Office of the Smithsonian Institution 

 Archives 



John F.Jameson, Acting Director 



The Office of the Smithsonian Institution Archives (OSIA), 

 through its archives, institutional history, and collections man- 

 agement divisions, serves as a resource for Smithsonian admin- 

 istrative and program activities, investigates and reports on 

 significant aspects of the Institution's history-, and advises on 

 museum, archival, and library collection management mat- 

 ters. OSIA responds to more than 2,000 requests for informa- 

 tion and research assistance each year. 



This year, OSIA used funding from the Institution's Re- 

 search Resources Program to begin, with the assistance of the 

 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, a pan-institutional initia- 

 tive to improve preservation of archival collections. Other par- 

 ticipants were the National Museum of Natural History's 

 Division of Fishes, the Freer Gallery of Art-Arthur M. Sackler 

 Gallery Archives, and the National Air and Space Museum's 

 Aeronautics Department. 



OSIA's Institutional History Division undertook several 

 projects in preparation for the Smithsonian's 150th anniversary 

 celebration in 1996. The staff began to compile a chronology, 

 revise and enlarge a bibliography on Smithsonian history, and 

 assemble a database of photographic citations. Interns re- 

 searched the history of African Americans at the Institution 

 and Smithsonian-Latin American relations. Oral history inter- 

 views of Theodore H. Reed, Louis R. Purnell, Robert McC. 

 Adams, and C. Malcolm Watkins wete recorded. With vol- 

 ume 7 of the Joseph Henry Papers scheduled for publication 

 in 1995, the staff began research on volume 8, which docu- 

 ments Henry's career from 1850 through 1853. 



The Archives Division appraised, boxed, and transferred 

 231 cubic feet of records from the Cooper-Hewitt, National 

 Design Museum. The records included valuable documenta- 

 tion from the Office of the Director, Department of Decora- 

 tive Arts, Registrar. Exhibitions Department, and a library 

 collection on the history of the Cooper Union. 



The National Collections Program compiled and published 

 the eighth annual collection statistics, which this year offered 

 consolidated data on collections growth, acquisitions, 

 deaccessioning, and loan activity for museum, archival, and 

 library collections. 



Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory 



Iruin I. Shapiro. Director 



The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is dedi- 

 cated to the "increase of knowledge" through the discovery 



and explanation of those physical processes that determine the 

 nature and evolution of the universe, and to its "diffusion" 

 through the dissemination of research results to the scientific 

 community, the training of graduate students, the creation of 

 educational materials for teachers and students, and educa- 

 tional outreach to the general public. 



Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, SAO is joined 

 with the Harvard College Observatory in the Center for Astro- 

 physics (CfA), which has more than 200 professional staff en- 

 gaged in a broad program of research in astronomy, astrophysics, 

 and earth and space sciences organized by the following divisions: 

 atomic and molecular physics, high-energy astrophysics, optical 

 and infrared astronomy, planetary sciences, radio and geo- 

 astronomy, solar and stellar physics, and theoretical astrophysics. 

 Observational data are gathered by instruments aboard rockets, 

 balloons, and spacecraft, as well as by ground-based telescopes at 

 SAO s Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona and Oak 

 Ridge Observatory in Massachusetts, and at a millimeter-wave 

 radio installation in Cambridge. 



Current initiatives include the creation of a submillimeter 

 radio telescope array in Hawaii, the conversion of the Multi- 

 ple Mirror Telescope to a single-mirror instrument 6.5 meters 

 in diameter, and preparation for the launch of space experi- 

 ments in x-ray, submillimeter, and solar astronomy. 



Atomic and Molecular Physics Division 

 Kate Kirby, Associate Director 



The Atomic and Molecular Physics Division (AMP) carries 

 out research in a broad range of areas in theory, experiment, 

 and observation. A large portion of this work is the study of 

 atomic and molecular processes applicable to astrophysical en- 

 vironments and the terrestrial atmosphere. To improve meth- 

 ods for interpreting astronomical data and to provide more 

 accurate data for astrophysical diagnostics, AMP laboratory ex- 

 periments include measurements of dielectronic recombina- 

 tion coefficients, electron-impact excitation cross sections, 

 radiative transition probabilities, and photoabsotption cross 

 sections. Research in stratospheric chemistry via balloon- 

 borne and satellite-borne instruments is also conducted. A 

 new experiment to probe the fundamental laws of physics by 

 searching for evidence of a permanent electric dipole moment 

 in an atom is being developed. A primary focus of Division 

 theorists is the administration of and participation in the pro- 

 grams of the Institute for Theoretical Atomic and Molecular 

 Physics (ITAMP). Over the last 6 years, the Institute has been 

 extremely successful in attracting leading theorists in the field 

 to visit and collaborate with each other, and in supporting a 

 number of postdoctoral positions to conduct independent re- 

 search in forefront areas of theoretical atomic, molecular and 

 optical physics. Funding for ITAMP comes from the National 

 Science Foundation. 



Research highlights and accomplishments in 1994 include: 



Confirmation of the accuracy and consistency of atomic and 



molecular physics data obtained in AMP laboratories has been 



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