memorabilia, combined to create a vivid portrait of a 

 man who rose from poverty to prominence as one of the 

 most beloved entertainers of his time. The show was 

 organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling 

 Exhibition Service. 



July 28 



■ Exhibition Opening At the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 

 the exhibit "Preserving Ancient Statues from Jordan" 

 opened to the public. This 8-month show, a collaborative 

 project of the Conservation Analytical Laboratory (CAL) 

 and the Sackler Gallery, featured the unique neolithic 

 plaster statues from the site of Ain-Ghazal, conserved and 

 reconstructed in a multi-year project at CAL. 



August 



■ Video Documentaries Smithsonian Productions com- 

 pleted two educational videos about native Ojibwe pow- 

 wow celebrations in northern Wisconsin, Naamikaagad: 

 Dancer for the People and Wisconsin Powwow, as a joint 

 project with the Center for Folklife Programs and Cul- 

 tural Studies. 



August 



■ Grant Award The Annenberg/CPB Math and 

 Science Project awarded SAO Si.3-million to create, in 

 cooperation with Massachusetts Corporation for Educa- 

 tional Telecommunications (MCET), a satellite 

 television service and companion World Wide Web site 

 to provide programming for teachers, schools, and com- 

 munities, which will draw on the Annenberg/CPB 

 Project archival materials. 



August 



■ Acquisition A prototype of the amino acid analyzer, 

 developed by Stanford Moore and William Stein at Rock- 

 efeller University, was donated to the National Museum of 

 American History. The two scientists used this apparatus 

 to elucidate the primary structure of ribonuclease, the first 

 enzyme to have its sequence revealed. For this work they 

 won the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 



August 



■ World Wide Web Site A joint National Zoo-' Ralston 

 Purina Co. project connected the computer-using public 

 to sites at the National Zoo, including its Elephant 



House, using a Webcam donated by Purina. The National 

 Zoo continues to expand on its highly rated Internet web 

 site. Visitors to the electronic site can read articles, explore 

 the photo gallery, visit exhibits, view slide lectures and 

 films of animals — all from the comfort of their homes 

 or schools. The on-line coverage is designed to raise 

 awareness not only of the two partners' Web sites 

 (http://www.purina.com, http://www.si.edu/natzoo) but 

 also of the Zoo's efforts in breeding endangered species. 



August 



■ Public Program As exhibitors, staff from each shop of 

 the Office of Exhibits Central — Design and Editing, 

 Graphics, Model Shop, and Fabrication — were active 

 participants in the Folklife Festival and in the Birthday 

 Party on the Mall. Working with the Folklife program 

 and 150th Birthday Celebration staff, OEC devised in- 

 dividual and teamwork demonstration techniques, inex- 

 pensively produced quality graphic displays, and 

 computer design presentations. OEC presentations 

 received special notice for helping exhibition develop- 

 ment and production processes come alive for an extraor- 

 dinary range of visitors, from school groups to 

 Congressional staffers. 



August 



■ Fund Raising Infiniti, a division of Nissan Motor 

 Corporation U.S.A., made a multi-million dollar com- 

 mitment to fund a collection of eight Smithsonian 

 music programs, featuring the exhibitions Wade in the 

 Water: African- American Sacred Music Tradition and This 

 Land is My Land: Woody Guthrie's American Vision, both 

 organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Ex- 

 hibition Service (SITES), and the following programs of 

 America's Jazz Heritage. A Partnership of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund: the 

 SITES exhibition The Jazz Age in Paris: 1914-1940. the 

 Washington showing of SITES' Louis Armstrong: A Cul- 

 tural Legacy at the National Portrait Gallery, the Smith- 

 sonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra 1996 Summer 

 Season, the public radio series "Jazz Smithsonian: Musi- 

 cal Masterpieces of American Jazz," the Smithsonian 

 Jazz Oral History' Project, and a Smithsonian Jazz 

 Masterworks Orchestra compact disc. 



August 



■ Special Event As experts in the design and produc- 

 tion of indoor and outdoor signage, the Office of Ex- 

 hibits Central assumed responsibility for much of the 



42 



