3 weddell seals 6 design and poverty 8 labrador grizzlies 10 times square

Smithsonian Institution

SCIENCE, HISTORY AND THE ARTS NUMBER 17 · SUMMER 2007 smithsonian online

‘Online Academy.’ In Colonial times, as the white Jesuit inhabitants of Car- rollton Manor in Adamstown, Md., were upstairs saying mass, their slaves were in the kitchen downstairs practic- ing the African religion of Hoodoo. number 17 · summer 2007 This is one of the fascinating pieces of information available on the “Online Published quarterly by the Smithsonian Office of Public Affairs, Smithsonian Institution Academy” Web site of the Smithso- Building, Room 354, MRC 033, P.O. Box nian’s Anacostia Community Museum. 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, for A large rock crystal found by archaeol- Smithsonian Contributing Members, scholars, ogists buried beneath the kitchen educators, museum personnel, libraries, hearth at Carrollton Manor was placed journalists and others. To be added to the mailing list or to request this publication there by the African cook “to control in an accessible format, call (202) 633-5181 the comings and goings of the spirits in (voice) or (202) 633-5285 (TTY). the spirit world up and down the flue “Sisters II,” a 1929 woodblock print by James John Barrat, Editor and out the fireplace,” explains Univer- L.Wells, is a featured artifact on the Anacostia Evelyn S. Lieberman, Director of sity of Maryland anthropologist Mark Community Museum’s “Online Academy.” Communications and Public Affairs Leone in an online video. “Online Academy” features video interviews with scholars, collectors of African American mate- Telephone: (202) 633-2400 rial culture, conservators and others. For instance, Gladys-Marie Fry, one of the nation’s E-mail: [email protected] leading authorities on African American textiles, talks about quilts made by male slaves; Internet: www.si.edu/insideresearch celebrated historian John Hope Franklin discusses the importance of preserving mater- Contributing Members who seek information ial culture; and Jerome Grey, a collector of African American objects, shares tips and ex- about the Smithsonian or about their periences from his many years of collecting.—anacostia.si.edu memberships may write to The Contributing Membership, Smithsonian Institution, MRC 712, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C. Dinosaurs. Since the early 1800s, nearly 1,000 dinosaur species have been discovered 20013-7012, or call 1 (800) 931-32CM or and named by scientists. Dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent, and ex- (202) 633-6300. perts estimate these prehistoric creatures ranged in weight from a few kilograms to tens of tons. It was 1859 when the Smithsonian received its first significant dinosaur fos- sils—those of a long-necked, plant-eating sauropod from Utah named Dystrophaeus On the cover: This circa 1920 image of Times viaemalae. Today, visitors logging onto the Square in New York City (detail) is one of many “Dinosaurs” Web site of the Smithsonian’s images collected in Times Square Spectacular: Lighting Up Broadway. This new book is a vi- National Museum of Natural History can sual history of Times Square written by Darcy access a wealth of information and learn Tell, an editor at the Smithsonian’s Archives of about some of the 1,500 dinosaur speci- American Art. See story, Page 10. (Image cour- mens in the Smithsonian’s collection. Also tesy of the Warshaw Collection of Business Amer- offered is an interactive tour of the office icana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center) Smithsonian exhibition specialists recon- of a museum curator and facts about di- struct the skull of a triceratops. nosaur anatomy, evolution, behavior and extinction. In addition, visitors can click through a guide to museums and places around the world where dinosaur fossils can be seen, a who’s who of dinosaur researchers and an extensive list of Internet links to other Smithsonian dinosaur Web sites.—paleobiology.si.edu/dinosaurs/ Institution

2 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 ZOOLOGY In subzero Antarctica, Zoo scientists study the hardy metabolism of the Weddell seal

By Michael Lipske Special to Inside Smithsonian Research

ow does a roughly 150-pound human persuade a 1,200- pound seagoing mammal to lie still for a bit of bloodwork? InH the wild? In the case of a mother Wed- dell seal, the answer is simple, if inelegant. “You put a bag over her head,” says Olav Oftedal, a nutritionist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park who recently re- turned from studying Weddell seals in Antarctica. The Zoo’s head bags—custom-made of soft rubberized canvas—fit snugly over a mother seal’s shoulders and don’t press on her face. Thus bagged, Weddell seals submit relatively peacefully to scientific poking and prodding and even let them- selves be hoisted up in a net for weighing. “If they were bears, we wouldn’t try this,” Oftedal notes. All well and good. But what about when After gently taking blood, milk and other biological samples from a mother Weddell the wind barreling across the Antarctic ice seal—shown here in the foreground being reunited with her pup—Olav Oftedal makes drives the already staggeringly cold air field notes on the animal. (Photo by Mike Lara) temperature to minus 58 degrees Fahren- heit or below? Then, cooperative seal or principal investigators on a three-year ocean, the seals congregate on the ice sur- not, taking a blood sample becomes im- project funded by the National Science face near cracks that provide openings to possible. “Blood freezes before it’s out of Foundation to study Weddell seals at Mc- the ocean below. Those ice openings allow the animal” and the syringes won’t work, Murdo Sound, an inlet of Antarctica’s access to the fish and other marine life on explains Regina Eisert, National Zoo Ross Sea located 800 miles from the South which Weddell seals prey. physiologist and, like Oftedal, a veteran Pole. Their goal: learning what it takes for Able to hold their breath for 90 minutes seal researcher. a mother seal to rear her pup in one of or longer and follow fish to depths of Frozen blood, blinding wind-blown Earth’s most extreme environments—the more than 1,000 feet, the seals are masters snow, treacherous cracks in the ice—these fast ice, so called because this frozen sea- at navigating the dark, clear Antarctic wa- are a few of the difficulties field biologists water sheet is stuck fast to the shore. ter to find their way back to their breath- face on the coldest, windiest continent. The world’s southernmost species of ing holes in the ice. mammal, the Weddell seal is one of the However, after their pups are born in Fast ice few creatures that thrives both on and un- October (the beginning of the Antarctic Oftedal and Eisert, both on staff at the der fast ice. Miles from the ice edge, summer), mother Weddell seals feed little, National Zoo’s Nutrition Laboratory, are where sea ice gives way to the open (continued)

INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 3 The world’s southernmost species of mammal, the Weddell seal thrives both on and under fast ice.

if at all, during the weeks when they nurse “Weddell seals are creatures of the fast under constant daylight and in tempera- their young—or so seal observers have ice; it is their unique ecological niche,” tures averaging minus 4 degrees Fahren- long assumed. Over the course of pup- Eisert says. Could that niche disappear? In heit, the team lived in small, trailerlike ping season, the huge mothers shrink by both 2000 and 2002, icebergs broke free huts or in tents and spent their days doing nearly half their initial mass, while their of the Ross Ice Shelf and blocked Mc- research on a nearby seal colony, part of pups—nourished on rich mother’s Murdo Sound, leading to changes in the the Ross Sea’s breeding population of milk—quadruple their weight in the first condition of the fast ice, changes that “re- some 50,000 Weddell seals. six weeks of life. Yet not all mother seals sulted in Weddell seals leaving their tradi- Focusing on 12 mother-pup pairs, the are huge when they start the pupping sea- tional breeding areas,” she says. scientists used several methods to investi- son. Those that are small and lean when To study mother seals and their pups, gate seal lactation and foraging. they haul out onto the ice to give birth may an eight-member National Zoo team set They kept track of whether mothers need to forage for food during lactation to up camp on the ice last fall at a site called (and eventually their pups) were entering obtain the energy and nutrients their bod- Hutton Cliffs, a spot about eight miles as the water, and how deeply they dove, by at- ies need to feed themselves and convert to the skua, an Antarctic sea bird, flies from taching computerized time-depth milk for their pups. McMurdo Station, the hub of the U.S. recorders and radio transmitters to their Antarctic Program. backs with epoxy. Radio collars can’t be Fading niche From October 2006 to January 2007, used on Weddell seals because collars slip Oftedal and Eisert are trying to learn if hunting during lactation is something that just some or nearly all Weddell moth- ers do. If most seal mothers supplement their energy reserves by fishing under the fast ice, then Weddell breeding colonies need to be in places that provide adequate prey and access—through ice cracks—to that food. This would mean the colonies are highly sensitive to environmental con- ditions that affect fish populations and the ice cover.

4 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 off the seals’ torpedo-shaped bodies. The study’s dive records may shed light on whether mother seals actively teach their pups to hunt, particularly if they show that mothers and pups are in the water at the same time and at the same depth, “a necessary prerequisite for any kind of observational learning,” Eisert says.

Biomarkers However, the recorders won’t show whether the seals are actually feeding. “We still can’t observe them directly,” Eis- ert says. What the scientists can do is look for evidence of feeding in the seals’ blood and in the milk they produce for their pups, by searching for what Eisert calls “biomarkers.” Rather like looking for alcohol in the blood of a suspected drunk driver, this biomarker method, she says, can “look for compounds that only occur in fish and bears and who has investigated seals in ert complained in a dispatch from the ice, other marine prey and that do not natu- particular for 25 years, the isotope and posted on the Zoo’s Web site at national rally occur in mammals” unless they have biomarker information “helps us to zoo.si.edu, last fall. “All of us lost weight,” consumed such prey. model the whole system, in terms of try- Oftedal says. “No matter how much you Blood, milk and other seal samples are ing to understand what is the nutritional eat, you’re still losing weight.” Forget the being analyzed by Eisert this summer, us- cost of reproduction to a female and how South Beach Diet. The South Pole Diet, ing the Nutrition Lab’s atomic absorption does she obtain that? Does she obtain it with its extremes of cold and wind, slims spectrometer—a device that shoots a all from her stored reserves or does she man and beast alike. ❖ beam of light through an atomized sam- also rely on food?” ple to highlight the presence of specific el- By answering such questions, he says, ements. One biomarker that she is look- scientists come closer to “understanding Opposite top: A mother seal and her pup ing for is arsenobetaine, an arsenic the forces that have driven the evolution sleep on the ice. As the lactation period compound that shows up in mammals of seal reproductive behavior.” progresses, both mothers and pups dive that have recently eaten marine fish or in- In pursuit of that knowledge, Oftedal for longer periods. “They are really very ac- vertebrates. Finding it could tell Eisert not and Eisert will spend a second season tive,” Regina Eisert explains. “With only if mothers are feeding but also at among the seals of McMurdo Sound this weaned pups, a mother and pup may dive what age their pups begin catching fish. fall. Their work is being conducted under under the ice continually for six to 10 hours The Zoo researchers also injected seals both a Marine Mammal Permit and an and then rest on the surface for a similar with naturally occurring isotopes of hy- Antarctic Conservation Act Permit. length of time.” (Photo by Regina Eisert) drogen and oxygen; these are then tracked Once they are back on the ice, Antarc- in ways that reveal what proportion of a tica’s energy-burning cold and the physi- Opposite bottom: A Weddell seal pup mother seal’s body consists of fat, how cal strain of wrangling thousand-pound nurses on the ice. (Photo by Mike Lara) much energy she is expending during lac- seals into nets for weighing will force the tation and even how much milk her pup researchers to confront their own meta- Above: Dressed to avoid sunburn under is consuming. bolic facts of life. For just as mother Wed- the glare of the Antarctic summer sun, dell seals furiously shed pounds during Regina Eisert uses a directional radio an- Nutritional costs pupping season, so do the scientists tenna to locate seals fitted with instru- To Olav Oftedal, who has studied lacta- studying them. ments that allow her to monitor their div- tion in mammals ranging from bats to “I seem to be perpetually hungry,” Eis- ing activity. (Photo by Regina Eisert)

INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 5 DESIGN Saving lives and fighting poverty in the developing world with design

By John Barrat Smithsonian Office of Public Affairs

ill a 5-gallon bucket with water of low-density polyethylene that can be 6.5 billion people living today don’t have and carry it for one mile. Your filled with water and pulled with a rope. access to the products and services that back should be telling you what The Q drum is emblematic of an many of us take for granted. millions of people around the emerging groundswell of design work Fglobe—mainly women—already know aimed at solving the challenges faced by Advisory group quite well. Without plumbing, water is a many of the world’s poor, says Cynthia “What I found as I began my research for heavy necessity. Carrying it is hard, time- Smith, curator at the Smithsonian’s this exhibition,” Smith says, “were the consuming work. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum many ways that individuals and organiza- In developing countries around the in New York City. tions are working to eliminate poverty world, women do most of the water haul- The Q drum is one of 30 recent innova- and to give people around the globe a bet- ing, lugging it in jerrycans for miles from tions that Smith has gathered for Cooper- ter standard of life.” a river or well to their homes and crops. Hewitt’s “Design for the Other 90%,” an For example, Godisa Technologies in To ease this burden, brothers Hans and exhibition whose title underscores the Botswana has designed and manufactured Pieter Hendrikse—one an architect and fact that most designers focus their work a solar-powered device that recharges the other an engineer—created the Q on the desires and needs of the world’s hearing-aid batteries—one of the greatest drum, a durable 7.5-liter container made richest 10 percent. Ninety percent of the expenses to hearing-aid users. Vestergaard

Left:The yellow extension on the rear of this standard bicycle has transformed it into a Big Boda load-carrying bicycle.The Big Boda can carry hundreds of pounds of cargo at a lower cost than other forms of human-powered transportation. (Photo courtesy of WorldBike)

Opposite left: In Africa, two children roll home 50 liters of water inside a plastic Q drum. (Photo courtesy of Q Drum)

Opposite right: A woman drinks from a pool of water using the LifeStraw. About half of the world’s poor suffer from water- borne diseases, and more than 6,000 peo- ple, mainly children, die each day by con- suming unsafe drinking water. (Photo courtesy of Vestergaard Frandsen)

6 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 Frandsen, an international company that Making and selling them represents an Money Maker produces disease-control textiles, is man- opportunity for jobs and income. A second water-related design that has a ufacturing a long-lasting polyester mos- positive impact in developing countries is quito net impregnated with a synthetic Big Boda a line of manually operated micro-irriga- insecticide that kills mosquitoes for up to One innovation Smith and her advisers tion pumps—some that work like stair- four years. found in Africa is the Big Boda load-carry- master machines and others like bicycle And in Nigeria, designer Mohammed ing bicycle, an extension bolted to the back pumps—that can pull water up from a Bah Abba has enlisted local potters to of a standard adult bicycle—a universal well for irrigation. A small farmer using make his pot-in-pot cooler. This low-tech tool of travel and commerce in developing the Money Maker Pump, designed by device consists of one earthenware pot nes- countries. With Big Boda, a bicycle is KickStart International, can increase crop tled inside another and uses evaporating transformed into the two-wheel equivalent yields by a factor of 10, increasing income water to keep fruits and vegetables cool, al- of a pick-up truck. “It is able to carry hun- and helping a family climb out of poverty. lowing farmers to preserve them longer dreds of pounds of cargo at a substantially Affordability was a critical consideration and command better prices at market. lower cost than other forms of human- in designing the Money Maker Pump, says To assist in her task of combing the powered utility vehicles,” Smith says. Martin Fisher, co-designer of the pump globe for new innovations, Smith enlisted Another innovation from the exhibition and director of KickStart International. the help of members of an advisory group is LifeStraw, a simple, 1-inch-diameter Designing them so they can be produced “who have been doing work in this area of straw that cleans water as it is sucked locally and promoting the pumps to farm- design for a while,” she says. “They pro- through the straw and into a user’s ers also was critical to their success. vided suggestions and made me aware of mouth. Easy to carry, each LifeStraw can “Design for the Other 90%” offers visi- a multitude of different projects from filter as much as 700 liters of water, re- tors a broad survey of other innovations around the world.” moving microorganisms responsible for in the areas of technology, education, Smith and her advisers looked specifi- diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, cholera and transportation and health. It demon- cally for low-cost designs that are afford- other diseases. Every year, these and other strates how design is saving lives, empow- able for the poor and can boost income waterborne diseases cause some 2 million ering people and combating poverty. and improve health. They also looked for deaths around the world. “My hope is that this exhibition will designs that can be “replicated and even In the developing world, explains Paul open both designers’ and the public’s eyes sold by the users, thus providing them the Freedman of WorldBike, the company to the multitude of ways any of us can means to become entrepreneurs in their that makes Big Boda, even “a modest de- take action to improve people’s lives,” own right,” Smith says. sign effort” has the potential to benefit Smith says. ❖ The pot-in-pot cooler, for example, many people. For designers, the develop- “does not require electricity, and the raw ing world represents “a huge opportu- “Design for the Other 90%” will be on view materials needed to make the pots are nity,” as well as a potential base of mil- at Cooper-Hewitt through Sept. 23. A exhi- free,” says the cooler’s designer, Bah Abba. lions of underserved customers. bition Web site and a blog are accessible at In addition, they are easy to produce. the address cooperhewitt.org.

INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 7 ANTHROPOLOGY Photograph may be new evidence that grizzly bears once roamed Labrador

By John Barrat Smithsonian Office of Public Affairs

t was only the skull of a small, young grizzly specimens from the Northwest adult grizzly bear, unearthed in 1975 Territories. by Harvard archaeologist Steven Cox The skull’s ruggedness and “a clear up- near an 18th-century Eskimo house ward concavity in the frontal nasal re- inI the northern part of the Canadian gion,” Loring and Spiess write, distin- province of Labrador. Still, the skull had guished the skull in Cabot’s photo as most great significance in that it marked the first likely that of a grizzly. evidence that grizzly bears had once For more than a decade, Loring has roamed the Canadian subarctic east of been working closely with Innu commu- Hudson’s Bay. The discovery confirmed nities in Labrador and with the long-standing Inuit (Labrador Eskimo) and Tshikapisk Foundation, an Innu experien- Innu (Naskapi-Montagnais Indian) legends tial education initiative, on archaeological that told of a great savage red bear in the and heritage conservation projects. Labrador barrenlands. In 2005, he and four Innu students lo- Now, Stephen Loring, an anthropolo- cated the camp where the bear skull had gist at the Smithsonian’s National Mu- been photographed, and they looked for seum of Natural History, has discovered a additional artifacts and evidence. The second important piece of evidence plac- team also conducted an archaeological ing grizzly bears in Labrador well into the survey of Innu ancestral hunting grounds early 20th century. While working in the in the Lake Mistinipi region. Smithsonian Institution Archives organiz- During the survey, they uncovered a ing the journals and photographs of number of large stone caches and walled William Brooks Cabot (1858-1949), an cliff crevasses once used by the Innu to explorer in Labrador from 1899 to 1925, store game. During the caribou migration, Loring discovered a previously overlooked Preservation Commission, in the journal excess “meat, fat and furs” were commonly photograph of a bear skull strapped to a Arctic. The bear’s jawbone is shown at- cached by the Innu who would return later spruce pole. Cabot had taken the photo- tached to the skull in its proper anatomi- in the season to collect the stored food and graph at an Innu hunting camp in cal position with sinew or twine. supplies. Labrador near Mistinipi Lake in 1910. After finding the photograph, Loring Cached food had to be protected The Innu traditionally placed the skulls and Spiess confirmed it most likely against wolves, black bears and wolver- of bears they killed high on poles as a showed a grizzly skull—and not that of a ines, Loring says, but the substantial size mark of respect, Loring says. “Such rites, black bear or polar bear, two bear species of some of the boulder caches “suggests they believe, appease the spirit of the bear. still found in Labrador. They did this by they may have served to protect against “The photo shows a left oblique view of carefully comparing the skull in the photo more robust creatures”—such as grizzly the bear skull, with a good view of the an- to actual bear skulls in the collection of bears. terior dentition [front teeth] and the left the Natural History Museum’s Division of “The region around Lake Mistinipi, in- upper premolar-molar row,” Loring ex- Mammals. The researchers compared the cluding the area where Cabot pho- plains in a recent article, co-authored photo to black bear specimens from On- tographed the bear skull in 1910, seems to with Arthur Spiess of the Maine Historic tario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and have been a core area for a small grizzly

8 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 bear population that apparently survived into the 20th century,” Loring and Spiess write. While researching past writing on bears in Labrador—writings that Loring de- scribes as “a motley corpus...derived from fur traders, visiting naturalists and ex- plorers”—the researchers discovered a previously unpublished study by Lucien Turner (1848-1909), an intrepid Smithso- nian naturalist, who lived and worked for more than a decade in Alaska, the Aleut- ian Islands and northern Quebec and Labrador. Turner lived in northern Que- bec from 1882 to 1884, was an expert in northern wildlife, befriended Innu and Inuit families, and “made expansive col- lections of plants, birds, fish and insects for the Smithsonian,” Loring says. In his unpublished paper about wildlife in the northern Ungave district of Que- bec-Labrador, Turner cites three distinct species of bears—polar bears, black bears and grizzly bears. What Turner knew of the Labrador grizzly was based on accounts of Inuit and Innu hunters. “This animal is not plenti- ful, although common enough and too common to suit some of the natives who have a wholesome dread of it,” Turner wrote. “I was informed that this animal is extremely savage, rushing up on its foe with a ferocity characterized by no other species of bear.” Although he was unable to procure a grizzly specimen for the mu- seum, Turner did report seeing skins of grizzlies killed by the Indians. The Inuit and Innu both described griz- Opposite: Researchers believe the skull in this photograph, taken in 1910 by William zlies to Turner as “fat and healthy” upon Brooks Cabot, is that of a grizzly bear. first emerging from their winter hiberna- tion. After a few days, their condition was Above top:This 1910 photograph shows William Cabot, with his back to a boulder, con- described as a “huge mass of skin and versing with a trio of Innu hunters on their way to the Hudson’s Bay Co. trading post on bones.” These observations, Loring points the coast of Labrador. out, closely conform to modern studies of grizzly bears. Above bottom: In the fall of 2005, Stephen Loring, seated at right, and several Innu stu- Taken together, the researchers say, dents conducted an archaeological survey of traditional Innu travel routes and located “Cabot’s photo and Turner’s paper serve the Innu camp Cabot visited in 1910.This 2005 photograph shows the same two boul- to further substantiate the fact that a small ders that are visible in the top photograph, taken in 1910. population of grizzly bears once lived in the Quebec and Labrador peninsula.” ❖

INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 9 ART HISTORY A visual history of Times Square spectaculars

By Alan Cutler Special to Inside Smithsonian Research

ushing crowds, chorus girls, tory that tells the story of this remarkable spondence and other ephemera—were an sailors on liberty, New Year’s streetscape and its rise to fame. unusual acquisition for the Archives. “We revelers all moving against a usually get museum records and the pa- swirling backdrop of flashing Billboard visionary pers of painters, sculptors, illustrators and Rneon—this is the enduring image of New Tell’s interest in Times Square was sparked art dealers,” Tell says. Once she began York City’s Times Square. Few other in 2000 when the Archives of American reading Leigh’s papers, however, she be- places on Earth better symbolize the glit- Art—a repository of more than 16 mil- came enthralled. ter, excitement and frenetic pace of mod- lion items relating to the visual arts in “The word visionary is greatly overused ern urban life. America—obtained the papers of sign these days, but he was a visionary,” she How this once-peaceful intersection of and lighting designer Douglas Leigh. adds. His thinking took him beyond just two New York City streets—Broadway Leigh was the creator of one of the most signs above streets. “He viewed New York and Seventh Avenue—grew to become an famous advertisements of all time: the City as a giant panoramic sculpture.” iconic symbol of 20th-century America is Camel cigarette billboard featuring a huge the focus of Times Square Spectacular: man’s face blowing gigantic smoke rings Drawing crowds Lighting Up Broadway, a new book by out into the air. The sign was a Times Piecing together the story of Times Darcy Tell, editor at the Smithsonian’s Square landmark from 1942 to 1966. Square’s glittering ascension, Tell studied Archives of American Art. “For nearly 50 years, Leigh was the Big Leigh’s records, which included files for Filled with rare photographs, maps, Kahuna of Times Square adver- such clients as 7-Up, Amoco, restaurant menus, hand-colored lantern tising,” Tell explains. His BlueCross-BlueShield, Coca- slides, postcards, magazine covers and papers—which include other archival images of Times Square, photographs, sketches, Times Square Spectacular is a visual his- scrapbooks, corre- Far left: Douglas Leigh unveiled his Camel sign—the most fa- mous sign of the 20th century—in Times Square on Dec. 12, 1941.This billboard used steam blown through a kind of giant bel- lows and remained a New York City landmark until 1966.

Inset above: Leigh is shown in 1941 with a miniature version of the mechanism used in his Camel “spectacular” billboard.

Opposite:Times Square at night (detail), photographed from above looking north, late 1920s-early 1930s (All images cour- tesy of a private collection)

10 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 Cola, Eveready Batteries, Four Roses Whiskey, Fram Oil Filters, Old Gold Ciga- rettes and Schaefer Beer. Leigh also kept records for displays he created on the Al- lied Chemical Tower, the Helmsley Build- ing, the Pan Am Building, Grand Central Terminal and even a number of lighted di- rigibles that hovered in New York’s night sky after World War II. Leigh’s career, covered in detail in Times Square Spectacular, “was the culmination of a tradition that began in 1904 when the first electric sign was put up in Times Square,” Tells explains. In 1904, Mayor George McClellan named Times Square in honor of the not-yet-complete New York Times Building. The Times Square subway station opened in 1904 as well. It quickly became New York’s busiest station. “Times Square was attractive to advertis- ers because hundreds of thousands of peo- ple passed through each week,” Tell says. And, of course, Broadway—the undis- American Sign Museum in Cincinnati; “That was the kind of thing Douglas puted center of American popular enter- the Theatre Historical Society of America; Leigh was imagining back in the ’30s. He tainment—drew its share of crowds. and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts just didn’t have the technology to do it.” Broadway’s “Great White Way,” so and Sciences in Los Angeles, among other Leigh’s ambitions went beyond Times named in the early 1900s because of its institutions. Square. He had ideas of turning the Em- halo of incandescent lights, soon spread pire State Building into a giant cigarette its illumination into Times Square. By Neon billboard and of using the Rock of Gibral- 1925, sign man Oscar Gude, who made Although businesses in Times Square be- tar as a colossal ad for Prudential Insur- his mark by constructing a giant electri- gan to slump in the 1930s with the Great ance. Nothing ever came of these plans, fied Heinz pickle in Madison Square, Depression, the advertising signscape that but Leigh did get a crack at the Empire transformed Times Square with towering had begun to define Times Square was en- State Building—he designed the enor- advertisements intended to amaze view- tering a golden age. Much of this had to do mously popular red, white and blue light- ers. These awe-inspiring signs—“spectac- with the growing availabilty of neon lights, ing scheme used on the building for ulars” in advertising parlance—quickly which gave sign designers unlimited possi- America’s 1976 Bicentennial. became famous around the world. bilities to dazzle pedestrians. When the Al- In the decades following World War II, Exclusive restaurants and cabarets, abama-born Leigh arrived, the scene be- Times Square hit the skids, but by the late where celebrities and other stylish folk came charged like never before. 1990s, it had revived, “once again the mingled and enjoyed the good life, also Leigh’s first spectacular in Times Square fantastic advertising carnival it had been drew crowds to Times Square. Fast, showy was a 1933 advertisement for A&P coffee before,” Tells says. Leigh’s views on its re- and champagne-soaked, the scene was ir- that featured real steam rising from a 25- birth never made it into print before his resistible to writers, journalists, play- foot-tall coffee cup. In the following years death in 1999 (his New York Times obitu- wrights, songwriters and others who sen- his signs became ever bigger and more ary dubbed him “The Man Who Lit Up sationalized it in popular culture. elaborate, often with intricate animations, New York). “But he must have been In researching Times Square’s upward such as a winking penguin on a cake of ice pleased,” Tell says. ❖ trajectory in the early 1900s, Tell combed for Kool cigarettes. through collections in the Library of Con- Many of today’s Times Square signs— Times Square Spectacular: Lighting Up gress; the Archives Center of the Smithso- the high-tech video screens covering the Broadway will be published in the fall by nian’s National Museum of American facades of buildings, for instance—might Collins/Smithsonian Books. History, Kenneth E. Behring Center; the easily have been made by Leigh, Tell says.

INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 11 news and notes

Cheetah facility. The Smithsonian’s Na- (1969–2002); Smithsonian Contributions tional Zoological Park has broken ground to the Marine Sciences (1977–present); on a new Cheetah Science Facility at its Smithsonian Folklife Studies (1980– Conservation and Research Center in 1990); and Smithsonian Studies in Air Front Royal, Va. The facility, the first new and Space (1977–1990). construction at the center in 25 years, is made possible by Bill McClure, a long- Encyclopedia of Life. A new effort to time friend of the National Zoo. The facil- document the 1.8 million known species ity will be the Zoo’s cheetah home base of insects, animals, plants and other for research in animal care, reproduction, forms of life on Earth and make this in- endocrinology, behavior, nutrition and formation available worldwide on the In- genetics. ternet was launched in May by the Smith- Scheduled to open this fall, the facility sonian; the Field Museum in Chicago; will provide a training program for post- Harvard University; the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass.; the Elsie, the Borden Co. mascot, was on hand Missouri Botanical Garden; and the Bio- for the donation of memorabilia to the diversity Heritage Library. Smithsonian. (Photo by Richard Strauss) Known as the Encyclopedia of Life, the project will create an Internet page for types and shape new attitudes about race each known species and organize the and status. pages at the Web address www.eol.org. This ever-growing resource of written in- Borden acquisition. The Borden Co. re- formation, photographs, videos, sounds, cently donated a collection of memorabilia maps and other data will be created and documenting the company’s participation maintained by experts around the globe. in the 1939 New York World’s Fair to the A female cheetah and her cubs at the Na- Smithsonian’s National Museum tional Zoo (Photo by Jessie Cohen) Milestone. On May 11, the of American History. The Smithsonian’s National donation from Borden, a doctoral fellows, graduate students, in- Museum of African nationally known terns and animal keepers. It will house 15 American History milk-products com- to 20 adult cheetahs. and Culture opened pany, was made in its inaugural exhibi- commemoration of Scholarly series online. Many volumes tion, “Let Your the company’s from the Smithsonian Contributions Motto Be Resis- 150th anniversary. series and the Smithsonian Studies series tance: African It includes year- have recently been digitized and are avail- American Portraits,” books, photographs, able online at www. sil.si.edu/Smithsonian at the International personal scrapbooks Contributions. The following series are Center of Photography and other materials now available: Smithsonian Annals of in New York City. Featur- that will be added to the Flight (1964–1974); Smithsonian Contri- ing an intriguing collection museum’s Archives Center butions to Anthropology (1965–present); of 100 photographs from the collections. These items will Smithsonian Contributions to Botany permanent collection of the Smithso- supplement existing collections related (1969–2001); Smithsonian Contributions nian’s National Portrait Gallery, the exhi- to the 1939 World’s Fair. to History and Technology (1969–pre- bition examines 150 years of American sent); Smithsonian Contributions to Pale- history and shows how photographers This 1881 photograph of abolitionist obiology (1969–present); Smithsonian and their subjects worked to create posi- Henry Highland Garnet is in the exhibition Contributions to the Earth Sciences tive images, challenge demeaning stereo- “Let Your Motto Be Resistance.”

12 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 Population decline in North American bird species follows West Nile Virus

sing population survey data of North “Our work demonstrates the broad and ecosystems, U American birds compiled since 1981, potentially devastating impacts that an including un- scientists at the Migratory Bird Center of invasive pathogen can have on our native precedented move- the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park wildlife,” says Shannon LaDeau, lead re- ment of invasive in Washington, D.C., and the Wildlife Trust searcher of the survey and a Smithsonian pathogens around in New York have documented a significant postdoctoral fellow. the world. population decline among several bird “Some species, like the American crow, “The West Nile species following the introduction of the showed population declines up to 45 per- Virus serves as a clear Blue jay (Photo West Nile Virus in North America. cent regionally,” LaDeau continues. “It is example of how other by Jessie Cohen) The affected species include some of also important to emphasize that we have pathogens, such as America’s most familiar birds, including only looked at a small subset of bird highly pathogenic avian influenza, might the American robin, American crow, blue species in the United States. Most species, easily enter and affect our ecosystems,” jay, Eastern bluebird, house wren, tufted such as birds of prey and waterbirds, Marra says. These results also emphasize titmouse and black-capped chickadee. aren’t monitored at these scales, so we the risks associated with global trade in Although it has long been been known have no way of knowing how or if their wildlife. International wildlife trade, legal that West Nile Virus—an introduced, in- populations are declining.” and illegal, is one of the primary ways vasive pathogen—does cause bird mor- Peter Marra, a National Zoo ornitholo- pathogens move around the world. The tality, only recently have scientists been gist and co-author of the survey study, United States and other countries in the able to demonstrate the large-scale im- emphasized that “with increasing global- Western Hemisphere should carefully con- pact of the virus on the populations of a ization often come dire consequences for sider banning future trade in wildlife, number of bird species. native wildlife and their dependent Marra says. —John Gibbons

