nia Avenue. It was shown with two histonc panotamas of the 

 city — an 1875 view from the Smithsonian Castle on the Na- 

 tional Mall, taken by railroad photographer Francis Hacker, 

 and a 1903 view from the treasury Annex on Pennsylvania Ave- 

 nue photographed by Frederick Brehm. 



The museum began to make extensive information about 

 its collections, publications, and activities available to home 

 and school personal computer users through America Online. 

 Selected publications — including articles from the quarterly 

 journal American Art and the text of the best-selling book Free 

 Within Ourselves, complete with images — can be read on-line 

 or printed. Press releases, exhibitions schedules, informational 

 brochures, and up-to-the-minute information about museum 

 events are included, as are digital images trom the permanent 

 collection. 



National Museum of American History 



Spencer R. Crew, Director 



The National Museum of American History (NMAH) dedi- 

 cates its collections and scholarship to inspiring a broader 

 understanding of our nation and its many peoples. Draw- 

 ing upon over 17 million artifacts and the holdings of the 

 NMAH Archives Center, which together comprise one of 

 the world's finest history collections, we create learning op- 

 portunities, stimulate imaginations, and present challeng- 

 ing ideas about our country's past through original 

 research, publications, exhibitions, and public programs. 

 Today new technologies enable the museum to further 

 share its explorations of American history and culture with 

 audiences on the Mall and far beyond. 



In the fall of 1993, then-Acting Director Spencer Crew an- 

 nounced plans for a full review and reorganization of museum 

 organizations and opetations in order to meet Smithsonian- 

 wide reductions in staff and to enhance the working environ- 

 ment for NMAH staff, making the best use of available 

 resources. Task forces formed to study, review, and recom- 

 mend new approaches to achieve the goals in the new mu- 

 seum mission statement and to address new opportunities in 

 education, staffing needs, reorganization, and programming 

 in advance of reorganization that would take effect in October 

 1994. 



On October 29, 1993, the first ceremony for the new 

 Smithsonian Exhibition Awards was held in Carmichael Audi- 

 torium. An overflow crowd applauded as the museum swept 

 the two top categories. Nancy McCoy of the Education Divi- 

 sion won the Superior Individual Effort Award for her role in 

 creating the museum s enormously popular and successful 

 Hands On History Room, a 3,000-square foot space that of- 

 fers visitors young and old the opportunity to explore Ameri- 

 can history in over 40 hands-on activities. 



Acting Director Spencer Crew accepted the prize for Best 

 Overall Smithsonian Exhibition for his work as curator of the 

 1984 permanent exhibition, "Field to Factory: Afro-American 

 Migration, 1915-1940." The competition attracted 143 nomina- 

 tions in eight categories. The audience was treated to a fast- 

 paced show written and produced by Dwight Blocker Bowers, 

 NMAH museum programs director, and emceed by Channel 

 4 anchor Jim Vance. The awards program, which had some- 

 thing of the air of a family reunion, featured musical numbers 

 with lyrics written for the occasion by Dwight Bowers and 

 sung by members of the resident American Song Company. 

 The museum was proud to host the first in this new and pres- 

 tigious awards venue. 



Smithsonian Institution Secretary Robert McC. Adams on 

 January 24, 1994, named Acting Ditector Spencer R. Crew, a 

 historian and a former NMAH curator, as Director of the Na- 

 tional Museum of American History. The appointment from 

 within the museum was met with pride and pleasure by 

 NMAH staff, many of whom had worked alongside Dr. Crew 

 as colleagues over the past decade. 



Master plan renovations, which continued to affect virtu- 

 ally every area of museum operations, finally reached the fifth 

 floor, causing the staff of the director's office to relocate for 

 part of the year to the fourth floor. The NMAH library shut 

 down for a few months, and Librarian Rhoda Ratner managed 

 to make that disruption as painless as possible, setting up a 

 satellite reference area and urging staff to call ahead for vol- 

 umes they would need during the library closing. When work 

 is completed on the fifth floor, the renovations will go into 

 the final phase in basement office, storage, and utility areas in 

 early 1995. Projected completion date is 1997. In the mean- 

 time staff still cope good-humoredly with blocked stairwells 

 and elevators to nowhere as the evolving needs of renovations 

 reroute daily traffic patterns. 



Two extraordinary exhibitions, staged continents apart, 

 dominated the NMAH agenda in 1994. "Science in American 

 Life," which explores the intersections of science and society 

 since the Civil War, opened in April at the museum. In July, 

 "The Smithsonian's America: An Exhibition on American His- 

 tory and Technology" premiered in Tokyo at the American 

 Festival Japan '94, celebrating the 140th anniversary of the 

 Treaty of Kanagawa that established U.S. -Japanese relations. 



Supported by $5.3 million from the Amencan Chemical So- 

 ciety, "Science in American Life" involved a project team of 75 

 curators, designers, fabricators, researchers, educators, and 

 other staff. The exhibition itself moves from the founding of 

 the first university research laboratory at Johns Hopkins in 

 1876 and the teaching of science at a historically black college, 

 Hampton Institute, to the 20th-century rise of industrial re- 

 search labs, the impact of science on daily life in the 1950s, 

 growing public concern with environmental and personal 

 health effects of seemingly benign processes and compound, 

 and such issues as genetic engineeting. 



"Science in American Life" is the first NMAH exhibition 

 on the history of science to include a science-center compo- 



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