CATHERYN HUMMEL
ERA MARSHALL

Comptroller
Director, Office of Equal Employment and

Minority Affairs
Director, Office of Human Resources
Director, Office of International Relations
Director, Smithsonian Institution Archives
Director, Smithsonian Institution Libraries
General Counsel
Ombudsman

Director of Facilities Engineering
Under Secretary for Art
Director, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur

M. Sackler Gallery
Director, Hirshhorn Museum and

Sculpture Garden
Director, National Museum of African Art
Chief Executive Officer of Smithsonian

Business Ventures
Editor, Smithsonian Magazine

Publisher, Smithsonian Magazine
The John F. Kennedy Center for the

Performing Arts Chairman

JAMES DOUGLAS, Acting
FRANCINE BERKOWITZ
ETHEL W. HEDLIN
NANCY E. GWINN
JOHN E. HUERTA
CHANDRA HEILMAN
WILLIAM W. BRUBAKER
NED RIFKIN
JULIAN RABY

NED RIFKIN

SHARON PATTON
GARY BEER

CAREY WINFREY
AMY P. WILKINS

KENNETH M. DUBERSTEIN, Acting
ALMA JOHNSON POWELL, Acting
MICHAEL M. KAISER

VICTORIA P. SANT
EARL A. POWELL III

President
National Gallery of Art
President
Director
Woodrow Wilson International Center for

Scholars 1
Director

Deputy Director
Chairman, Board of Trustees

LEE H. HAMILTON
MICHAEL H. VAN DUSEN
JOSEPH GILDENHORN

The Smithsonian Institution is an independent trust instrumentality of the United States which comprises the world's largest museum and research complex. The Smithsonian includes 16 museums and galleries, the National Zoo, and research facilities in several States and the Republic of Panama. It holds more than 143 million artifacts and specimens in its trust for the American people. The Smithsonian is dedicated to public education, national service, and scholarship in the arts, sciences, history, and culture.

The Smithsonian Institution was created
by an act of August 10, 1846 (20 U.S.C.
41 et seq.), to carry out the terms of the
will of British scientist James Smithson
(1765–1829), who in 1826 had
bequeathed his entire estate to the
United States "to found at Washington,
under the name of the Smithsonian
Institution, an establishment for the

increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." On July 1, 1836, Congress accepted the legacy and pledged the faith of the United States to the charitable trust

In September 1838, Smithson's legacy, which amounted to more than 100,000 gold sovereigns, was delivered to the mint at Philadelphia. Congress vested

Administered under a separate Board of Trustees.

responsibility for administering the trust more than 13 million documents. The in the Secretary of the Smithsonian and Archives gathers, preserves, and the Smithsonian Board of Regents, microfilms the papers of artists, composed of the Chief Justice, the Vice craftsmen, collectors, dealers, critics, and President, three Members of the Senate,

art societies. These papers include three Members of the House of

manuscripts, letters, diaries, notebooks, Representatives, and nine citizen

sketchbooks, business records, clippings, members appointed by joint resolution

exhibition catalogs, transcripts of tapeof Congress. To carry out Smithson's

recorded interviews, and photographs of mandate, the Institution executes the

artists and their work. The Archives are following functions: -conducts scientific and scholarly

housed at 750 9th Street NW., in research;

Washington, DC. -publishes the results of studies,

For further information, contact the Archives of explorations, and investigations;

American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, -preserves for study and reference DC 20560. Phone, 202-275-2156. Internet, http:// more than 143 million artifacts, works of archivesofamericanart.si.edu/askus.htm. art, and scientific specimens; -organizes exhibits representative of

Cooper-Hewitt National Design the arts, the sciences, and American

Museum The Museum is the only history and culture;

museum in the country devoted -shares Smithsonian resources and

exclusively to historical and collections with communities throughout contemporary design. Collections the Nation; and

include objects in such areas as applied -engages in educational

arts and industrial design, drawings and programming and national and

prints, glass, metalwork, wallcoverings, international cooperative research. and textiles. Changing exhibits and Smithsonian activities are supported

public programs seek to educate by by its trust endowments and revenues;

exploring the role of design in daily life. gifts, grants, and contracts; and funds

The Museum is open daily except appropriated to it by Congress. Admission to the museums in

Mondays and holidays. An admission fee

of $8 is charged. Washington, DC, is free.