Carbon isotopes help classify prehistoric organism as a humongous fungus

hen fossils of the fungus Prototax- University of Chicago and their col- ment some 400 million years ago. W ites were first discovered in the leagues has produced new scientific evi- Deriving energy from the sun and car- mid-1800s in Quebec, Canada, the size of dence to support Hueber’s theory and fi- bon from carbon dioxide in the air, plants this 20-foot-high, towering, cactus-shaped nally resolve the identity of this living in the same environment will typi- organism caused scientists to classify it as cally contain similar carbon-12 to car- a conifer. Later, researchers argued it was a bon-13 ratios. Prototaxites fossils, how- lichen, fungus or, possibly, algae. ever, displayed a much wider variation in In 2001, more than 150 years after its the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 iso- discovery, Francis Hueber, a paleobiolo- topes than would be expected in any gist at the Smithsonian’s National Mu- plant. Rather, its carbon isotope ratio is seum of Natural History, examined the more indicative of a ground-dwelling internal structure of Prototaxites fossils— fungus that, as it grows, absorbs carbon an interwoven mesh of tiny tubes—with from a variety of elements in the soil. a regular microscope and a scanning elec- “Prototaxites was the most bizarre and, tron microscope. Hueber then published This illustration shows how Prototaxites for the greater part of its existence, the a paper identifying Prototaxites as “an ex- may have dominated the Devonian land- largest and tallest element in the terres- tinct form of fungus with sporophores scape. (Illustration by Mary Parrish) trial floras of the Devonian [period],” (structures that release spores) that ex- Hueber wrote in 2001. ceed comparable forms living today and mysterious organism. The team analyzed Its humongous size may have enabled it exceed the imagination as well....” carbon-12 and carbon-13 isotopes found “to distribute its spores widely, allowing it Now, a new study by Hueber, Carol in Prototaxites fossils and compared their to occupy suitable marshy habitat that Hotton, also of the National Museum of ratios to carbon isotopes in fossils from may have been patchily distributed on the Natural History, C. Kevin Boyce of the plants that lived in the same environ- landscape,” Hotton says. —John Barrat

INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 13 books and recordings

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors: A ica’s 50 years in space by NBC’s veteran If You Ain’t Got the Do-Re-Mi: Songs Photographic History by Gertrude space correspondent. of Rags and Riches (Smithsonian Folk- Käsebier, by Michelle Delaney (Collins, ways Recordings, 2007, $15). Songs and 2007, $34.95). An extraordinary collection Dogs: A Natural History, by Jake Page singers whose words express the human of Native American portraits from Buffalo (Collins, 2007, $24.95). An engaging and side of money: hope, frustration, humor Bill’s Wild West Show, the spectacle that informative guide to everything science and desire. long defined the frontier in America. can tell us about man’s best friend. Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Do All Indians Live in Tipis? 101 The Perils of Peace: America’s Strug- Healing and HIV/AIDS in Uganda Questions and Answers from the gle for Survival After Yorktown, by (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2007, National Museum of the American Thomas Fleming (Collins, 2007, $27.95). $15). A blend of traditional music that af- Indian (Collins, 2007, $14.95). The most A dramatic new look at the Revolution af- firms the profound strength of a people’s common myths and stereotypes about ter the battle of Yorktown had been won, music in promoting positive change. Native Americans are laid bare in this when the former Colonies’ fate remained friendly and informative book written by dangerously unsettled. Classic Old-Time Fiddle From experts in Native American studies. Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Forgotten Ellis Island:The Extraordi- Folkways Recordings, 2007, $15). A col- Let Your Motto Be Resistance: nary Story of America’s Immigrant lection of songs by vintage Southern Ap- African American Portraits, by Debo- Hospital, by Lorie Conway (Collins, palachian old-time fiddle masters, includ- rah Willis (Collins, 2007, $35). This book 2007, $26.95). The first-ever narrative his- ing Clark Kessinger, Wade Ward, Tommy serves as the companion volume to the in- tory of the Ellis Island Hospital, which will Jarrell and Marion Sumner. augural exhibition of the Smithsonian’s soon be restored and open to the public. newest museum, the National Museum of Books listed on Pages 14 and 15 can be or- African American History and Culture. Lines of Contention: Political Car- dered through online book vendors or pur- toons of the Civil War, by P.J. Huff and chased in bookstores nationwide. ‘Live From Cape Canaveral’: Cover- J.G. Lewin (Collins, 2007, $19.95). Politi- ing the Space Race, From Sputnik cal cartoons from Vanity Fair, Collier’s Recordings can be ordered from Smithso- to Today, by Jay Barbree (Collins, 2007, and Leslie’s Illustrated offer fresh insight nian Folkways Mail Order, Smithsonian $26.95). Affectionate portraits and amus- into the American cultural and political Folkways Recordings Dept. 0607, Washing- ing anecdotes of astronauts and an engag- climate during the Civil War. ton, D.C. 20073-0607. To order by phone, ing behind-the-scenes account of Amer- call (800) 410-9815 or (202) 275-1143.

