December 23 



Acquisition: An important collection of 113 works of the 1930s and 1940s by American 

 abstract artists was donated to the National Museum of American Art by Patricia and 

 Phillip Frost of Miami Beach. 



December 30 



Acquisition: The National Museum of American Art acquired 378 folk art objects of the 

 eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, a purchase and a major gift from 

 Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., whose holdings are acknowledged to be among the finest in 

 private hands in the United States today. 



December 30 



Acquisition: The National Portrait Gallery acquired a painting of Rubens Peale by 

 Rembrandt Peale. 



December 30 



Temporary Closing: The Anacostia Neighborhood Museum closed at its site at 2405 

 Martin Luther King, Jr., Ave., Southeast, Washington, D.C. The converted movie 

 theater had been the museum's home since its opening in 1967. The museum remained 

 closed until May, when it reopened at its new site in Southeast Washington's historic 

 Fort Stanton Park and was redesignated the Anacostia Museum, reflecting the national 

 and international recognition accorded the museum's program on Afro-American history, 

 art, and culture. 



January 



Conservation Program: From January through May 1987, an environmental education 

 program was carried out in the San Bias Islands by the Smithsonian Tropical Research 

 Institute Office of Education and Conservation. The program acquainted inhabitants of 

 the archipelago with the institute's work and described how the results of research 

 can be applied to daily activities and to conservation. 



January 



New Program: The Program in Hispanic American History was begun in the Department of 

 Public Programs at the National Museum of American History. The program addresses 

 critical themes of Hispanic American history, from colonial times to the contemporary 

 struggles of Hispanics to find a place in American society. 



January 



Discovery: Two Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomers reported 

 convincing evidence that one class of young variable stars may be brightening due to 

 material from surrounding disks falling onto their surfaces. The finding suggests 

 that such disks, which are precursors of planetary systems, may be very common 

 features of all young stars. 



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