Affiliates in the news: June edition

Congrats to these Affiliates making news!  If you have a clipping that highlights a collaboration with the Smithsonian or with a fellow Affiliate, or a clipping that demonstrates leadership in education, innovation, and arts/culture/history/science you’d like to have considered for the Affiliate blog, please contact Elizabeth Bugbee

Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle (Doylestown, PA)
Doylestown museums now Smithsonian affiliates
The museum – which is celebrating its 100th year since first opening its doors in Doylestown – is now a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate along with Fonthill Castle.

2 Bucks County museums named Smithsonian affiliates
The Mercer Museum and its Fonthill Castle in Doylestown, Pa., have been named Smithsonian Institution affiliates, making the institutions two of only about 210 Smithsonian affiliates across the United States.

Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor (Honolulu, HI)
Interview: National Youth Summit at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor  VIDEO
The Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor is participating in a National Youth Summit.  The discussion will focus on Japanese American Incarceration in World War Two.  We talked with Shauna Tonkin, she is the Director of Education at the Pacific Aviation Museum. 

Museum to participate in youth summit
Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor is one of four Smithsonian affiliate organizations hosting a regional youth summit, and is partnering locally with the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii to host a panel discussion with scholars, family members of those incarcerated at Honouliuli Internment Camp, and Hawaii’s youth.

Hawaii News Now – KGMB and KHNL

Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, CA)
The Smithsonian asked Muslim American children to read Japanese internment-camp letters
In the 1940s, as Japanese American families were being rounded up and sent into years of imprisonment, a librarian in San Diego named Clara Breed gave children paper and ink and stamps. She told them to write to her, and she sent them books and letters. Chi came across the collection of letters on the Japanese American National Museum’s website. The museum, in Downtown L.A., houses the collection in an archive.

Space Center Houston (Houston, TX)
Sky-high ambition: : Greenfield native reflects on his path to becoming Space Center Houston CEO
The job comes at a particularly exciting time, Harris said, as NASA continues to pursue its vision of humans on Mars within the next several decades. “The other side of the coin here, too, is our nation faces a real crisis in science learning,” he said. “We have a whole generation of baby boomers who have worked in science careers that are retiring, and we do not have an adequate number of people in the pipeline to fill those positions.” A critical part of the space center’s infrastructure, he said, is to inform, engage and motivate young people’s interest in the STEM fields through outreach and education – skills that run thick in Harris’ blood.

Senator John Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
NEXT Up: Andy Masich
I’m looking forward to a call with John Gray from the Smithsonian to discuss the American History 101 initiative, designed to help improve all Americans’ basic knowledge of history and civics. The History Center is proud of our Smithsonian affiliation–we’re “the Smithsonian’s home in Pittsburgh.”

National Museum of Industrial History (Bethlehem, PA)
Time to close one chapter of history in Bethlehem | Editorial
“We’re really trying to showcase the stories of people,” Hollander said, adding that the nation’s industrial heft will be displayed through the efforts of laborers, innovators and entrepreneurs, connecting the past with the future of industry and innovation. And thanks to the museum’s affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution, the grand opening will also showcase pieces from the Smithsonian Institution’s 1876 Centennial exhibit.

1st look: Sneak peek at National Museum of Industrial History (PHOTOS)
When the museum opens, the public will again have a chance to see pieces from the Smithsonian Institute’s 1976 bicentennial exhibit, which was a recreation of the original 1876 centennial exhibit. The museum is affiliated with the Smithsonian and exhibits are on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

VIDEO- Sneak peek: National Museum of Industrial History gives tour to history buffs
The museum has artifacts donated and lent by companies and community groups all over the Lehigh Valley. It features the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s collection of 19th-century machines representative of those at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, an event often regarded as the United States’ coming out party as an industrial powerhouse.

