Dr. Tim McCoy, a new member of the department, com- 

 pleted a study of meteorites that offer insights into the very 

 early solar system. 



Paleobiology 



Dr. Conrad Labandeira identified the oldest known insect gall 

 on a fossil tree-fern that grew 300 million years ago in a coal- 

 swamp forest in what is now Illinois. If, like modern galls, the 

 growth is the plant's response to insect attack, the fossil will 

 push scientists' dates for such complex interactions between 

 insects and plants 175 million years farther into the past than 

 previously thought. 



By studying fossils and sediments in Morocco, a research 

 team led by Dr. Richard Benson has established that the 

 Mediterranean Sea dried up suddenly 5.6 million years ago 

 and stayed dry for 840,000 years, more than twice as long as 

 paleobiologists had estimated. 



Vertebrate Zoology 



Dr. Jeffrey Williams — assisted by Museum colleague Dr. 

 David Smith, the staff of the Vanuatu Fisheries Department, 

 and other scientists — led the first extensive sampling survey 

 of the shorefish biodiversity of Vanuatu, in the southwestern 

 Pacific. 



Dr. Ron Heyer, Vertebrate Zoology, chairman of the Declin- 

 ing Amphibians Populations Task Force, curated the exhibi- 

 tion Vanishing Amphibians for the Smithsonian Institution 

 Ttaveling Exhibition Service (SITES). 



Using ultrasound equipment and cametas with sophisti- 

 cated multiflash arrays. Dr. Charles Handley and research as- 

 sociate Dr. Elizabeth Kalko continued their studies of the 

 behavior and ecology of bats in the rain forests of Central and 

 northern South Ametica. Many of their photographs and 

 recordings are of species not previously documented. 



National Portrait Gallery 



Alan Fern. Director 



through bequests, such as Jamie Wyeth's painting of Lincoln 

 Kirstein, and Nathaniel Jocelyn's 1833 portrait of William 

 Lloyd Garrison. One of the Gallery's important purchases was 

 a portrait of African American reformer Mary Church Terrell 

 by Betsy Graves Reyneau that was originally part of a group 

 of paintings commissioned by the Harmon Foundation 

 during the 1940s and 1950s. Forty-one of the portraits were 

 given to the National Portrait Gallery in 1967, but the Terrell 

 portrait remained in the artist's hands until purchased from 

 her descendants in 1996. Other important gifts and bequests 

 were the portraits of Arthur Sackler, Grant Wood, and Mary 

 Leiter, Lady Curzon. 



Acquisitions in the Ptints and Drawings Department in- 

 cluded purchases of Samuel Laurence's charcoal of James Rus- 

 sell Lowell, portraits of Henry James and Charles Yerkes by 

 Max Beerbohm, and drawings of Harpo Marx, Eva Le Gal- 

 lienne, and Mae West by Miguel Covarrubias. Gifts included 

 Titian Peak's charcoal self portrait of circa 1845 and Saint- 

 Memin's 1805 chalk drawing of Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick. In ad- 

 dition NPG acquired by partial donation a silk dress of circa 

 1927 printed with a portrait caricature design by Ralph 

 Barton. 



The Department of Photographs purchased at auction a 

 daguerreotype of abolitionist John Btown by an African- 

 American daguerreorypist, Augustus Washington. As the ear- 

 liest portrait of Brown, this daguerreotype has long been 

 known through reproductions, but was until recently assumed 

 to be lost. The image probably dates ftom 1847, the year 

 Augustus Washington opened his studio in Hartford. Other 

 notable acquisitions include a gift of four photographs of rock 

 and roll stars from the 1960s and 1970s, made by Linda Mc- 

 Cartney; a daguerreotype portrait of Peter Cooper and his 

 family; a portrait of Western explorer John Wesley Powell; a 

 self-portrait by celebrity photographer Baron de Meyer; Don 

 Larsen pitching a perfect game fot the Yankees in the 1956 

 World Series; and Julie Harris, Ethel Waters and Carson Mc- 

 Cullers on opening night of the Broadway classic "Member of 

 the Wedding." In conjunction with the upcoming exhibition 

 and publication, Matheu- Brady and the Image of History. 1844— 

 l&jz. scheduled for September 1997, the department acquired 

 a photograph published by Mathew Btady in 1862, "Rose 

 Greenough and her daughter Rose." 



The National Portrait Gallery is dedicated to the exhibition 

 and study of portraits of people who have made significant 

 contributions to American history and culture and co the 

 study of the artists who created such portraiture. The Gallery 

 sponsors a variety of scholarly and public activities for audien- 

 ces interested in American art and American history. 



Collections Acquisitions — The Department of Painting and 

 Sculpture acquired several portraits by important American ar- 

 tists, including paintings of Mexican War hero Samuel 

 Ringgold by John Vanderlyn and Leonard Wood by John 

 Singer Sargent, and a 1942 marble bust of Ginger Rogers by 

 Isamu Noguchi. Several portraits have come to the Gallery 



Research 



The NMAA/NPG Library completed the accession of 39 boxes 

 of material from the library of American folk art collectot Her- 

 bert Waide Hemphill, Jr., and has begun processing 60 boxes 

 of exhibition catalogs received from the National Endowment 

 for the Arts. 



The Library purchased 84 microfilm reels of the title The 

 Eighteenth Century: Fine Arts. This is a special subset from the 

 British Library's eighteenth century short titles collection 

 (items published between 1701-1800). It also purchased 

 several CD-ROM titles for the Library's collection: Edward 



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