Institutional History Division
Remote Off-Site Storage Project
Appendixes
A. SIA Organizational Chart for FY 1999
B. Volume of Holdings Summary
C. Chart of Volume Growth
D. Sources of Holdings
E. Records Center Services
F. Reference Service Statistics
G. "Research in Progress" Lecture Series
H. Publications of SIA Staff and Associates
I. Publications Using SIA Holdings
- Research Associates and Collaborators, Fellows and Interns
- Volunteers
- Oral History and Videohistory Programs
- Joseph Henry Papers Project
The Institutional History Division's high point of the year was the publication of Volume 8 of The Papers of Joseph Henry in December of 1998, arriving in time for Joseph Henry's 201st birthday on 17 December. In September of 1999, the Mini Page syndicated column, which is published in newspapers nationwide, featured Joseph Henry and his role in creating a weather reporting system in the United States.
The IHD continued to expand its presence on the World Wide Web with virtual exhibits, essays, and guides to historical resources. Jennifer Nichols completed the Baird's Dream: A History of the Arts and Industries Building electronic exhibit, to complement the exhibit outside the entrance to the Archives. The Historic Pictures of the Smithsonian site continued to prove of particular interest to web users. The Joseph Henry Papers Project enriched the content of its website with three new articles on Henry's role in the history of American technology. The Project also took a major step toward publishing The Papers of Joseph Henry electronically by entering into the Model Editions Partnership, a cooperative effort by documentary editing projects and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to establish standards for efficient coding procedures for electronic publication.
Historian Pamela M. Henson completed a research project on the history of the history of science and technology collections and programs at the Smithsonian for an essay, "'Objects of Curious Research': The History of Science and Technology at the Smithsonian," published in the 75th anniversary volume of Isis, the journal of the History of Science Society.
Henson, in cooperation with Edie Hedlin, James Hobbins and John Huerta, continued a project to digitize the publications,
The Smithsonian Institution: Documents Relative to Its Origin and History, by William Jones Rhees, published in 1879 and
1901, and to update this compilation of legal documents on the Smithsonian from 1900 to 2000. Digitizing of the original
Rhees volumes and a draft version of the website for the original documents were completed by outside contractors, S&K
Electronic and N-Link respectively. After review and proofing, the website will be loaded in the public server. Henson
also began research on phase two, the legal documents from 1900 to 2000. A summer intern from the University of
Chicago, Jennifer E. Insley, did excellent work in initiating this research project. A volunteer, Doris Jensen, a recently
retired librarian at the Supreme Court of the United States, shared her vast knowledge of legal history research with Henson
and Insley, greatly facilitating work on the project.
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Research Associates and Collaborators, Fellows and Interns
Henson and Rothenberg served as advisors to numerous students and scholars. Rothenberg assisted post-doctoral fellow Yakup Betkas with his research on the transfer of American telegraphic technology to the Ottoman Empire. Henson advised five fellows and one doctoral candidate. Michele Gates Moresi, a predoctoral fellow from The George Washington University, continued her research on portrayals of African Americans in exhibits at the Smithsonian. Henson provided her with advice on conducting oral history interviews, and Moresi has deposited several interviews on that topic in the SIA Oral History Collection. Briann G. Greenfield, predoctoral fellow from Brown University, began her research on museum exhibits and how portrayals of New England became the archetype for the colonial era in museums. Michael Robinson, predoctoral fellow from the University of Wisconsin, began his research project on popular writings on exploration of the Arctic in the nineteenth century. Kae Takarabe of the University of Nagoya (Japan), was awarded a short-term visiting fellowship and conducted research on the 1860 visit of a Japanese delegation to Washington, and its influence on the creation of natural history museums in Japan in the nineteenth century. Patrick H. Wirtz, a predoctoral fellow from the University of Southern California, conducted research on the history of the National Zoological Park as an urban landscape. Henson also served as a reader on The George Washington University doctoral thesis committee of Joanne Gernstein-London, who is writing on the history of plans for a military museum at the Smithsonian.
The Historian's Office sponsored two interns during FY 1999. Meghan Gutierrez of the University of California at Santa
Cruz spent the Fall 1998 semester at the Institutional History Division conducting research in Smithsonian Institution
Archives' collections for the History of Women at the Smithsonian database. Jennifer E. Insley of the University of
Chicago was an intern during the summer of 1999, conducting research on the legal history of the Smithsonian for the
Smithsonian Documents project.
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Volunteer Caroline Farquhar continued transcription of the 1996 Smithsonian Memories collection of oral history
interviews from the 1996 Festival of American Folklife before her death in September of 1999. Her good cheer and
dedication will be greatly missed by the History Office staff. Contractor Layla Wuthrick made a significant contribution to
the running of the Historian's Office during January and the summer of 1999 by reorganizing the files, cleaning up the filing
backlog, and creating a file list. Doris Jensen assisted Henson with her project on the legal history of the Smithsonian. Zoe
Martindale continued to add entries to the image database and edit existing entries, in preparation for placing the database
on-line with the Smithsonian Digital Library. Kathryn Moore, a high school student who volunteered during the summer,
worked with Nichols on the creation of a website, "This Day in Smithsonian History," locating both events and images of
events. Lillian Pharr and Carole Poling continued to prepare entries for the bibliography on the history of the Smithsonian.
