ability to simulate the sense of touch, and James McLurkin 

 showed off the "MicroRobot Ants" which detect food, pass 

 messages to one another, and pick up small objects. 

 Astrophysicist George Carruthers talked to middle-school stu- 

 dents about being a "rocket scientist." Encouraging the stu- 

 dents to develop an interest in science, he told them about his 

 hands-on beginnings in the field, building a telescope when 

 he was only 10 years old. Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of 

 Kevlar, recounted her lifetime of inventiveness and the joy of 

 inventing. Kevlar is found in a range of products: bullet-resis- 

 tant vests, helmets, canoe hulls, tires, skis, sails, and others. 

 "Most chemists," she said, "work all their lives and very hard, 

 and are never able to participate in a discovery that has done 

 so much good as Kevlar." Inventor, artist, and engineer Chuck 

 Hoberman spoke to middle-school students about his work 

 creating objects that transform in size and shape as they move. 

 And during Hispanic Heritage Month, Ellen Ochoa spoke to 

 students from four area schools about her roles as an inventor, 

 scientist, and astronaut at NASA. She holds three patents in 

 the field of optical processing and was the first Latina 

 astronaut selected by NASA. 



The Museum's Program in African American Culture 

 (PAAC) presented "Mind on Freedom: Celebrating the His- 

 tory and Culture of America's Black Colleges and Univer- 

 sities," in observance of Black History Month and the 

 Smithsonian's celebration of its 150th anniversary. The con- 

 ference examined the evolution of historically black colleges 

 and universities, their impact on the lives of individuals and 

 the nation, and their current and future status as educational 

 institutions. In coniunction with the symposium, secondary 

 school students came to the museum for the College Fair, 

 where they could discuss educational opportunities and admis- 

 sion requirements with representatives of 60 participating his- 

 torically black colleges and universities. Later in February, in 

 coniunction with the "Mind on Freedom" conference, 

 "Steppin': The Panhellenic Step Show" featured step troupes 

 from DC. -area colleges and universities perform a sampling 

 of their routines the public. In March, PAAC also offered 

 "Walking Montgomery" to commemorate the historic 381-day 

 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama 40 years ago. The pro- 

 gram included a roundtable discussion with 11 women who 

 patticipated in boycott, a reunion concert by members of the 

 Montgomery Gospel Trio and gospel workshop, and a tour of 

 selected exhibits and museum objects related to social change 

 in America. The fifth annual "Duke Ellington Youth Festival" 

 in April showcased artistic and intellectual achievements by 

 students in Washington public schools, inspired by the life 

 and legacy of composer, conductor, and jazz immortal Edward 

 Kennedy Ellington, a native of the city. Visual art by students 

 was on view in the Taylot Gallery, 



This year, for the first time, visitors to the "Information 

 Age" exhibition at the American History Museum could inter- 

 act with CNN "Talkback Live" cable program. Under a recent 

 agreement, CNN Talkback Live and nerwork MCI Business 

 agreed to install a two-way video link in the exhibition's 



theater to enable the live hook up with the Atlanta-based pro- 

 gram, billed as cable television's only daily interactive town 

 meeting. The museum connected to "Talkback Live" once a 

 week throughout the year so visitors to join the program as it 

 unfolded across America. 



"How Should We Talk about Race in America?" was a 

 public dialogue between Jorge Klor de Alva, professor of eth- 

 nic studies and anthropology at University of California, 

 Berkeley, and Cornel West, professor of religion and African 

 American studies at Harvard University. They discussed such 

 questions as "Do we have the right vocabulary needed to talk 

 about race?," self-definition and self-representation, race and 

 power, and the broad question of national race relations. Social 

 historian Earl Shorris moderated the discussion. 



Scholars, vintners, researchers, and critics gathered for 

 "Red, White and American: A Symposium on Wine in 

 American History and Culture" in May. The symposium ex- 

 plored a broad range of topics related to the history of 

 winemaking and wine consumption in the U.S., and a small 

 exhibition displayed historic objects and graphics related to 

 wine and winemaking. 



Every year, several ongoing public program series at the 

 museum bring music, lectures, interview, conversations, 

 demonstrations, and films to visitors. In the continuing lec- 

 ture series "Looking American: 150 Years of Collecting" 

 visitors had the opportunity hear scholars and experts at the 

 museum discuss a remarkable array of subjects on textiles and 

 clothing. These included everything from synthetic fabrics in 

 the collection, the textile industry in wartime, and the fashion 

 industry just after the war to lab coats, "rez rags" (contem- 

 porary currents of dress among Native people), how the army 

 acquired uniform uniforms during the Civil War, and men's 

 fashions of today and the early republic, in a talk entitled 

 "Strutting Their Stuff: Manly Appearances of 1780 and 1990." 



The American Sampler series presented a five-part program 

 entitled "Different Drummers," which explored for visitors the 

 role of the drum in music around the world. The perfotmers 

 included Havana Select, which played sacred and secular Afro- 

 Cuban music and dance; the Kankouran West African Dance 

 Company; Celtic Thunder, which offered music of Ireland and 

 Irish Americans; Soh Daiko, which presented traditional 

 Japanese taiko drumming; and Native American artists Laura 

 Wallace (Navajo) and Midge Dean Stock (Seneca), singing 

 traditional songs and talking about the roles of Native women 

 in music and the lives of their people. 



The American Song series, with support from the American 

 Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, focused this 

 year on oral histories of songwriters and performers. The 

 guests featured in the public interviews included songwriters 

 Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, creators of such rock 'n' roll clas- 

 sics as "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock" and a host of hits 

 in genres from cabaret to rhythm and blues; Marilyn Bergman 

 and her husband and collaborator, Alan Bergman, who 

 together produced hits such as "The Windmills of Your 

 Mind," "Nice 'n' Easy," "The Way We Were," and the score 



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