14 INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 off the shelf

Crazy ’08: How a Cast day, with a few notable exceptions. For game and player-by-player, offering in- example, pitchers could do anything with depth portraits of the strengths and weak- of Cranks, Rogues, the ball. “They can apply spit, slime, mud, nesses of each team. She recounts the in- soap, licorice or tobacco juice, or scrape, credible saves, boneheaded errors and Boneheads and sand or puncture it—anything short of game scores while the tension builds as taking an ax to it,” Murphy points out. the Cubs, Giants and Pirates battle it out Magnates Created the For the fans, the world of baseball was for first place. different, too. With no television or instant So grandly contested were the Ameri- Greatest Year in replay, it was a real, live American pastime. can League and National League races, Radio had not yet come to the masses. If “so great the excitement, so intense the Baseball History Americans wanted baseball action, they interest, that in the last month of the sea- had to get out to the fields. “Twenty-thou- son the entire nation became absorbed in By Cait Murphy (Collins, 2007, $24.95) sand to 30,000 people pour into ballparks the thrilling and nerve-wracking strug- n the opening pages of her new book, at a time in 1908, routinely in New York gle,” boasted the October 1908 edition of I Crazy ’08: How a Cast of Cranks, Sporting Life. Rogues, Boneheads and Magnates Created Crazy ’08 offers up all the excitement the Greatest Year in Baseball History, au- of this remarkable season, while also re- thor Cait Murphy revisits early 20th-cen- vealing the forces that created modern tury Chicago, a town that was stormy, baseball and the American culture that brawling, lusty, “violent, corrupt and out- produced it. In 1908, crooked pols ran rageous.” Chicago and baseball were “like Chicago’s First Ward, and gambling mag- pork and beans,” Murphy observes, “the nates controlled the Yankees. Fans regu- ingredients are modest, but the result is larly invaded the field to do handstands, appealing to all palates.” argued with the umpires and shot guns In Crazy ’08, Murphy serves up an en- from rickety grandstands prone to fires. tertainingly palatable tale, taking readers Baseball’s anthem, “Take Me Out to the down into the dugouts, out onto the field Ball Game,” became a hit. and in among the riotous fans of Amer- Dynamic and dramatic, 1908 was a ica’s 1908 baseball season. The year wit- season during which so many weird and nessed the greatest pennant race the Na- wonderful things happened that it is tional League has ever seen, Murphy somehow unsurprising that a hairpiece, a writes, a season when the Chicago Cubs’ swarm of gnats and a sudden bout of lum- Frank Chance and his teammates took on bago all play a role in its outcome. And John McGraw and Christy Mathewson’s sometimes, the events are downright de- New York Giants and Honus Wagner’s and Chicago, and occasionally elsewhere,” pressing. There are several deaths, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Murphy writes. “Tens of thousands more shadow of corruption creeps closer to “Every baseball season is like a Dickens block traffic or fill concert halls to watch baseball’s heart—the honesty of the game novel—a tale told in installments, until electric scoreboards by the hour.” itself. in the last chapter, known as the World It was the National League’s—and the “Just as the introduction of the Model Series, all the loose ends are tied up and Cubs’—year. In Crazy ’08, Murphy care- T in 1908 foreshadows the year of the car the heroes go home, tired but happy,” fully recounts baseball’s history leading as an item of mass consumption, in the in- Murphy writes. “In 1908, there are simply up to 1908 and introduces readers to the tense interest generated in Chicago and more chapters, more surprises and more Cub’s Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers, Giant New York by the pennant races, the nation drama than in any other.” Joe McGinnity, umpire Hank O’Day and glimpses the future of baseball as a mass In the early days, the rules of baseball others. phenomenon,” Murphy writes. “In 1908, were pretty much the same as they are to- Murphy follows the action game-by- baseball comes of age.” —Daniel Friend

INSIDE SMITHSONIAN RESEARCH · SUMMER 2007 15 new to the collections

Innovative solar-powered Pathfinder Plus lands at the Air and Space Museum

ith a top flight speed of 25 miles per hour, the Pathfinder aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum. The Gossamer W Plus will never be a contender for air shuttle service be- Albatross made history in 1979 when it became the first human- tween New York and Boston. Still, this odd, flying-wing airplane powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel. is a high flyer—in 1998, it set an altitude record for propeller- Pathfinder, as it was originally called, was developed in the driven aircraft, climbing 80,201 feet into the stratosphere. It also early 1980s as part of a classified government program experi- can stay aloft for 15 hours at a time without burning any fuel. menting with high-altitude, remotely piloted surveillance planes. Made from lightweight ma- It made its first flight in 1983. terials—Kelvar, carbon fiber, In 1993, the aircraft was de- Nomex and plastic sheeting— ployed in classified tests by the the unmanned Pathfinder Plus Ballistic Missile Defense Or- floats silently through the air ganization. The following year, like a giant bird. Its wingspan it was used in experiments by is an impressive 121 feet. Pi- NASA’s Environmental Re- loted remotely from the search Aircraft and Sensor ground, eight electric-powered Pathfinder Plus in Hawaii, June 24, 2002 (Photo courtesy of NASA) Technology Program. propellers pull it slowly Pathfinder became the through the sky. Solar panels covering the plane’s upper wing Pathfinder Plus in 1998 when NASA engineers doubled the surface provide the power. length of its center wing section, increasing the plane’s wingspan In January, this experimental plane—built and operated by from 98.4 feet to 121 feet. AeroVironment Inc. of Monrovia, Calif., and designed by avia- In 2002, NASA tested Pathfinder Plus for its potential to moni- tion pioneer Paul MacReady—was acquired by the Smithso- tor crops, forests and remote areas with special cameras. The air- nian’s National Air and Space Museum. It is now on exhibit in craft also completed a series of telecommunications tests, the the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. world’s first from above 65,000 feet, demonstrating its potential “Pathfinder Plus is a direct descendant of the the Gossamer Al- for maintaining communications links during an emergency. batross and the Gossamer Condor, two human-powered, very While flying over the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Pathfinder Plus high-lift, slow-speed aircraft that also are in the Smithsonian transmitted several hours of mobile voice, data and video ser- collections,” says Robert van der Linden, curator of experimental vices to handheld devices on the ground. —John Barrat

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Presorted Standard MRC 033 PO Box 37012 Washington DC 20013-7012 U.S. Postage Paid Official Business Smithsonian Institution Penalty for Private Use $300 G-94

number 17 · summer 2007