Martha Rosen continued research on the history of radio and television at the Smithsonian. These volunteers allowed the
Institutional History Division to complete far more work and make significant strides on important projects.
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Oral History and Videohistory Programs
There were eighty-nine reference requests for the Oral History and Smithsonian Videohistory Collections. Henson continued a series of interviews with David Challinor, former Assistant Secretary for Science/Research, to document his role in Smithsonian research programs during the Ripley and Adams eras. Pedro M. Pruna-Goodgall, IHD Research Collaborator, conducted an oral history interview on the history of Smithsonian/Cuban scientific relations with Michael Smith of the Center for Marine Conservation. Michele Gates Moresi, a predoctoral fellow, conducted interviews of Richard E. Ahlborn, Ellen Roney Hughes, Claudia B. Kidwell, Edith P. Mayo, Keith E. Melder, and Rodris Roth. The Hirshhorn Museum donated interviews of Abram Lerner, the first director of the museum, and Olga Hirshhorn, wife of the founding donor and long-time museum supporter, to the Smithsonian Institution Archives Oral History Collection. Henson interviewed Walter Shropshire, a former scientist at the Smithsonian's Radiation Biology Laboratory. Henson and Marc Epstein, Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, interviewed Roberta Hill and Lowell Dyar, descendants of Harrison Gray Dyar, Smithsonian entomologist from 1897 to 1929. Several interviews conducted earlier on the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute were donated to the collection.
While duplicating an interview from the 1980s, Nichols detected a serious problem with the tape. A conservation survey by conservator Sarah Stauderman was funded with end-of-year money and shows that some of the 1980s era tapes are deteriorating and exhibit "sticky shed." A Research Resources Grant proposal was submitted and awarded to allow remastering of the tapes that are deteriorating. An on-going program will be established to remaster the original oral history and videohistory tapes. With additional Research Resources grant funding, a project was begun to remaster the cassette audiotapes from the 1996 Festival of American Folklife oral history interviews onto reel-to-reel tape to ensure their long term survival.
In FY 1999, 21 interviews totaling 29.5 hours of tape were recorded for the oral history collection. Ten interview sessions
totaling 13.0 hours were transcribed on contract and by volunteers. The collection now consists of 658 interview sessions
totaling 877.5 hours of audio and videotaped interviews of 598 individuals, of which 723 hours have been transcribed and
462.5 hours have been made available for research use. The Processing Procedures Manual was distributed to numerous
individuals interested in learning about oral history from such diverse places as the University of New South Wales, the
Association of Women in Science, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The Smithsonian Videohistory Collection
Catalog was distributed to a wide range of scholars, producers, and others interested in the collection. The Conservation of
Endangered Species, History of the Cell Sorter and Waltham Clock Company videohistory interviews continued to prove
very popular.
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In December 1998, Volume 8 of The Papers of Joseph Henry was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press. The volume documents Henry's life from January 1850 through December 1853. Three pivotal events in Smithsonian history are recorded in the letters and diary entries published in this volume: the hiring of Spencer F. Baird as assistant secretary, an event which resulted in the expansion of the collecting and museum activities of the Smithsonian; the initiation of the Smithsonian Institution International Exchange System for publications; and Henry's decision to attempt to persuade the Regents to allow him to reallocate future funds away from the Smithsonian library and to the support of research and publication. The latter decision triggered a confrontation with Smithsonian librarian Charles C. Jewett and members of the Board of Regents which dominated Henry's time during most of 1854 and into 1855.
That confrontation is documented in the manuscripts which will be published as part of volume 9 of The Papers of Joseph
Henry. Editorial work on that volume, which will cover the period January 1854 through December 1857, is well under
way. All the documents have been text-edited and annotations have been completed for the 1854 documents.
While busy with the volumes, the staff of the Henry Papers Project continued to make progress in other areas. The number of documents in the Henry Papers document index rose to over 90,000. The process of converting the database from DOS to Windows, in anticipation of placing the database on the Internet, has begun. The presence of the project on the Internet in the form of the Henry Papers Home Page has increased during the last year. Among the new features are an article on the role of Henry in the invention of the telephone and an annotated list of things named after Henry.
A major step in publishing The Papers of Joseph Henry on the Internet was taken this year when the Project agreed to participate in Phase II of the Model Editions Partnership. The Project is one of five documentary editions which will prepare a prototype edition derived from its printed edition for placement on the Internet. Funding for the Model Editions Partnership is being provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the University of South Carolina.
The Editor of the Henry Papers Project would like to acknowledge support from the members of the Joint Committee:
Herbert Friedman, Charles C. Gillispie, Janice Goldblum, I. Michael Heyman, J. Dennis O'Connor, and Frederick Seitz,
Chair. He would also like to thank the members of the Editorial Advisory Board: James R. Fleming, Curtis M. Hinsley, Jr.,
and Michael J. Lacey.
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Smithsonian Institution Archives || Archives Division
Institutional History Division || Joseph Henry Papers Project
National Collection Program