August 13 



Exhibition: "Roger Brown," a midcareer retrospective for this Chicago-based artist, 

 began its four-city national tour at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Brown 

 later appeared at the museum in a public dialogue with film critic Gene Siskel. 



August 13 



Media Event: The Office of Public Affairs held the first Smithsonian press preview 

 organized for the Hispanic media. Focusing on the Institution's plans for the 

 Columbus Quincentenary, the event was attended by twenty-nine journalists and sixty 

 key figures from the Smithsonian and the Hispanic community. 



August 17 



Appointment: Cornell University astrophysicist Martin O. Harwit was appointed 

 director of the National Air and Space Museum. 



August 24 



Acquisition: The National Museum of American Art acquired John Valentine Haidt's 

 Young Moravian Girl (ca. 1755-1760) with funds provided by the American Art Forum, a 

 group founded in 1985 to support and enrich the museum's collection of American art. 



August 27 



Special Event: Sponsoring, Sustaining, Patron, and James Smithson Society Members 

 viewed the exhibition "John La Farge" at the National Museum of American Art. 



September 



Research Milestone: In a historic new project designed to aid in the preservation of 

 the richest area of biodiversity on earth, a team of National Museum of Natural 

 History scientists, working with colleagues from the United States and Latin America, 

 systematically began to inventory the plant and animal life of Bolivia's Beni 

 Biosphere Reserve. It was the first of a series of biodiversity inventories planned 

 by the museum over the next decade in protected reserves and parks in Latin America. 



September 



International Center: International Activities inaugurated the public and scholarly 

 programs of the International Center with three presentations: Professor David 

 Maybury-Lewis, Harvard University, spoke on "Tomorrow's Children: An Outlook for the 

 Next Generation"; award-winning filmmakers Phil Agland and Lisa Silcock premiered 

 their film In the Shadow of the Forest: The Baka Pygmy; and noted author Carlos 

 Fuentes opened the Columbus Quincentenary Lecture Series with a lecture on "The 

 Americas: Our Shared Memory." 



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