• Use by OSIA Staff and Associates
• Use by Smithsonian Staff
• Use by Outside Researchers

In fiscal year 1997, OSIA continued to provide essential reference assistance to Smithsonian administrators, curators, historians, collection managers, and other staff, as well as researchers from the scholarly community and the general public.

Use by OSIA Staff and Associates

Research Associate Ted Rivinus continued biographical work on Smithsonian administrator George Brown Goode with the assistance of Betty Youssef. Research Associate Albert Moyer completed his biography of Joseph Henry to be published in the fall of 1997. Research Collaborator Linda J. Lear's biography of Rachel Carson was received with critical acclaim. Clifford Nelson of the U.S.G.S., a Research Collaborator, continued his study of Smithsonian paleontologist Fielding B. Meek.

OSIA Fellows studied a range of subjects. Brad Hume, Indiana University, worked on nineteenth-century anthropology; Catherine Christen, Johns Hopkins University, worked on tropical biology research stations; Dan Herman, Colorado College, on sport hunters in the American imagination; Jeff Hyson, Cornell University, on zoos and American society; Melody Herr, Johns Hopkins University, studied the history of American archaeology; Jennifer Anderson-Lawrence, director of Philipsburg Manor (NY), conducted a first-ever study of the history of museum education at SI; and Christian McMillan University of Montana at Missoula, conducted a comparative study of how white and Native Americans "saw nature" and used the environment, using BAE records. Former predoctoral fellow, Elizabeth Hanson, successfully defended her dissertation in November 1996 at the University of Pennsylvania on the history of collecting practices in zoos. Cornelia Sears, another former predoctoral fellow, also successfully defended her dissertation this fiscal year at the University of California at Berkeley on perceptions of Africa in America, 1870-1955.

Historian Pam Henson conducted research on curatorial uses of and exhibitions in the Arts and Industries building, presenting her results in a lecture to the Institution's volunteers for their spring Volunteer Appreciation Day. Intern Jonathan Seitz researched Joseph Henry's teaching methods and philosophy of education in the context of mid-nineteenth century America, and intern Somer Cross examined the treatment of science in nineteenth-century newspapers.

Use by Smithsonian Staff

The OSIA reference staff responded to a wide variety of inquiries from Smithsonian administrative and scholarly staff, including the Office of the General Counsel; the Registrar of the National Zoological Park; the Repatriation Office of the National Museum of Natural History; the Curator of Exhibitions, National Portrait Gallery; and the Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation. Areas of inquiry included the history of Smithsonian exhibit cases, the Langley Memorial Tablet which hung in the Castle; museum closures due to inclement weather; the Institution's relations with foreign governments and exchanges with foreign museums; legislation affecting the Smithsonian; and the financial history of the Institution.

The Institutional History Division staff provided Smithsonian staff members with in-depth assistance on administrative research projects. These included an Inspector General's slide presentation on the history and role of financial services at SI; historical information for development campaigns for the Office of Membership and Development; a history of the National Museum of the American Indian for that Museum; and a budget history of the Smithsonian Institution from its founding to the present, highlighting major trends.

Smithsonian staff conducting scholarly research included Stephen Loring, Department of Anthropology, NMNH, who used the papers of the Dall family to study Aleutian anthropology; Ellis Yochelson, Department of Paleobiology, NMNH, who continued his work on Charles D. Walcott; Beatrice Hale, Department of Botany, NMNH, who studied the career of her husband, Mason E. Hale; David Shayt, Division of Cultural History, NMAH, who researched the Museum's "Infinity" sculpture; James Barber, Department of History, NPG, who studied Theodore Roosevelt material for an upcoming exhibition; David G. Smith and Victor Springer, Division of Fishes, NMNH, who researched Albatross Philippine Expedition, 1907-1910; Ann Margaret Webb, Center for African-American History and Culture, who examined the depiction of African Americans in Southeastern U.S. history museums; and Tim Carr, National Postal Museum, who worked on USNM Philatelist Joseph B. Leavy.

Use by Outside Researchers

The seventy-fifth anniversary of Science News led to some interest in OSIA's holdings of the records of Science Service, the publisher of the magazine. Free-lance writer Anna Maria Gillis used the records to write a retrospective article for the magazine; Ivars Peterson and intern Dennis Carr of the Science Service also did research on aspects of the organization. Other outside researchers included Jennifer Pittman, Bard Graduate Center for the Decorative Arts, who worked on Chinese displays at the Centennial Exposition; Linda Stahl, a Louisville journalist, who studied the career of botanist/forester E. Lucy Braun; Jordan Landes, University of Maryland, who researched the history of SI Museum Shops; and Carol Maryan George, The George Washington University, who studied the use of film and television in museums, focusing on the Smithsonian.

The bicentennial of Joseph Henry's birth sparked a great deal of public and scholarly interest in the first Secretary. Among the scholarly researchers who utilized the Henry Papers Project resources as well as the Archives holdings were David Hochfelder, SI fellow from Case Western University, who did research for his dissertation on the history of the telegraph; Michael Conlin, University of Illinois, writing his dissertation on the Smithsonian during the Civil War; two different Japanese researchers both studying Japanese-Smithsonian connections during Henry's lifetime; and Tsutomu Okada, the only Japanese historian studying Henry's work as a scientist.

In addition, OSIA resources were used by Vincent Kiernan, University of Maryland, who studied interactions between science journalists and journals; Daniel Feller, University of New Mexico, who studied Benjamin Tappan; Bette Petrides, independent researcher, who researched the Polaris Expedition of the 1870s; Michele Gates Moresi, George Washington University, who did dissertation research on representations of African-American history at SI; Carol Maryan-George, who studied early film and audiovisual productions at SI; Robert Webb, U.S.G.S., who worked on the Nelson-Goldman expedition to lower California, 1900; William deBuys, independent researcher, who was engaged in a project to document the flora and fauna of Arizona and New Mexico using the 19th century field reports of Bureau of Biological Survey; Todd Grant, U.S.F.W.S., who conducted research on naturalist J. Clark Salyer; Kier Sterling, independent historian of science, who studied mammalogist Gerrit S. Miller; Edward Breneiser, independent researcher, who studied the development of the Morse code; Andrea Loettgers, University of Gottingen, who worked on the bolometric research of Samuel P. Langley; Howard Plotkin, Western Ontario University, who studied the history of meteoritics at SI; Linda Endersby, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who studied 19th century technological collections at SI; and Leon Yacher of Southern Connecticut State University, who did research on Henri Pittier.