we were entertained by a remarkable Dixieland band. There 

 we were, hearing jazz ring out in a Gothic chamber that 

 seemed for a moment to have been constructed for no other 

 purpose. I don't know what our Japanese visitors thought of 

 it, but for me, it was a chance moment that captured che best 

 of the Smithsonian and of the United States. 



That mood of unexpected connections can be furthered in 

 other ways as well. The Smithsonian has as much a role to 

 play in connecting generations as in connecting cultures. This 

 is a place where one generation's memories can be secured and 

 passed on to the next. I have watched that happen as 

 grandparents told stories to their grandchildren around 

 museum objects from their own youth, and as their 

 grandchildren, excited to see treasures they recognized from 

 the popular culture, told them stories in turn. 



There are other ways that the Smithsonian as a whole might 

 work to better serve our society. We have always had 

 education in our charter, but the Smithsonian may have a 

 stronger role to play in supporting and promoting promising 

 ideas, particularly those that use our collections and expertise 

 to stimulace the curiosicy of new generations. One dramatic 

 example was our opening, on the 150th anniversary weekend, 

 of a remarkable hologram of the globe on which visitors can 

 see actual weather and geological conditions beamed only a 

 few days before by satellite. 



It may be at exactly that juncture of technology and 

 education that the Smithsonian will be able to make 

 significant contributions in the future. Our recent massive 

 Institution-wide campaign to develop a World Wide Web site 

 has been successful beyond anything we could have hoped in 

 attracting millions of electronic "visits." The task now is to 

 find resources to capture digitally the objects in our 

 collections that are of potentially greatest interest and use in 

 the classrooms and homes of America. Just as important is our 

 goal of understanding how our curators can best use new- 

 technologies to deliver information in new ways. One group is 

 now at work developing an exhibition uniquely configured for 

 cyberspace. I don't know how it will all turn out, but I know 

 it is an experiment worth making. 



Tapping the Smithsonian's electronic potential was one of 

 the goals I set upon taking this job two years ago. Another, 

 which also builds on the strengths of the Institution as a 

 whole, is a commitment to find synergy in the Smithsonian's 

 many important efforts in biodiversity. Within the last few- 

 years, we have created a Council on Biodiversity and the 

 Environment with representation from all relevant parts of the 

 Institution. Together, the Conservation and Research Center 

 of che National Zoo, the Zoo itself, the National Museum of 

 Natural History, the Smithsonian Environmental Research 

 Center, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute 

 represent an extraordinary ecological resource. The 

 Smithsonian, too, can provide a useful neutral forum where 

 difficult and complex topics related to biodiversity can be 

 discussed. We have followed this up with an Institute for 



Conservation Biology to stimulate joint projects and thus 

 make concrete the promise of cooperation among our scholars 

 in different parts of the Institution. 



In so many things that we are committed to achieve in the 

 future, we are only at the beginning of our potential. In the fuller 

 representation of major American cultures, we look forward to 

 the continuing development of the National Museum of the 

 American Indian and the growing role of our new Center for 

 African American History and Culcure. Two years ago, upon my 

 arrival, we began an initiative to represent the Latino cultures of 

 the United States more fully in the collections, programs, and 

 staffing of the Institution. We still have a long way to go, but we 

 are making discernible progress. 



The Smithsonian's electronic transformation still awaits the 

 partners who will permit us to devote resources equal to the 

 needs of creacing visual databases and prototypes of electronic 

 ventures chat will meet both our educational goals and the 

 needs of the marketplace. We have a potential role, too, in the 

 creation of television and radio programs that carry the 

 experience of the Smithsonian to new audiences across the 

 nation and around the world. 



When I took on this job, I was convinced that my greatest 

 challenge would be to find a way to secure the Smithsonian's 

 financial future. Two years have done nothing to change that 

 view. In the last few years of economic dislocation and political 

 transformation, che very condirions under which we and our 

 society operare have changed. For the Smithsonian, public 

 funding is still available to support our core activities. In that, we 

 are luckier than most. But even the optimists among us know 

 that we face a future of fewer available public resources. If we can 

 find funds nowhere else, we are doomed at best to a static future, 

 and at worst to one of continuing erosion. 



This is something I cannot allow to happen on my watch. 

 Now that we have had a year of celebration to remind us what 

 we mean to the American public and to create new modes of 

 national access to our collections, our expertise, and our 

 function as meeting ground, we must build structures of 

 support and growth as innovative as those that built the 

 modern Smithsonian. We will be alert to opportunities, but 

 we will also learn to create them. 



My next years as Secretary will expand on the lessons we 

 have learned during this gala 150th year. They will be years 

 marked by the development of partnerships: with the public 

 and private sectors, with organizations and individuals, 

 within the Smithsonian, and between the Smithsonian and 

 those outside it who share our goals for America's future. 



More than ever before, the Smithsonian intends to serve che 

 entire nation. As a public trust, we exist to fulfill the public's 

 desires and needs, whether these involve building new 

 dimensions of knowledge, collecting valued objects, honoring 

 the nation's diverse heritage, or sometimes simply having a 

 good time. 



What an opportunity we were presented 150 years ago! 



Thank vou, Mr. Smithson. 



