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Average attendance by month 1971-1982 



5 o 



Average monthly attendance of visitors in United States 

 National Museum (compiled from the period 1920 to 193 1 

 inclusive). This graph, from the Annual Report f or 1931, 

 includes visits to the Arts and Industries Building and the 

 Aircraft Building as well as the Natural History Building. 



Average monthly attendance in the National Museum of 

 Natural History (compiled from the period 1971 to 1982 

 inclusive). Not only has the attendance increased 

 dramatically and the peak month shifted, but the difference 

 between hand-letteritig and more modern drafting methods 

 is obvious. 



Thanksgiving. Most likely this is because the schools 

 are out, family and friends are in town, and it has been 

 months since there was a chance to go anywhere. I he 

 day after Thanksgiving is definitely not the time to 

 come to the Museum. 



On July 4, 1976, a new phenomenon came to the 

 Smithsonian. The Arts and Industries Building became 

 so full of visitors that the doors had to be closed for a 

 time until some of them left. The National Air and 

 Space Museum, which has been attracting close to a 

 million visitors a month, has to shut its doors tempo- 

 rarily at fairly frequent intervals during the summer. 

 In 1983 this phenomenon spread to the Museum of 

 Natural History, and the building was briefly closed 

 twice. No doubt this will happen more often in the 

 future. Even on a normal day in particularly popular 

 places such as the gem hall, gridlock occasionally sets 

 in. 



Some Famous Visitors 



The humble and the famous come to the Museum, 

 though no one remarks on the humble except in the 

 total count. President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover used 

 to be fairly frequent visitors, walking down from the 

 White House on Sundays. When Harry Truman visited, 

 he was brought in through the ground-level entrance 

 beneath the Mall steps. The Museum's budget was so 

 tight that only one of the curved passageways into the 

 building could be painted. Truman was led along the 

 painted one, but the walls of the opposite corridor were 

 touched up as far as his glance was likely to travel. The 

 staff was given half a day off, which was just as well, 

 for it was impossible to work: Secret Service agents put 

 seals on the cases to make sure no one put a bomb in 

 a drawer. 



During the Johnson administration, one Alfred C. 

 Glassell, Jr., donated a record black marlin (Makaira 

 indica) and provided funds for a reception at its un- 

 veiling. When he insisted that President Johnson be 

 invited, there were gales of laughter from the staff at 

 the notion that the President would come to see a dead 

 fish, no matter how large. No one knew that Glassell 

 was a Texas oilman and a friend of LBJ. When the 

 President showed up for the unveiling, the Museum 

 security people were in a panic. 



One Sunday during the mid-1950s Senator Theo- 

 dore Green of Rhode Island, who was then in his nine- 

 ties, showed up in the north lobby. Only one elevator 

 operator worked on Sunday, and she was on a break. 

 Senator Green complained to a guard because he wanted 

 to get to the exhibits. There are two versions of what 

 happened next. In one the senator explained who he 

 was and indicated that he was on the appropriations 

 committee, and an elevator operator appeared in five 

 minutes. In the other, more likely version, the guard 

 listened to this disgruntled elderly tourist and then told 

 him to write his congressman. 



Perhaps the most famous visitor ever was Emperor 

 Hirohito of Japan, who came to the building in 1975 

 on his visit to America. * He was escorted to the office 

 of F. M. Bayer. The Emperor happens to be a marine 

 biologist, and when he is not on duty he studies coe- 

 lentei ates, which are also Bayer's specialty. After a half 

 hour, the State Department officials indicated that it 

 was time for the party to leave. The Emperor replied 

 that he had not finished examining specimens to clarify 

 some species in his own collection, and that he was not 

 about to leave until that was completed. An hour later 

 he finally left Bayer's office. This may be one of the 

 tew times that protocol has given way to natural history. 



The Visitors 



175 



