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Design sketch for Hall 11, drawn in the early 1950s before the installation of nexv and refurbished exhibits. The Hopi snake 

 dancers are on the south side near the center of the hall. 



north hall on the second floor, devoted to South Amer- 

 ican Indians, and planned a major revision. Because 

 no one else dared to do it, they came down on a Sat- 

 urday and painted the back of one mahogany case a 

 striking blood-red. Assistant Secretary Kellogg stated 

 that the red had to go, but there was a new Secretary 

 coming in who, as a psychologist, liked colors and their 

 effect on the public . 



Carmichael Succeeds Wetmore 



At the end of 1952 Alexander Wetmore voluntarily 

 stepped down and went back to work full-time in his 

 office in the Division of Birds. He commented that he 

 had "seen the unfortunate results ot c linging to posi- 

 tions tocj long and [that] he was resolved not to make 

 that error."* fiis successor, Leonard Carmichael, a dis- 

 tinguished scientist and educator, looV. ciffice on Jan- 

 uary 2, 1953, as seventh Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



Carmichael had deflnitejdeas abc:)ut modernizing the 

 exhibits and expanding the Institution, and was able 

 to set them in motion. By Jinie 28, 1955, he had ob- 

 tained congressional authorization to plan and con- 

 struct, to the west of the Natural History Building, the 

 Museum of History and Technology; it was opened to 

 the public less than nine years later. (The structure is 

 now called the National Museum of American History, 

 and demonstrates that it is not a good idea to carve a 

 name in stone hastily.) Carmichael was able to obtain 

 significant increases in finiding for the modernization 

 of old exhibits in the Natural History Building, and for 

 display halls in the new building. He studied the pro- 

 posal for each new hall carefully, sometimes making 

 cinators squirm if their display concepts were fuzzy. 



Major Exhibits Program 



There is no question that a major exhibits program was 

 finally starting at the Smithsonian in the early 1950s. 

 Many of the staff did not want to be involved in any 

 such things; for example. Jack Ewers quotes his boss, 



Herbert Krieger, as insisting that there was no need 

 for new exhibits, and that the staff need only "polish 

 up the old Rolls-Royce." Yet the hall completed by Ev- 

 ans and Meggers had made every other antiquated hall 

 locjk even dowdier by comparison. This convinced some 

 of the staff that exhibits work could be done, and even 

 convinced some of the old-timers that it should be done. 



John E. Anglim, frustrated during his career as a pot 

 restorer, now blossomed as a creative designer and dis- 

 play specialist. He juxtaposed stone tools with drawings 

 of their present-day morphologic equivalents. His idea 

 of painting the mahogany cases gray was upsetting to 

 some curators, but this color emphasized the object 

 rather than the case. When an electrician suggested 

 that he could light certain objects better if their posi- 

 tions in the case were reversed, this was done. Anglim 

 went on to become the head of the exhibits program. 



Meanwhile, Evans and Meggers invented a first-rate 

 technique for labeling. They would ask one of the paint- 

 ers to come dcjwn off his ladder and read the label; if 

 he did not understand it, the text was changed. On the 

 completion of the first new hall, they put up a plaque 

 listing the names cjf the carpenters, painters, and elec- 

 tricians from the shops who had helped construct it. 

 Despite the tensions built into this kind of work, the 

 atmosphere was one of celebration. The biggest point 

 of disagreement was that Anglim detested lavender and 

 refused each time Meggers wanted it. (He was prompt 

 to note that in an electrical fire years later, a doll case 

 done in lavender was almost the only casualty.)^ 



New Exhibition Halls 



On April 14, 1954, according to ihe Annual Report, "the 

 first wholly new exhibition hall to be completed in many 

 years at the Smithsonian, 'Highlights of Latin American 

 Archeology,' was opened to the public. . . . This new 

 hall shows many departures for us in modern museum 

 techniques, in lighting, and in the use of color."'' The 

 press gave it excellent reviews,' as did the experts and 

 dignitaries attending its formal opening, the premier 



88 



The Exhibits 



