I 



The National Gallery of Art during the George Washington 

 Bicentennial in 1932. The large paintings on the walls 

 were specially prepared by American artists, and a 



temporary exhibit of sculpture was installed. Below the 

 picture of Fort Necessity is the statue by Darnel Chester 

 French, The Minuteman. 



to shoot a few games of pool, later returning to pick 

 up his hat. Henderson also mentioned the technician 

 in the ground-floor preparation room of the Depart- 

 ment of Geology. He would come to the Museum each 

 morning and telephone to Miss Moodey, the depart- 

 mental secretary — everyone on the staff had to report 

 in. Then he would turn on the large band saw used to 

 cut meteorites and go off to the waterfront for hours. 

 One day the band went off course and sawed into the 

 steel table. The saw and the table with the two-inch- 

 deep cut are still in use. 



The Staff and the Telephone 



The telephone office was at the northeast corner of the 

 north range. The staff was allowed six private calls a 

 month; all others were charged at a rate of three cents 

 per call. Upon getting the operator, the first step was 

 to state that this was an off icial call. The chief operator 



had the habit of listening from time to time and then 

 ringing the staff member after a call was completed, 

 arguing that the business had been private, not official. 

 One conversation was concluded by the outside party's 

 saying that he had better hang up because the old bat 

 might be listening in. The chief operator immediately 

 rang the curator's office, incensed at being called an 

 old bat by someone outside the Museum. 



Although later telephone operators did not so ob- 

 viously listen in, for years all long-distance calls had to 

 be placed through an operator; it took a bit of effort 

 to reach the point where the curators could place long- 

 distance calls directly without first notifying the de- 

 partmental secretary. Not until 1 9(53, when a more elab- 

 orate telephone system was installed in the new Mu- 

 seum of History and Technology, did the staff have 

 access to direct dialing throughout the country. Not 

 until 1980 were push-button telephones installed. 



Inlerregiium 



73 



