164 



Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 2000 



playful yet guarded enthusiasm fot people's inventiveness. 

 Linked to the Lemelson Centet's theme of "Invention at 

 Play." 



July 26 



■ Exhibition The National Postal Museum ptesents the 

 "Recounting Roosevelt Ptesentation Albums" exhibition. 



July 29 



■ Exhibition Due to great public interest, the SITES exhibi- 

 tion "Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home 

 Front, 1 941— 1945" began an extension tour at the Harden 

 County Historical Museum in Kenton, Ohio. Originally col- 

 lected by the Smithsonian's curator of graphic arts during 

 World War II, these poster reproductions accompany photo- 

 graphs and original objects to tell the story of an America 

 mobilizing its human and natural resources for the war 

 overseas. 



July 29 



■ Exhibition, special event The "George Washington: Man 

 Behind the Myths" exhibition with artifacts from the 

 National Museum of American History opened at the His- 

 torical Society of Western Pennsylvania affiliate in 

 Pittsburgh. Since then, the museum reported that school 

 group visitation increased 150 percent and that general visi- 

 tation increased 20 percent. 



July 31 -August 8 



■ Study tour Smithsonian Study Tours, a division of The 

 Smithsonian Associates, commemorated the Viking's 1000 

 A.D. landing with a tour that enabled Associates to walk in 

 the footsteps of the New World's first European visitors dur- 

 ing visits to Gros Morne and L'Anse aux Meadows, Labrador. 



August 



■ Annual report The Office of Public Affairs began the 

 process of revamping the annual report, Smithsonian Year, for 

 the year 2000. This involved rethinking the text and illus- 

 trations to better reflect the united Smithsonian-wide efforts 

 made during the year. 



August 



■ Exhibition The educational exhibits surrounding FossiLab 

 at the National Museum of Natural History opened. The ex- 

 hibits explained the workings of FossiLab to the public. 

 Visitors to FossiLab at the National Museum of Natural His- 

 tory can watch as paleontologists and trained volunteers 

 extract fossils from rock, set up fossil casts and molds, and 

 prepare microscopic fossils for study. They can talk to scien- 

 tists and learn how they use fossils to learn about the 

 evolution of life and past climates on Earth. 



August 



■ Information system The Office of Contracting awarded an 

 Information Technology services contract to K. E. Software 

 for the Collection Reference Information System for the 

 multi-media module of the information system for the 

 National Museum of Natural History. 



August 



■ Acquisitions The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design 

 Museum Library purchased two major folios with funds pro- 

 vided by The Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Fund. A 

 remarkably beautiful 192 1 folio of French Art Deco archi- 

 tectural plans and elevations was the brainchild of Louis She 

 and Andre Mare. Thomas Weigner's Naturstunen and Kompo- 

 sitionem (1922) contains 22 color designs for textiles inspired 

 by plants and insects, and documents Art Nouveau patterns 

 developed for students and designers by the director of a 

 technical college for women. 



August 



■ Opening Victor Building 



August 



■ Repatriation 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 telated 

 Yana people of California. Ishi spent the last years of his life 

 at the Univetsity of California— San Francisco, demonstrating 

 arrow making and fire building to visitors and helping re- 

 searchers document the Yahi language. After he died in 



19 1 6, his brain was removed and preserved while the rest of 

 his body was cremated. Ishi's brain was donated to the mu- 

 seum and remained there for 85 years, although apparently 

 it was never used in any research. In 1999, the museum's 

 Repatriation Office teceived a request to return Ishi's brain 

 so that it could be reunited with the cremated body. In some 

 Native American beliefs, the soul cannot rest until the body 

 is cremated whole and placed in its homeland. 



August 



■ Research result The Chandra X-ray Observatory looks at 

 the Comet "LINEAR," and discovers X-ray emission coming 

 from hot oxygen and nitrogen atoms. 



August 2 



■ Staff appointment Debra Diamond, a scholar of Indian 

 painting, joined the Freer Gallery of Arr and Arthur M. 

 Sackler Gallery as assistant curator of South and Southeast 

 Asian art. She filled the position following the appointment 

 of Vidya Dehejia, former associate director/chief curator and 

 curator of South and Southeast Asian art, as deputy director 

 and chief curator of the galleries. Dr. Diamond received her 

 Ph.D. from Columbia University for her innovative disserta- 



