Tag Archive for: national museum of natural history

coming up in Affiliateland in April 2016

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shiftingPENNSYLVANIA
Rex Ellis, associate director for curatorial affairs at the National Museum of African American History and Culture will deliver the keynote talk at the Shifting Narratives symposium, to be held at the African American Museum in Philadelphia in partnership with the National Park Service, 4.16.

GEORGIA
Smithsonian staff from the National Zoo, National Portrait Gallery and more will speak as part of the People, Passion and Purpose event to be held at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, 4.19.

WASHINGTON
Smithsonian Acting Provost Richard Kurin will speak on the Hope Diamond: The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture in Spokane, 4.21.

Everyone Eats! South Dakota's Food Heritage history conference in Pierre in April.

Everyone Eats! South Dakota’s Food Heritage history conference in Pierre in April.

RHODE ISLAND
Jeff Post, curator at the National Museum of Natural History, will give a public talk on the Hope Diamond and other gems in the National Gem Collection at the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence, 4.28.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Susan Evans McClure, Director of the American Food History Project at the National Museum of American History will deliver the keynote talk at the 2016 History conference sponsored by the South Dakota State History Museum in Pierre, 4.29.

what’s up in Affiliateland in March 2016

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CONNECTICUT
Roger Connor, Curator at the National Air and Space Museum, will present a talk on “By the Stars to Victory: Making Aerial Celestial Navigation Practical Between the World Wars” as part of the Stars of the Smithsonian lecture series at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, 3.3.

PENNSYLVANIA
The traveling exhibition Toys of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s opens at the Heinz History Center with two artifact loans from the National Museum of American History – a toy computer from 1965 and a vintage Mr. Potato Head, in Pittsburgh, 3.4.

NATIONWIDE
Over 40 Affiliates nationwide will take place in the special edition of Museum Day Live!, offering free admission and special programming on 3.12.

Carla Dove, Program Manager at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology

Carla Dove, Program Manager at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology

NORTH CAROLINA
Carla Dove, forensic ornithologist at the National Museum of Natural History, will explain to visitors her job in identifying what types of birds collide with airplanes, and how that helps to make aviation a safer industry at the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, 3.12.

NEW MEXICO
Jeffrey Post, Curator at the National Museum of Natural History, will present a talk on the American gemstone jewelry collection at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque, 3.15.

IDAHO
The Idaho Museum of Natural History opens SITES Titanoboa: Monster Snake exhibition in Pocatello, 3.19.

Briana Pobiner of the National Museum of Natural History holds a hominid skull.

Briana Pobiner of the National Museum of Natural History holds a hominid skull.

MASSACHUSETTS
Dr. Briana Pobiner, educator at the National Museum of Natural History, will present a talk on “Ancient Appetites: What Our Ancestors Really Ate and How We Know” at Framingham State University in Framingham, 3.21.

Road Report: Smithsonian Dazzles in New Mexico

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The beauty of the “Land of Enchantment” began gradually as the plane started its relatively smooth descent over the Sandia Mountains into Albuquerque, home of two Smithsonian Affiliates and the nature of my visit. As I drove to my first destination of the day-National Museum of Nuclear Science & History-I understood why the Sandia Mountains got its name as the reddish hue of the coming sunset came into view. (Sandia means watermelon.)

I arrived at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History to find Museum Director, Jim Walther, and Deputy Director, Greg Shuman, working tirelessly painting an exhibition space for the upcoming show “Art of the Reactor.” Jim extended me enough time to show some new collection additions, including a Delorean, which fit nicely in the “Pop Culture” gallery and explained how he has spent the past few days fielding media inquiries regarding the “hydrogen bomb” and its potential repercussions.

Chris highlights the Apollo Capsule (NASM) and details the story behind the lettering on the capsule.

Friday, I woke up early to begin my three hour drive through southwestern New Mexico to Alamogordo, site of the New Mexico Museum of Space History and home to over 30 artifacts from the National Air and Space Museum (NASM). I found Chris Orwoll, Division Director, at the Museum Support Center, appraising a huge collection donation from California. Chris showed me the lunar rover from NASM and explained the details for the restoration project, scheduled to be completed in 2017. Chris took me to the main museum complex, located in the foothills of the Lincoln National Forest and provides a magnificent view of the Tularosa Basin, home of Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range. Chris highlights the Apollo Capsule (NASM) and details the story behind the lettering on the capsule.

