R.E. Blackwelder, an entomologist formerly on the staff, 

 and Waldo Schmitt on the south steps, in 1976. At the 

 time, "Uncle Waldo" was in his eighteenth year of 

 retirement work at the office. The placjue does not meiitio)) 

 the Museum of Man. 



guards are always watching for this, but inevitably a 

 few tourists do suffer losses. Once a young man found 

 "operating" a self-service elevator and charging tourists 

 twenty-five cents a ride was escorted from the building 

 and advised not to come back. 



Losses from the exhibits have been very few, and 

 nothing noteworthy has disappeared. In one incident 

 from the 1930s, a guard noticed that an African spear 

 was missing from a wall display, and reported it. The 

 next day he kept watch, and observed a man moving 

 another spear slightly upward in its retaining brackets. 

 Each day the spear was pushed a little higher. The 

 guard was watching on the day the thief got it loose 

 and hurled it out the window to an accomplice. Both 

 were caught. 



A few years ago a former employee tried to rob the 

 museum shop before it opened for the day, but was 

 caught before he reached the exit. In the 1970s a 

 professional mineral thief was captured after he re- 

 moved several screws from a case and set off the alarm. 

 Not every case is equipped with an alarm, but most are. 

 Security screws are also used on many of the cases. 



One fairly new development is the appearance of 

 women on the guard force. This was not so much a 

 result of the women's liberation movement as a con- 

 sequence of Civil Service reclassification. For about sixty 

 years the elevators in the building were run by oper- 

 ators, and since the early 1940s most of the operators 

 were women. Guards were forbidden to operate the 

 elevators during working hours, except in an emer- 

 gency. Eventually, it was decided to abolish the separate 

 classification of elevator operator, and these women 

 became part of the guard force. For a time the elevators 

 were viewed as "perimeter security" because they pro- 



Olhers in the Building 



Officer Harrison McPhaul in the Cent Hall, at the ive^t 

 end of Hall 19, July 1984. Behind him are people lined up 

 to see the Hope Diamond. 



The information desk, manned by volunteers, on the west 

 side of the lobby. This desk is normally by the entrance to 

 the Evans Gallery but was moved for the "Aditi" show of 

 life in India. July 1985. 



167 



