November 22 



Closing: The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's fifty-seven year-old 

 laboratory in Rockville, Maryland, ceased operations. Originally part of the 

 Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory, the Rockville facility was created by 

 Smithsonian Secretary Charles G. Abbot to study the influence of sunlight on the 

 growth and development of organisms. The laboratory is credited with many important 

 contributions to the understanding of biological responses regulated by sunlight. 



November 23 



Special Events: The first of five "Sunday Afternoons at the National Zoo" was held. 

 Designed to encourage people to visit the Zoo in the winter, programs were offered 

 once a month from November to March. 



November 25 



Property Sale: The Institution sold the buildings and property that had been the home 

 of the National Museum of African Art. The Capitol Hill site was purchased for $2.25 

 million by National Association for Home Care. The funds were used to offset the cost 

 of constructing the museum's new home on the National Mall. 



November 26 



Acquisition: The National Portrait Gallery acquired a rare daguerreotype of Franklin 

 Pierce. The daguerreotype is attributed to Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson 

 Hawes, considered to be the masters of this medium. 



December 



Discovery: Radar observations of twelve near-Earth asteroids led a Harvard- 

 Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer and colleagues at other institutions to 

 suggest that members of this special class of minor planets have extremely irregular, 

 nonconvex shapes. The observations were made with the radio telescope at Arecibo, 

 Puerto Rico. 



December 



Awards: Films and video productions by the Office of Telecommunications won six 

 Golden Eagle awards from the Council on International Non-theatrical Events. The 

 winning productions will represent the United States in competitions abroad. 



December 



Workshop: An Office of Museum Programs workshop on "Collections Management and Care" 

 was conducted in Trinidad by a team of three Smithsonian registrars and conservators. 



December 



Special Course: Eight students from Howard University attended a two-week course in 

 tropical biology conducted at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. 



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