The culmination of my visit ended with a series of events at one of our newest Affiliates-New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science for the opening of the “Post Diamond Tiara” exhibit. A year in the making, the Post Diamond Tiara, on loan from the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), was unveiled by new Executive Director, Margaret (Margie) Marino to the “oohs” and “aahs” of the excited crowd of volunteers, donors and general public. The events were capped with the formal presentation of Certificate of Affiliation. The Post Diamond Tiara excitement will continue on March 15, when NMNH curator, Jeffery Post, will present a lecture on this and other artifacts of the NMNH gem collection.

My flight home allowed me to reflect on my stay in New Mexico and as with so many other trips, I understood and appreciated all the hard work, energy and enthusiasm the Affiliate staff members put into maintaining and showcasing their partnership with the Smithsonian. The reward was seen on the faces of the visitors seeing a thousand glistening diamonds for the first time and an appreciative smile came across my face.

So if you find yourself in New Mexico or any of the other 44 states where Affiliates reside, I encourage you to stop in and put a smile on your face.

what’s going on in Affiliateland, December 2015 – January 2016

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Affiliates finished the year off with a bang, and are charging into 2016, full steam ahead.  Happy holidays to all!

SI curator Mary Savig signs her book and talks with visitors to RIHS about artists' handmade holiday cards.

SI curator Mary Savig signs her book and talks with visitors to RIHS about artists’ handmade holiday cards.

RHODE ISLAND
Archives of American Art curator Mary Savig gave a lecture on handmade holiday cards by 20th century artists at the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence, 12.5.

NORTH CAROLINA
The Schiele Museum of Natural History & Lynn Planetarium opened SITES’ Titanoboa: Monster Snake exhibition in Gastonia, 12.5.

WYOMING
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West reopened its popular Journeying West: Distinctive Firearms from the Smithsonian exhibition with 50 artifacts on loan from the National Museum of American History, in Cody, 12.5.

SOUTH DAKOTA
The South Dakota State Historical Society hosted a public program around the presentation of the Smithsonian Channel’s Stories from the Vault: Let’s Eat show, in Pierre, 12.15.

CALIFORNIA
Cerritos Library opens SITES’ I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story exhibition in Cerritos, 1.3.16.

The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum opens IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas exhibition in Palm Springs, 1.19.16.

NEW MEXICO

The Post Diamond Tiara with matching brooches made in the mid-19th century will soon be on view in New Mexico.

The Post Diamond Tiara with matching brooches made in the mid-19th century will soon be on view in New Mexico.

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science will announce their affiliation with the opening of the Post Diamond Tiara exhibition featuring the object which is on loan from the National Museum of Natural History, in Albuquerque, 1.9.16.

COLORADO
Smithsonian Undersecretary Dr. Richard Kurin will give a public lecture on his book The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects at History Colorado in Denver, 1.11.16.

IOWA
Affiliations director Harold Closter will announce the Smithsonian’s new affiliation with the Dubuque Museum of Art in Dubuque, 1.12.16.

CONNECTICUT
Carlene Stephens, curator at the National Museum of American History, will present a talk on Connecting the World in Time as part of the Stars of the Smithsonian lecture series at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, 1.14.16.

FLORIDA
The Art of Video Games exhibition, organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, will open at the Frost Art Museum in Miami, 1.23.16.

PUERTO RICO
The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico will host the traveling exhibition, Impressionism and the Caribbean featuring the self-portrait of painter Pío Casimiro Bacener on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in San Juan, 1.29.16.

Coming up in Affiliateland in October 2015

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The weather may be getting cooler, but activity in Affiliateland is as vigorous as ever.  Happy autumn!

Dr. Kurin visited the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia in November 2013. Photo courtesy NMAJH.

Dr. Kurin will visited the Sullivan Museum and History Center in Northfield, Vermont.  Photo courtesy NMAJH.

