nent for the teaching of basic scientific principles and tech- 

 niques. In the Hands On Science Center, one of two special in- 

 teractive areas, visitors five years of age and older can carry out 

 experimental activities such as DNA "finger-printing," check- 

 ing food for preservatives, using a Geiger counter to measure 

 radioactivity in household objects. 



Opening an ocean and a continent away from the National 

 Mall, "The Smithsonian's America" was a trans-Pacific logisti- 

 cal triumph for the NMAH team — whose $40-million effort 

 was supported by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) 

 and Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper. The show 

 presented over 300 icons of American life in a multimedia set- 

 ting that included replicas of Mount Rushmore, the Statue of 

 Liberty, and the Star-Spangled Banner. Among the artifacts on 

 view for Japanese visitors were a Kiowa tepee, Amelia 

 Earhart's flight suit, a video of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 

 delivering his "I Have a Dream" address, Judy Garland's ruby 

 slippers, George Eastman's first Kodak, and Wilbur and 

 Orville Wright's 1911 "Vin Fiz" airplane. 



"The Smithsonian's America" was further enriched by 

 two weeks of performances by Cajun, gospel, blues, hip- 

 hop, Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Native American, Latino, 

 and Appalachian musicians and dancers — a moving, memo- 

 rable testament to the vitality, diversity, and strength of 

 the American nation, its peoples, and its institutions. Jap- 

 anese visitors to the exhibition filled the performance areas 

 throughout, and Japanese musicians in the audience stayed 

 on for post-concert impromptu jam sessions with the Amer- 

 ican artists. 



Design refinements and script editing continued for "Land 

 of Promise," an exhibition scheduled for 1995 on life in the 

 United States in the 19th century. Its sections focus on indus- 

 trialization, slavery, immigration, westward expansion, and 

 the experiences of workers, African Americans, Jews, and Na- 

 tive Americans throughout the century. 



Other NMAH exhibitions in this period include "Buffalo 

 Soldiers," curated by Margaret Vining, which explored the 

 lives of African American U.S. Army cavalry troops on the 

 western frontier after the Civil War, and "G.I.: The American 

 Soldier Experience in World War II," jointly curated by the 

 Division of Military History and the Center for Military His- 

 tory. Bill Yardley curated "The Guitar in America," a show- 

 case that tracked the guitar's rise from its European origins 

 and early American use as a parlor instrument to its pre- 

 eminent place in American popular music today. Jon Zach- 

 man curated "Trinkets to Treasure," highlighting souvenirs of 

 the 1893 Chicago and 1993 Barcelona fairs honoring the ex- 

 ploits of Christopher Columbus. 



In cooperation with state humanities councils in West 

 Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, Utah, and Oregon, curators Wil- 

 liam Bird and Harry Rubenstein adapted "Produce for Vic- 

 tory: Posters on the Home Front, 1941-1945" in five small 

 format versions for circulation to smaller rural institutions 

 that have not been able to participate in regular Smithson- 

 ian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service programs. 



Patricia Gossel of the Division of Biological Sciences 

 curated the History in the News showcase on Kery Mullis, 

 winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for devising the 

 polymerase chain reaction in 1985. 



Acquisitions of note in 1993 and 1994 include the gift of 

 Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers union jacket from 

 Helen F. Chavez, his widow; four seats and a section of the 

 lunch counter from the F. W. Woolworth Store in Greensboro, 

 N.C., a gift of the Woolworth Corporation and the site of the 

 first sit-ins by African American college students that led to 

 desegregation of lunch counters throughout the South; an un- 

 usual cotton pieced-work quilt made in 1934 in Fyffe, Ala- 

 bama, by Ada Chitwood Jones of knitted sock tops from a 

 local factory, ginned cotton from the family farm, printed cot- 

 ton distributed to farm women through a New Deal self-help 

 program, and printed cotton fertilizer sacks, was a gift of Mr. 

 and Mrs. Tommie Jones; A gleaming 1948 Tucker automobile, 

 one of only 51 such cars made, was seized in a 1992 drug raid 

 and presented to the museum by the U.S. Marshals Service; 

 and prototype thermal cyclers used for the polymerase chain 

 reaction, the scientific technique used to test and identify 

 DNA samples, and the gift of Roche Molecular. Genentech 

 also gave NMAH the bacterial fermenter used to make the 

 first batch of human insulin in genetically engineered bacte- 

 ria. The museum also received a 1993 Harley-Davidson 90th- 

 anniversary edition motorcycle, the Electra-Glide Ultra 

 Classic, featuring a stereo sound system, CB radio, cruise con- 

 trol, and air-adjustable suspension. 



A varied schedule of public programs and symposia in- 

 cluded "Preserving the Legacy: African American Cowboys in 

 Texas," produced by Niani Kilkenny of the Program in Afri- 

 can American History, which presented living cowboys and 

 rodeo riders descended from 19th-century cowboys and ranch- 

 ers, telling their history and singing their songs. Shirley 

 Cherkasky of the Education Division produced the annual 

 Holiday Celebration, with hundreds of musicians, dancers, 

 craftspeople, and cooks, and the ever-popular seasonal offer- 

 ing, "Trees of Christmas," which drew tens of thousands of vis- 

 itors to the museum during the holidays, as well as program 

 series on the First Ladies and women reformers of the Progres- 

 sive Era. 



National Postal Museum 



James H. Brum, Director 



The National Postal Museum completed its first year of opera- 

 tion in 1994. Maior accomplishments for 1994 included an 

 analysis of actual operating costs associated with the museum, 

 establishment of operational priorities and departmental 

 goals, and the development of the museum's first "Five Year" 

 budget and planning document. 



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