March 19 



Special Event: Seal Day, with special talks and demonstrations to increase 

 public awareness of the need to conserve seals, was held at the National Zoo. 



March 20 



Product Licensing: Smithsonian announced a licensing agreement with Century 

 Furniture Co. of Hickory, North Carolina, that allows reproductions of 

 eighteenth- and nineteenth-century furniture selected from the Smithsonian 

 collections. 



March 23-26 



Symposium: The Office of Folklife Programs sponsored a symposium titled "Seeds 

 of Commerce: Cultural and Economic Exchange in the Caribbean." It is the second 

 in a series of three Quincentenary symposia. Held in Santiago de Cuba under the 

 auspices of the Casa del Caribe, presentations examined the impact of Colonial 

 plantation systems on the development of folklife and culture in Caribbean 

 societies. 



March 29-30 



Exhibition: "L'Art de Vivre: Decorative Arts and Design in France, 1789-1989" 

 opened at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum with a preview on March 29 and a public 

 opening the following day. The landmark exhibition, which celebrates the 

 bicentennial of the French Revolution, was funded by a generous grant from the 

 Comite Colbert. It was the first exhibition since 1976 to fill the entire 

 museum; it was accompanied by a publication of the same title. 



April 



Program: Nobel Laureate Dr. James D. Watson spoke to a capacity audience on 

 "Mapping the Human Genome." The event was sponsored by the Smithsonian Resident 

 Associate Program. 



April 



Performances: The Duke Ellington Festival at the National Museum of American 

 History presented more than thirty-five performances of Ellington's music by 

 renowned jazz artists; the festival also included films and a symposium. 



April 



Video Release: "The Magnificent Whales," the first video production from the 

 Smithsonian Institution Press, was released through Smithsonian Books. 



April 



Research: Nearly two decades after the Apollo astronauts returned the first 

 samples of lunar soil, a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory geologist has 

 identified a rock type--cordierite--not previously seen in any of the lunar soil 

 samples. 



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