VERMONT
Smithsonian Under Secretary Richard Kurin will deliver the Affiliations’ 20th anniversary kickoff lecture on his book The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects at the Sullivan Museum and History Center in Northfield, 10.2.
The talk will be webcast live for all Affiliates at https://nsnsports.net/colleges/norwich/

TEXAS
The City of Austin’s Asian American Resource Center will open SITES’ I Want the Wide American Earth exhibition with a grand opening in Austin, 10.3.

Sarah Zenaida Gould, lead curatorial researcher at the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio will speak on a panel about Latinos and baseball at the National Museum of American History in Washington, 10.15.

TENNESSEE
The Smithsonian Associates will be hosting a 4-day tour of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that features an evening at the Museum of Appalachia and a special tour of the American Museum of Science & Energy in Oak Ridge, 10.3-6.

OHC_Superman_5x7-Postcard_150722c (2)

What’s that flying over Columbus?!

OHIO
The Ohio History Connection unveils its first loan from the Smithsonian, the iconic Superman costume worn by George Reeves in the 1950s television show (borrowed to complement the ongoing exhibition 1950s: Building the American Dream) with an interview featuring the object’s curator, Dwight Blocker Bowers from the National Museum of American History at a reception in Columbus, 10.8.

SOUTH DAKOTA
The South Dakota State Historical Society will host a celebration for the return of the Great Sioux Horse Effigy that will feature a talk by Kevin Gover, Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, 10.10-12.  The celebration complements an exhibition entitled Oyate Tawicoh’an (The Ways of the People) featuring loans from the National Museum of the American Indian, on view in Pierre 10.15.15-10.15.17.

CALIFORNIA
Scientist Ron Bishop from the National Museum of Natural History will be doing research and a public lecture on Tlatilco ojbects in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in Riverside, 10.18-22.

SITES’ Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation exhibition opens at the Sonoma County Museums in Santa Rosa, 10.31.

coming up in affiliateland in november 2014

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Even though the weather is turning chilly, Affiliates are keeping things hot with events from coast to coast.

CALIFORNIA
General John Dailey, Director of the National Air and Space Museum, will be inducted into the International Air and Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, 11.1.

pins on loan

Environmental pins on loan from the Smithsonian to an Affiliate in California

The Sonoma County Museum will present Hole in the Head: The Battle for Bodega Bay and the Birth of the Environmental Movement exhibition, featuring 13 protest buttons on loan from the National Museum of American History, in Santa Rosa, 11.2.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The National Inventors Hall of Fame will participate in the Smithsonian Innovation Festival in Washington, 11.1-2.

Organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, an exhibition titled Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College opens at the Smithsonian, presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture in their gallery at the National Museum of American History in Washington, 11.7.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Heinz History Center presents jazz innovation as part of its Places of Invention ongoing project with the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center, in Pittsburgh, 11.1.

NEBRASKA
Undersecretary Richard Kurin presents a talk and booksigning on The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects at the Durham Museum in Omaha, 11.4.

Earth from Space exhibition in New Mexico

Earth from Space exhibition in New Mexico

NEW MEXICO
Dr. Andrew Johnston, geographer and curator at the National Air and Space Museum, presents a public talk at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, 11.6.

VIRGINIA
George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens presents The Face of the Nation: George Washington, Art, and America symposium, featuring National Portrait Gallery curator Wendy Wick Reaves and curator emerita Ellen Miles, at Mount Vernon, 11.7.

GEORGIA
National Portrait Gallery researcher and author Warren Perry presents a public lecture on Guns, Horses, Uniforms, and More Guns: Themes of American Civil War Visual Culture at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, 11.13.

Jeff Post, Curator at the National Museum of Natural History will present a public lecture on the Hope Diamond at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, 11.21.

PUERTO RICO
Affiliations Director Harold Closter leads a workshop on Designing Museum Budgets at the Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanísticos in Gurabo, 11.15.

25 Smithsonian artifacts from the film industry will be on view soon in North Carolina

25 Smithsonian artifacts from the film industry will be on view soon in North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA
The North Carolina Museum of History will present Starring North Carolina! an exhibition of the state’s role in the film industry featuring 25 artifacts on loan from the National Museum of American History, in Raleigh, 11.15.

LOUISIANA
Undersecretary Richard Kurin presents a talk and booksigning on The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, 11.18.