Polk Museum of Art (Lakeland, FL)
Judge looks forward to Mayfaire return: Maria del Carmen Cossu selected
Cossu said she was chosen to be judge by the Mayfaire coordinators Brenda Friedman and Maya Beck partly because of her work – the Smithsonian Institution and the Polk Museum of Art being a Smithsonian affiliate. She is the sole judge of the event.

Hagley Museum and Library (Wilmington, DE)
Hagley Museum Displaying Large Collection of Patent Models
Hagley Museum and Library now has the world’s largest private collection of patent models, second only to that of the Smithsonian Institution, after it acquired more than 4,000 models from the Rothschild Collection

Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO)
Star Wars invades Denver at art museum May the Fourth kickoff event
Dozens clad in intergalactic costumes gathered outside the Denver Art Museum on Wednesday to celebrate the ticket sales kickoff of the upcoming ” Star Wars and the Power of Costume” exhibit.

May the 4th be with you
Star Warsâ„¢ and the Power of Costume will open Nov. 13, 2016 at the Denver Art Museum. The exhibition will showcase more than 60 iconic costumes from the films and examine the captivating process of costume design. It was developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in partnership with the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and in consultation with Lucasfilm Ltd.

Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum (Bisbee, AZ)
Bisbee tops list of top historic towns
Bisbee’s appeal lies in its Victorian architecture, pretty scenery and laid-back vibe, and the Smithsonian-affiliated Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum does an excellent job of recounting the town’s colorful history

Museum of American Finance (New York, NY)
Museum of American Finance Founder Makes Final Visionary Gift to Institution
Wall Street veteran John E. Herzog has announced a final $5 million gift to the Museum of American Finance, the New York institution he founded more than 25 years ago. Herzog established the Museum in response to the Crash of ’87 and has been the institution’s largest donor ever since.

Museum of American Finance founder donates $5 million to cause
John E. Herzog, founder of the Smithsonian Institution-affiliated Museum of American Finance, will be feted May 17 for his recent $5 million contribution to carry on the finance museum’s mission.

Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts (Alta Loma, CA)
Famous for His Rocking Chair, Sam Maloof Made Furniture That Had Soul
Curator Atkinson points out that “Maloof’s elegant curves just grow and bend as his designs mature.” A good example of this can be seen in the Smithsonian chair, on which the rockers curve slightly downward at the back ends. While this has a safety purpose, preventing a too-energetic sitter from falling over backwards, the curve adds to the chair’s elegance. Robyn Kennedy (no relation to any of the Kennedys previously mentioned), chief administrator at the American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, points out that the “way Maloof sculpts his elements gives even practical features an aesthetic feel.”

South Dakota State Historical Society (Pierre, SD)
SD History Conference in Pierre focuses on food, including beer and ice cream
The idea of the heritage of food in the state, said keynote speaker Susan Evans McClure, is that since most people eat from time to time, looking at food is a good way to look at the wider history of any culture, or people or state. McClure is director of the Smithsonian Food History Programs at the National Museum of History and she spoke Friday.

The Rockwell Museum (Corning, NY)
Reimagining the Rockwell Museum in Corning
A newly established affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution will help the Rockwell bring new pieces and exhibits to Corning. The Rockwell Museum is the only Smithsonian-affiliated museum in upstate New York.

Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, MT)
Retiring Jack Horner celebrated at Museum of the Rockies
The Museum of the Rockies was just a small building back in 1982 when then-director Mick Hager hired Horner. .Horner’s summer digs in Montana’s badlands filled the museum with the world’s largest collections of Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops fossils. The nearly complete Wankel T-rex he dug up in 1988, renamed the nation’s T-rex, will be the centerpiece of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History when it opens in 2019.

National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium (Dubuque, IA)
Milwaukee zoo official to take over Dubuque’s River Museum
The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium and Dubuque County Historical Society announced Dr. Robert Davis will take over as President and CEO on Jun. 6. . Additionally, Davis has been a. a Smithsonian faculty fellowship recipient, Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park/Department of Animal Health/ Reproductive Physiology Program.