

 the Wheel — A Month-long Celebration of the Bicycle," 

 exploring the history, technology, and sociology of that 

 familiar marvel, the bicycle. Historian Wiebe E. Bijker de- 

 scribed the macho culture of early cyclists and the role of 

 bicycles in women's emancipation, and showed bicycles from 

 the collection. Claudia Kidwell and Ellen Hughes discuss 

 the evolution of athletic clothing for women in the nine- 

 teenth century in "From Bloomers to Bike Shorts." The 



"Innovator's Expo" brought inventors, designers, and histori- 

 ans to the museum to demonstrate and display their 

 bicycles, including antique high-wheelers and an all-terrain 

 hand cycle. The Center and rhe Washington Area Bicyclist 

 Association presented two "Innovative Path" bicycle tours of 

 20— mile rides with educational stops along the way. It 

 spawned a free, award-winning booklet of the same name 

 that features eight bicycle trails in the Washington area. 

 The Center's "Invention at Play" theme concluded in Sep- 

 tember with a two-day symposium, "The Playful Mind," 

 that examined creative thinking and problem solving 

 through discussions, performances, and hands-on workshops. 



The Affiliations program continued to grow, with 

 American History comprising 80 percent of the total Smith- 

 sonian's Affiliates. In 2000, George Washington's Mount 

 Vernon Estate and Gardens, became a formal affiliate. The 

 Chabot Observatory and Science Center in Oakland Califor- 

 nia opened in August 2000 with six telescopes from the 

 collection. 



April saw the opening of "Rock 'n' Soul: Social Cross- 

 roads," a collaborarion berween the museum and Memphis 

 Rock 'n' Soul, Inc. The exhibition is located in the Gibson 

 Guitar factory in Memphis, Tennessee, and examines the 

 rich musical heritage of the Memphis area. "Rock 'n' Soul" 

 focuses on this transformation-migration, urbanization, 

 racial and class issues, civil rights, and youth culture 

 through the medium of music. 



National Museum of the 

 American Indian 



W. Richard West, Director 



The National Museum of the American Indian, established 

 in 1989 by Public Law 101-185, is a hemispheric institution 

 of living cultures dedicated to the preservation, study, and 

 exhibition of the historic and contemporary life, languages, 

 literature, history, and arrs of Native Peoples. The museum 

 also is dedicated to supporting and perpetuating contempo- 

 rary Native cultures and communities. 



The year 2000 saw the conclusion of the first phase of 

 construction of the NMAI's National Mall museum. This 

 involved tasks such as utility relocation, site drainage, excava- 

 tion, sheeting and shoring, and relocation of the NMAI 

 construction office ro the Mall site. One result of the first 

 phase is the visible below-grade outline of the Mall museum's 

 unusual curved shape, which references the natural world that 

 is at the center of Native philosophies and beliefs. Construc- 

 tion of the foundation and building will commence in 2001. 

 Concurrent with the construction is the NMAI's ongoing 

 planning and design of the Mall museum's three opening ex- 

 hibitions. Titled "Our Universes," Our Lives," and "Our 

 Peoples," the exhibitions are being prepared in collaboration 

 and cooperation with 35 Native communities through the 

 hemisphere. Numerous rribal delegations this year visited the 

 Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Maryland, in 2000 to 



