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Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 2000 



and their descendents while examining the history, diversity, 

 dynamism, and influence of Africa's peoples and cultures. 



The museum coproduced a new 3D IMAX® film, Gala- 

 pagos. The film featured museum scientists and their work in 

 the Galapagos Archipelago and the sea around it. Focusing 

 on evolution and biodiversity, the film feature introduced 

 audiences to the exciting experience of field research. 



Dr. Richard Potts and Ms. Jennifer Clark, of the Depart- 

 ment of Anthropology, along with Chinese colleagues, 

 discovered the oldest known large cutting tools in East Asia. 

 The findings indicate that Homo Erectus groups in East Asia 

 were making similarly sophisticated tools to their African 

 counterparts. 



Dr. Stanwyn Shetler, Dr. Paul Peterson, and Ms. Sylvia 

 Stone Orli of the Department of Botany, along with Dr. 

 Mones Abu-Asab of the National Cancer Institute, found 

 evidence that flowering plants in the Washington area are 

 blooming an average of 4.5 days earlier than 30 years ago. 

 Washington, D.C.'s famous cherry trees bloomed an average 

 of 7 days earlier than in 1970. Global warming seems to 

 have caused this change. 



Our most heralded temporary exhibition in 2000, 

 "Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga," commemorated the 

 millennial anniversary of Leif Erikson's arrival in the New 

 World, 500 years before Columbus. Royalty and heads of 

 states from all of the Scandinavian nations attended the 

 exhibition's gala opening. "Vikings" is now reaching even 

 wider audiences on a three-year tour and through its award- 

 winning Web site. 



An asteroid was named in honor of Dr. Tim McCoy of the 

 Department of Mineral Sciences, in recognition of his re- 

 search in meteoritics. Asteroid 4259 McCoy was discovered 

 by Bobby Bus at Cerro Tololo (Chile) in 1988. 



The museum celebrated the 20th year of the Research 

 Training Program (RTP), which enables undergraduate stu- 

 dents to work on original research programs with museum 

 mentors. Students in the 2000 program hailed from all over 

 the United States, as well as from Colombia, Germany, 

 Guyana, and Malaysia. 



Featuring 28 large-format photographs, the photographic 

 exhibition "Selections from Forces of Change: A New View of 

 Nature," represented the interplay between humans and nat- 

 ural forces of change. The exhibition coincided with the 

 release of the book Forces of Change: A New View of Nature. 

 the first-ever publishing collaboration between the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and the National Geographic Society. The 

 ongoing "Forces of Change" program eventually will include 

 traveling exhibitions, publications, interactive computer 

 products, public programming, and the Forces of Change 

 Gallery, featuring rotating exhibits. 



The National Museum of Natural History repatriated the 

 human remains of Ishi, commonly thought to be the last 

 member of the Yahi tribe, to the closely related Yana people 

 of California. Ishi's brain was donated to the museum and re- 

 mained there for 85 years. It will now be reunited with his 

 cremated body. In some Native American beliefs, the soul 

 cannot rest until the body is cremated whole and placed in 

 its homeland. 



National Portrait Gallery 



More Pochter, Director 



The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is dedicated to the 

 porttayal of people who have made significant contributions 

 to American history and culture and to the study of the 

 artists who created such portraiture. NPG collects, docu- 

 ments and preserves portraits in all media as both historical 

 and artistic artifacts. The Gallery explores the heritage and 

 accomplishments of the American people by collecting, doc- 

 umenting and preserving, studying, and exhibiting portraits 

 in all media as both historical and artistic documents, and 

 finding other ways, such as performance, biography, and 

 electronic media to remember great American lives. 



The Gallery's closure in January for a major renovation of 

 its building happened with a bang rather than a whimper. 

 Final shows, which attracted record audiences along with 

 major media coverage, included "Tete a Tete: Portraits by 

 Henri Cartier-Bresson" with 49,000 visitors, "Picturing 

 Hemingway: A Writer in His Time" with 74,000 visitors, 

 "Edward Sorel: Unauthorized Portraits" with 67,000 visitors, 

 and "A Durable Memento: Portraits by Augustus Washing- 

 ton, African American Daguerreotypist" with 65,000 

 visitors. The Augustus Washington exhibition chronicled the 

 remarkable life and work of one of the nation's earliest black 

 photographers. As the first comprehensive presentation of 

 Washington's work, it displayed 33 daguerreotypes, many on 

 view for the first time. "A Durable Memento" was featured 

 on "C-SPAN's Washington Journal," the "CBS Morning 

 News," and "Voice of America," and garnered glowing 

 reviews from the New York Times and Art in America. "A 

 Durable Memento" subsequently traveled to the Connecticut 

 Historical Society in Hartford — where it drew a record num- 

 ber of visitors (7,906) — and to the International Center of 

 Photography in New York City where it was also enthusiasti- 

 cally received (11,361 visitors). 



The Gallery has assembled four traveling exhibitions to 

 send on the road during the four years the museum will be 

 closed: "Portraits of the Presidents," which opened at the 

 George Bush Presidential Library and Museum and is travel- 

 ing to seven venues around the country; "A Brush With 

 Histoty: Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery," 

 which will tour both in this country and in Japan and Eng- 

 land; "Modern American Portrait Drawings," which will go 

 to three venues; and "Women of Our Time," a photography 

 exhibition that will tour to five venues. Two additional 

 exhibitions are traveling abroad: "Philippe Halsman: A 

 Retrospective" and "Hans Namuth: Portraits." The Gallery 

 will maintain a Washington exhibition presence with the in- 

 stallation of two exhibitions in the city during 2001: 

 "Indian Peace Medals from the Schermer Collection," which 

 will be on view at the Smithsonian Castle through June, and 

 "Champions of American Sport," a photography exhibition 

 at the MCI Sports Arena, which will be on view for one year 

 beginning in February. An ambitious traveling exhibition on 

 the history of the movie industry's Academy Awards is being 

 planned, as well as exhibitions or loans to museums in Texas, 



