Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Institution, the nation's attic, will observe its 150th anniversary in 1996-97 by sending trunkloads of treasures on the road to a dozen cities. The 150 traveling items will range from George Washington's battle sword to Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet, from Amelia Earhart's flight suit to the Apollo 11 command module, and from Thomas Edison's light bulb to the sequined ruby-red slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. And yes, kids, there will be dinosaurs - fossils, that is. The tour, which the Smithsonian hopes will be underwritten by corporate sponsors, was announced yesterday.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., hangs the best work of the best American artists, living or dead. Some artists strive for decades, perfecting and refining their work but still are not among that select group. It took 9-year-old Peter Stahl 3d about two hours. The Westville boy, a fourth-grade student at Shady Lane School in Deptford, labored in class for two art periods and produced a winning work in the national Reading Is Fundamental poster contest. Last month, he was named one of four runners-up in the competition, which boasted 322,612 entries.

Donna Limerick had always believed her mother was a pioneer. Not many women in the 1940s had the gumption and the bank loans to start their own business. Especially not African American women. Especially not African American women who designed and made millinery in Philadelphia. Still, Limerick didn't want to be presumptuous. She wasn't sure that her mother's legacy would qualify for the Smithsonian. A documentary producer for National Public Radio, Limerick had heard that the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture was looking for compelling stories about black families and culture.

The Smithsonian Institution has taken the unusual step of firing the Philadelphia architectural firm in charge of designing the Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. GBQC Architects of the 2400 block of Locust Street was awarded the contract for the $110 million museum in 1994, along with Douglas J. Cardinal, a Canadian architect of Blackfoot and Metis descent. The GBQC-Cardinal design was widely praised. Groundbreaking was scheduled for this fall.

The Smithsonian Institution, America's national museum, is observing its 150th anniversary with the largest traveling exhibition in U.S. history. But even as the museum publicly celebrates, many in its curatorial and scholarly ranks privately mark the occasion with grave apprehension. The Smithsonian, and countless other museums across the country, face one of the most insidious threats in their history as political correctness, hypersensitivity to issues of race and diversity and an emboldened far right threaten to neuter them.

The gala opening set for Feb. 3 at the Smithsonian was supposed to mark a personal and professional milestone for Deborah Willis. Indeed, the "Reflections in Black" exhibition of African American photography, of which she was the curator, had been a labor of love 20 years in the making. Willis had involved her whole family in the project, including her son, Hank, and her nephew, Songha, who helped with the research. The cousins, who lived in New York, had made plans to attend the party.

Former first lady Barbara Bush reveals in her new book, "Barbara Bush: A Memoir" (Scribner's / $25), that she once asked the Smithsonian to remove some books she found offensive. During a tour of a 1992 show on first ladies at the National Museum of American History, Bush saw copies of Kitty Kelley's tell-all books, "Jackie, Oh!" and "Nancy Reagan" on display. "These were ugly books written by someone who did not know either woman, and both books were largely discredited," writes Bush.

Here's a factoid, courtesy of the Internet Movie Database: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian marks the second time that Napoleon Bonaparte and Abraham Lincoln have appeared in the same film. The first? Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Which, by the way, is a vastly more meaningful moviegoing experience than this knee-jerk sequel to the surprise 2006 Ben Stiller smash. A super-size rehash of the original - transplanted from New York's Museum of Natural History to the sprawling mall of museums run by the Smithsonian in Washington - this family-friendly vehicle once again stars Stiller as the museum guard who communes with objects and artifacts on display after the doors close for the day. Except this time, as Night at the Museum - Part Duh begins, Stiller's Larry Daley is no longer employed as a guard.

The Smithsonian Institution - which for good reason also is known as the "Nation's Attic" - announced that during 1986 it had acquired 942,000 new items for its extensive collection. Joining existing artifacts - such as Gen. P.H. Sheridan's stuffed horse, Dorothy's ruby slippers and a 1935 Girl Scout uniform - were old pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge, 10,000 Scandinavian moths and butterflies, the personal papers of Playboy illustrator Alberto Vargas, 300 calculators and President Warren G. Harding's top hat. News reports of these eclectic acquisitions arrived at a household we know just in time for the annual event, known there as The Expedition to the Back of the Closet, subtitled This Year We Have to Throw Something Out. The coincidence did not go unnoted.

