sion, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, tided, "A Morning 

 with Major Collectors of American Art." 



May 



■ Publication The National Postal Museum released 

 "We Were There: Letters From the Battlefield," an in- 

 structional curriculum workbook distributed to teachers 

 across the nation. 



May 



■ Special Issue Smithsonian Magazine published a spe- 

 cial issue in May devoted entirely to the Institution's 

 150th anniversary. The special issue included articles on 

 Tony Seeger of the Center for Folklife Programs' study 

 of the Suya Indians of Brazil; a profile of architect 

 Douglas Cardinal, selected to design the National 

 Museum of the American Indian; the National Museum 

 of Natural History's forensic anthropologist Doug 

 Owsley; the restoration process of the Freer's priceless 

 Japanese scrolls; the Smithsonian's Mpala Research 

 Centre in Kenya; the National Museum of American 

 Art's collection of American daguerreotypes; zoologist 

 Dr. Clyde Roper's search for the elusive giant squid; the 

 classification system of taxonomy and its extensive use 

 at the National Museum of Natural History. 



May 



enclosure to an open, unfenced release site in a wooded 

 tract on Zoo grounds. This year marks the 10th anniver- 

 sary of Zoo staff using this "controlled release" tech- 

 nique as part of conditioning strategy preparing 

 zoo-raised tamarins for reintroduction to the wild. Their 

 natural home is in a reserve in the Atlantic coastal forest 

 of Brazil. Since 1984, 169 zoo-born and their offspring 

 have joined the remnant wild population of tamarins — 

 all as a result of the National Zoo's work to help save 

 the species from extinction. 



May 



■ Exhibition In a matter of weeks, OEC designed, 

 edited, produced, and installed the juried exhibition Ar- 

 tists at Work: A Celebration of Staff Creativity. Four OEC 

 staffers — Diana Cohen Airman, Rick Pelasara, Susan 

 Smith-Pinelo, and Carolyn Thome — were selected as 

 artists in the exhibition. 



May 



■ Office Move The administrative offices, education 

 staff, computer center, and various research components 

 of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center 

 were moved from the Old Dominion wing of the Char- 

 les Mathias Laboratory Building to a new replacement 

 building. Subsequently the Old Dominion wing was 

 demolished due to serious structural problems. 



■ Research Result Using ground-based methods, the 

 Gamma Ray Collaboration at SAO's Fred Lawrence 

 Whipple Observatory discovered a new class of active 

 galaxies, which are thought to have massive black holes 

 at their center and to be among the most energetic ob- 

 jects in the universe. In fact, the gamma-ray emission 

 from Markarian 421 is the most energetic radiation ever 

 detected by a ground-based observatory. 



May 



■ Publication The National Postal Museum released 

 The Graceful Envelope, a book highlighting the work of 

 more than 30 calligraphers who donated inscribed en- 

 velopes sent to the National Postal Museum. 



May 



■ Endangered Species Breakthrough In what has become a 

 rite of spring at the National Zoological Park, a pair of 

 golden lion tamarin monkeys were moved from an 



May I 



■ New Director Robert W. Fri assumed the post of 

 director of the National Museum of Natural History. Fri 

 has a distinguished record of public service, including 

 having served as deputy administrator of the Environ- 

 mental Protection Agency and as a member of the 

 President's Commission on Environmental Quality. 

 From 1986 to 1996, he was president of Resources for 

 the Future, a nonprofit organization that provides 

 independent research information on conservation, 

 natural resources, and the environment. 



May 6 



■ Special Event The Smithsonian Corporate Member- 

 ship Program of the Office of Membership and Develop- 

 ment hosted its annual meeting with the Boatd of 

 Regents and Secretary I. Michael Heyman in the Com- 

 mons at the Smithsonian Institution Building. The 

 topic at the luncheon was "How Leaders Collaborate to 



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