For further information, contact Cooper-Hewitt Activities

National Design Museum, 2 East Ninety-First Street,

New York, NY 10128. Phone, 212-849-8400. Anacostia Museum and Center for Internet, www.si.edu/ndm. African American History and Culture The Museum, located in the historic Fort

Freer Gallery of Art The building, the Stanton neighborhood of southeast original collection, and an endowment Washington, serves as a national

were the gift of Charles Lang Freer resource for exhibitions, historical (1854–1919). The Gallery houses one of documentation, and interpretive and the world's most renowned collections educational programs relating to African- of Asian art, an important group of American history and culture.

ancient Egyptian glass, early Christian For further information, contact the Anacostia

manuscripts, and works by 19th and Museum, 1901 Fort Place SE., Washington, DC early 20th century American artists. The 20020. Phone, 202-633-1000. Internet,

objects in the Asian collection represent www.si.edu/anacostia.

the arts of East Asia, the Near East, and Archives of American Art The Archives South and Southeast Asia, including contains the Nation's largest collection paintings, manuscripts, scrolls, screens, of documentary materials reflecting the ceramics, metalwork, glass, jade, history of visual arts in the United States. lacquer, and sculpture. Members of the On the subject of art in America, it is the staff conduct research on objects in the largest archives in the world, holding collection and publish results in

scholarly journals and books for general Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at and scholarly audiences.

Washington Dulles International Airport, For further information, contact the Freer Gallery

opened in December 2003, in time for of Art, Jefferson Drive at Twelfth Street SW.,

the centennial of the Wright brothers' Washington, DC 20560. Phone, 202-633–1000. flight. Featured artifacts include a space Internet, www.asia.si.edu.

shuttle and the B-29 Enola Gay. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture For further information, contact the National Air Garden From cubism to minimalism, the and Space Museum, Sixth Street and Independence Museum houses major collections of Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20560. Phone, 202– modern and contemporary art. The

633-1000. Internet, www.nasm.si.edu. nucleus of the collection is the gift and National Museum of African Art This bequest of Joseph H. Hirshhorn (1899–

is the only art museum in the United 1981). Supplementing the permanent States dedicated exclusively to portraying collection are loan exhibitions. The

the creative visual traditions of Africa. Its Museum houses a collection research

research components, collection, facility, a specialized art library, and a exhibitions, and public programs photographic archive, available for

establish the Museum as a primary consultation by prior appointment. The

source for the examination and outdoor sculpture garden is located

discovery of the arts and culture of nearby on the National Mall. There is an

Africa. The collection includes works in active program of public service and

wood, metal, fired clay, ivory, and fiber. education, including docent tours,

The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives lectures on contemporary art and artists,

includes slides, photos, and film and films of historic and artistic interest.

segments on Africa. There is also a
For further information, contact the Hirshhorn specialized library.
Museum and Sculpture Garden, Seventh Street and
Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20560.

For further information, contact the National
Phone, 202–633–1000. Internet,

Museum of African Art, 950 Independence Avenue www.hirshhorn.si.edu.

SW., Washington, DC 20560. Phone, 202-633–

1000. Internet, www.nmafa.si.edu. National Air and Space Museum Created to memorialize the development Smithsonian American Art Museum and achievements of aviation and space

The Museum's art collection spans flight, the Museum collects, displays,

centuries of American painting, and preserves aeronautical and space

sculpture, folk art, photography, and flight artifacts of historical significance as graphic art. A major center for research well as documentary and artistic

in American art, the Museum has materials related to air and space. contributed to such resources as the Among its artifacts are full-size planes, Inventory of American Paintings models, and instruments. Highlights of Executed Before 1914; the Smithsonian the collection include the Wright

Art Index; and the Inventory of American brothers' Flyer, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit Sculpture. The library, shared with the of St. Louis, a Moon rock, and Apollo National Portrait Gallery, contains spacecraft. The exhibitions and study volumes on art, history, and biography, collections record human conquest of with special emphasis on the United the air from its beginnings to recent States. The Old Patent Office Building, achievements. The principal areas in home to both the Smithsonian American which work is concentrated include Art Museum and the National Portrait flight craft of all types, space flight Gallery, is currently closed for major vehicles, and propulsion systems. Recent renovation, during which time the blockbuster exhibitions at this most museums are sponsoring traveling popular museum have included "Star exhibits around the country. The Wars: The Magic of Myth" and "Star museum will reopen in July 2006. Trek." The Museum's IMAX Theater and Hundreds of images from the collection the 70-foot domed Einstein Planetarium and extensive information on its are popular attractions. The Museum's collections, publications, and activities