The water ran out after the first day at sea. The boat engine quit on the second. Hien Cao, 22, clutched her 2-year-old daughter and 6-month-old son. They and 25 others had crowded onto a five-person fishing boat, the captain paid in gold to steer them to freedom. Now, the sun beating down as the vessel drifted off the southern coast of Vietnam, Cao felt numb. She'd taken this chance, this escape from a country that had become a prison, to give her children a better life.

WASHINGTON - An energy businessman is donating a record $35 million to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to build a new dinosaur hall on the National Mall, the museum complex announced Thursday. The donation by David H. Koch, the executive vice president of Koch Industries Inc. of Wichita, Kan., is the single largest gift in the museum's 102-year history. The Smithsonian board of regents voted Monday to name the new dinosaur hall in Koch's honor. Koch, an engineer trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a billionaire who lives in New York.

CHANTILLY, Va. - NASA turned over space shuttle Discovery on Thursday to the Smithsonian Institution, the first in its orbiter fleet to be transferred to a U.S. museum. The U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, astronauts including former Sen. John Glenn, and several thousand visitors with American flags greeted Discovery. It will retire as an artifact representing the 30-year shuttle program. The world's most traveled spaceship had been lifted off its Boeing 747 carrier and towed to the National Air and Space Museum's massive hangar facility near Washington Dulles International Airport.

WASHINGTON - Early sound recordings by Alexander Graham Bell that were packed away at the Smithsonian Institution for more than a century were played publicly for the first time Tuesday using new technology that reads the sound with light and a 3D camera. "To be, or not to be," a man's voice can be heard saying in one recording, the speaker reciting a portion of Hamlet's Soliloquy as a green wax disc crackles to life from computer speakers. Another recording on a copper negative disc that was played back at the Library of Congress reveals a trill of the tongue and someone reciting the numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6.

I. Michael Heyman, 81, who was the first nonscientist to lead the Smithsonian Institution, after serving as chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, has died. Mr. Heyman died at his Berkeley home Saturday after a long battle with emphysema. The Smithsonian and the university announced his death Monday. During five years as chief of the world's largest museum and research complex, Mr. Heyman oversaw creation of the Smithsonian's first website and an affiliations network that now includes 170 museums across the country.

In the "Who's Your Daddy?" wing If you're like us, you've been wondering what former Phillies pitcher Pedro Martinez has been up to. Well, the former all-star and Cy Young winner was in Washington on Thursday to conduct a baseball clinic. Oh, and on Friday, he's dropping by the Smithsonian for the unveiling of his portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. Yep, the righthander is a recent acquisition of the museum - at least in a version painted by Susan Miller-Havens, and donated by MLB.com's Peter Gammons and wife.

Donna Limerick had always believed her mother was a pioneer. Not many women in the 1940s had the gumption and the bank loans to start their own business. Especially not African American women. Especially not African American women who designed and made millinery in Philadelphia. Still, Limerick didn't want to be presumptuous. She wasn't sure that her mother's legacy would qualify for the Smithsonian. A documentary producer for National Public Radio, Limerick had heard that the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture was looking for compelling stories about black families and culture.

The display "The Fine Woodworking Program at 30" is truly an eye-opener at Bucks County Community College. Till seeing this show, I was unaware of the program. Now, Mark Sfirri, who has directed the program for 30 years and organized this show featuring nine of its most accomplished graduates, is being noticed big-time. Sfirri just received a national honor: He is the James Renwick Alliance 2010 distinguished educator. Sfirri is only the second woodworking teacher honored by that Smithsonian affiliate group.

Here's a factoid, courtesy of the Internet Movie Database: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian marks the second time that Napoleon Bonaparte and Abraham Lincoln have appeared in the same film. The first? Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Which, by the way, is a vastly more meaningful moviegoing experience than this knee-jerk sequel to the surprise 2006 Ben Stiller smash. A super-size rehash of the original - transplanted from New York's Museum of Natural History to the sprawling mall of museums run by the Smithsonian in Washington - this family-friendly vehicle once again stars Stiller as the museum guard who communes with objects and artifacts on display after the doors close for the day. Except this time, as Night at the Museum - Part Duh begins, Stiller's Larry Daley is no longer employed as a guard.