Susann Braden preparing to 

 mount a specimen on a 

 SEM stub, J illy 1984. The 

 ugly gray machine behind is 

 used to apply a gold/pallad- 

 ium coating before placing 

 the stub in the microscope. A 

 few enlargements of SEM 

 photographs decorate 

 the far wall. 



a high-roofed shed in the east court. The table, a mag- 

 nificent slab of granite no longer needed for the ex- 

 hibits, was its only impressive feature. The building was 

 not much to begin with and rapidly became worse. Acid 

 fumes corroded the nailheads, and occasionally a piece 

 of wallboard fell down. Meanwhile, there was a contin- 

 uing reaction between the gypsum of the wallboard and 

 the acid fumes in the air, so that little piles of white 

 powder accumulated around the walls. 



When planning for the wings began in earnest. Cooper 

 had to move again, and the taxidermy shop in the east 

 court was vacated and torn down, probably in 1959. Its 

 place has been taken by a large air-conditioning plant 

 and cooling tower. This plant has been run continu- 

 ously since the east wing was completed. On the north- 

 west corner of the east court and the northwest corner 

 of the west court, air-intake towers were constructed. 

 Their boxlike shapes extend above the roof line of the 

 main building and can be seen from Constitution Av- 

 enue. 



Building the Greenhouse 



There is another interesting component to the east 

 courtyard: a greenhouse, constructed in 1976 atop the 

 air-conditioning plant. A proper study of taxonomic 

 botany requires, along with equipment and labs, a large 

 dried collection in a herbarium, a good library, and 

 facilities for live plants. The Museum was superb in the 

 first two but lacked the third. In the early 1970s, a new 

 fumatorium and drying room were built near the west 



loading dock, but $25,000 of the money allocated had 

 not been spent. Robert Read, who had come to the 

 Department of Botany in 1 972 to work on Elora of North 

 America, was told to build a greenhouse with this money, 

 and in all innocence he started. 



All significant government construction in Washing- 

 ton has to be cleared through the Fine Arts Commis- 

 sion. Somehow the appropriate homework was not done 

 when the air-intake towers were constructed, and the 

 Institution was not in the good graces of the Commis- 

 sion. No one had told Read of this little matter, and 

 his greenhouse plans were rejected twice before a de- 

 sign that would be acceptable when viewed from the 

 air was finally approved. (The Museum lies in an area 

 of airspace prohibited to fixed-wing planes, but the 

 bird's-eye view had to be approved regardless.) Several 

 years and a cost overrun later, the greenhouse opened. 

 It has been an important research facility for the staff . 



All Quiet in the West Court 



The west court has had a more placid history; for almost 

 fifty years, practically nothing happened there. After 

 World War I the Museum acquired the famous NC-4, 

 tl\^ first airplane to cross the Atlantic, or at least part 

 of it, but this aircraf t could not be properly displayed 

 in the corrugated shed behind the Castle. According 

 to Paul Garber, there was talk of hoisting it over the 

 roof of the Museum and into the west coui tyard, but 

 after extended discussion the plan was abandoned. Then 



Shared Facilities 



155 



