Reports of the Museums and Research Institutes 



61 



curriculum programs, including the MicroObservatory Pro- 

 gram, rhe ARIES curriculum (grades 3-8), and the SPICA 

 and STAR activities (grades 9—12). SED produced several 

 new television and video shows this year, while staff through- 

 out SAO continued their active involvement with schools. 

 The seven public Web sites at SAO received about 80 mil- 

 lion hits during the year. 



Smithsonian Center for Materials 

 Research and Education 



Lambertus van Zelst, Director 



The Smithsonian Centet fot Materials Research and Educa- 

 tion (SCMRE) is the Smithsonian's specialized facility 

 dedicated to research and training in the area of conserva- 

 tion, analysis, and technical study of museum collections and 

 related materials. Conservation and preservation tesearch 

 seeks to increase our understanding of the mechanisms that 

 affect the preservation of materials in museum collections, in 

 order to formulate improved exhibit, storage, and other use 

 conditions, as well as to develop, test, and improve treat- 

 ment technology. In collections-based research, objects from 

 museum collections and related materials ate studied to 

 increase their contextual information value and address ques- 

 tions in archaeology, art history, etc. Several of these research 

 programs are conducted in collaboration with other institu- 

 tions, notably the National Institute for Standards and 

 Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, and the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution of Washington. 



The most memorable event for SCMRE in FY 2000 was 

 the opening of the exhibition "Santos: Substance and Soul," 

 marking the completion of a project that occupied the or- 

 ganizers in SCMRE for most of the calendar year 2000 and 

 involved almost all SCMRE staff in one way or another. 

 Based on research and technical studies done at SCMRE, this 

 interdisciplinary and fully bilingual exhibition examines the 

 diversity and continuity in the making and veneration of 

 santos, a Hispanic American cultural tradition that dates 

 back to the earliest Spanish Colonial days. Focusing espe- 

 cially on Puerto Rico and New Mexico, this exhibition 

 makes a contribution to our appreciation and understanding 

 of the tichness of Latino culture by examining the diversities 

 and commonalities between the cultural traditions of santo- 

 making in these two areas, from their origins till the present 

 day. Made possible with generous sponsorship support by the 

 Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives, the exhibition 

 opened at the Arts and Industries Building, and had already 

 lined up subsequent venues in New Mexico and Puerto Rico. 



The Furniture Conservation Training Program (FCTP) 

 graduated its last class of furniture conservators. This inno- 

 vative and highly successful program started 15 years ago to 

 address an urgent problem of a serious shortage of furniture 

 conservators in American museums. Now, having graduated 

 a total of 25 students, FCTP has reached its goals of creating 

 a well-trained cadre of specialists who occupy leading posi- 



tions in the field and a steady supply of new furniture 

 conservators being trained at the academic graduare conser- 

 vation training programs. SCMRE will now change the 

 focus of its activities in this field to reach a wider audience, 

 including proprietors of small restoration and refinishing 

 shops, who often treat important historical pieces. First steps 

 in this directions were taken with an off-site workshop on 

 coatings technology and preservation in Minneapolis, which 

 will be repeated next year. 



In the research program on materials culture from the 

 California Missions, a project otganized in collaboration with 

 SCMRE's partnet institution Santa Clara University, hand- 

 modeled and wheel-thrown, unglazed earthernware from 

 missions throughout the state was chemically analyzed to 

 detetmine the production sources. In contrast to prevailing 

 notions of a single mission being responsible for the ceramic 

 production, with subsequent distribution to the other mis- 

 sions, research findings suggest that ceramic production 

 took place at several of the missions and was far more com- 

 plicated than presumed. Other types of pottery recovered at 

 the missions include a lead-glazed cetamic, commonly con- 

 sidered to be "from Mexico." The research has determined 

 that multiple sources of production wete involved. These 

 pottery-based studies provide a wealth of new insights into 

 the organization of craft production and aspects of the mis- 

 sions' external relationships. 



The second aspect of the Mission Project focuses on the 

 origins and distribution of imagineria, painted wooden sculp- 

 tural representations of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the 

 saints and angels that were an important part of the architec- 

 ture and decoration of the missions. Research has begun into 

 how and where the images were constructed, and how they 

 were transported through the Spanish Mexican frontier to 

 theit mission locations. Initial technical studies on the vast 

 collection of statues held by the Mission San Luis Rey 

 Museum will extend to other missions in California and 

 neighboring states in the United States and Mexico. 



Research in the area of traditional artists' oil paints has 

 allowed SCMRE scientists to develop a much better under- 

 standing about the long-tetm process of the drying of these 

 oil paints and the changes in their chemical and mechanical 

 properties. These studies also provide insights into how dif- 

 ferent pigments affect the polymerization or "drying" of oil 

 paints. It is now possible to get an accurate assessment of the 

 properties of a paint over a time span of two to three cen- 

 turies. This provides a baseline of understanding as to what 

 is "normal" for old paintings and how new and old paintings 

 respond to the environment and transportation. 



In the program of SCMRE professional short courses, a 

 series of courses was organized, in partnership with The 

 George Washington University, on technology, materials, 

 and conservation of cultural materials, for an audience of 

 students, appraisers, collectors, and dealers. This offering re- 

 flects the widening of the audience targeted by SCMRE's 

 professional education programs. The Research Libraries and 

 Archives Conservation Training (RELACT) program offered 

 several courses and workshops for archivists, librarians, and 

 managers of paper-based research collections, while the opti- 



