Hill Group Okays SI Budget
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o THE SMITHSONIAN TORCH No. 78-10 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. October 1978 Hill Group Okays SI Budget , By Kathryn Lindeman and $575 ,000 for Museum Support Center planning. The Smithsonian federal appropriation of The committee allocated $2. 1 million for $108 ,577 ,000 for Fiscal Year 1979 was general building restoration and renovation, approved by a House-Senate conference including $150,000 for construction of a committee on Sept. 12. The committee, maintenance building at the Chesapeake chaired by Rep . Sidney R . Yates (D-IIl .), Bay Center. A $ 1 million request for minor resolved differences in versions of the bills repairs was cut from the SI request. passed by the House and Senate earlier this year. The conference report now must be Also approved was a $3.7 million appro approved by both houses of Congress and priation for grants under the Special signed by the President. Foreign Currency Program, with a limit of Members approved a salaries and ex $500,000 set on grants to Smithsonian em penses appropriation totalling $96,302 ,000, ployees. including an additional $300,000 for com A $2 million appropriation was approved pletion of the Mt. Hopkins, Ariz., Multiple for the Smithsonian Science Information Mirror Telescope and the acquisition of Exchange, with the recommendation that in struments to evaluate its performance . SSIE be transferred to the Department of Also included were $75,000 for library ac Commerce no.later than July I , 1979. quisitions and $3 1,000 for conservation " Now that the House and Senate com training. A $390,000 appropriation for the mittees have acted on our 1979 appropria research awards program was approved tions reques t , I want to express my with the stipulation that the awards con gratitude for the generous consideration tinue to be made by an outside panel . given the Smithsonian by the Congress," The committee added $500,000 for ac Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley celeration of the Smithsonian collections said . " The thoughtful review of our budget inventory . request and the very s ignificant issues Construction items approved as requested raised at this year's hearings have contrib were $3 .9 million for National Zoo im uted to a heightened awareness of Smithso provements at Rock Creek and the Front nian policy matters, not onl y on the part of Royal Conservation and Research Center the Congress, but for us as well. " Planning Your Festival Visits If you plot your itinerary carefully , you Children 's Area, will run from IO a.m. to 5 should be able to sample events from every p .m. daily. area of the Folklife Festival, which runs There will be daily demonstrations of from Wednesda)f Oct.:A. thrQ.Ugh...Mnnday, Ea tern Shore-crafts- a o,Y-ster -.and . Oct. 9 , spanning the long Columbus Day bing techniques, with Chesapeake Bay food Balloonists Land at NASM weekend. for sale. On Sunday, Oct. 8 , at I] a.m., On the Mall near the Washington Monu visitors can lean how to open oysters, and, Their feet back on the ground, but spirits Newman, youngest member of the crew, ment, there will be daily performances of at 2 p.m. , watch an oyster shucking contest still high from their pioneering balloon trip was frankly thrilled, as an aviator and a Gospel mu sic from II a.m. to noon , blues (raindate, October 9). across the Atlantic, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie balloonist, to be at NASM, saying: from I :30 to 2:30 p .m. and the cries of Music, crafts and cooking demonstra Anderson and Larry Newman, the crew of " My biggest reward is meeting all of the street hawkers from 3 to 4 p.m. tions by San Juan Pueblo residents will be the Double Eagle II , shared entertaining dynamic personalities involved in Smithso Children and aduTts will get together in featured at the west end of MNH, begin anecdotes with guests gathered in their nian aVIatIon. It 's so exciting, that the the Children 's Area, also on the Mall site , honor at a reception in the National Air and honor is really mine, but they don 't know (See ' Festival,' Page 3) each day from IO a .m . to 4 p .m. There will Space Museum 's library on Sept. 14. that. " Ass istant secretary for science, Dr. " So I 'm telling you all now that it's an be games, story telling, music, and various programs. House Acts on MAA David Challinor, and acting NASM Direc honor to have the balloon exhibited at the Mexican and Mexican-American tradi tor Melvin Zisfein introduced the ' 'intrepid Smithsonian. It almost seems like the The House of Representatives ap tions will be demonstrated daily through aeronauts, " and Abruzzo reminisced about dream of a lifetime because for me the proved Sept. 18 , 350-54, legislation programs of music and dance and craft and a memorable conversation with Zisfein . Smithsonian represents the ultimate in avi making the Museum of African Art a food demonstrations. Coal miners and oil part of the Smithsonian. The Senate " We were mid-way ove r the English ation hi story . I can 't tell you how proud we workers will show how they work with real Channel and had gotten 300 or 400 mes all are. " was next to consider differences be equipment specially imported to the Mall sages of congratulations from every aircraft And Anderson said, " It 's much ni cer to tween the House-passed bill and the for the festival. Mall events, except in the and airline that fli es in that part of the be drinking champagne at the Smithsoni an version it adopted earlier this year. world," Abruzzo said. " Then, a message than to be thawing out in Iceland , " a refer came through that was a bit different from ence to the team's unsuccessful flight last the usual congratulati ons. " year when th e Double Eagle I landed in icy Portrait Gallery Celebrates Tenth " This one was from the Smithsoni an and northern waters. it was from Mel, asking would we please Kitty Scott, NASM librarian, presented consider donating the Double Eagle to the the trio with a facsimile of a letter by Smithsonian . I told him to hold on and George Washington , dated May 1784 , re said , 'Listen fell as , they want us to donate lating to an invitation from th e University thi s beautiful flying machine of ours while of Penn sylvania to witness a balloon ascent we ·re still in the air! " th ere. The balloonists also autographed a They agreed , but the threesome waited drawing of the Double Eagle II by NASM until they landed to sign the balloon and illustrator Peter DeAnna. (Anderson with gondola over to the Smithsonian. drawing. above). Smithsonian-Peace Corps Program Ends The Smithsonian-Peace Corps Environ The program, under . Sherburne and hi s mental Program, which has operated here predecessor Robert K. Poole, planned and und er a contract from the Peace Corps since s taffed projects in 55 countries . The 1971 , was terminated on Sept. 29 because Smithsoni an-Peace Corps volunteers who of a Peace Corps decision not to renew took up the projects were selected from funding. The program, admini stered by a among approxima tely 9,000 applicants. staff of six in its SI offices, operated only Environme ntal and conservation projects on a partial budget during FY 78 , according have included cooperative studies with the to program manager, Dr. James A . Sher Galapagos National Park Service to develop burne . conservation techniques for e nd angered species on th e Galapago Island . Sherburne, reflecting on the program 's Other undertakings helped streamline the impact on worl dwide conservation , called it Philippine forest research system, demon "one of the large t efforts to combat en strated water conservati on projects in Hon vironmental degradation . It has enhanced duras , instructed Brazili ans in range man consid erably th e Peace Corps image be agement and surveyed ri ver contamination cause of it association with the Smithso in El Salvador to improve fi shing potential . nian and, just as important, has allowed Because of the heavy burden of adminis 751 young biologists and conservationi sts trative and technical support costs in the to contribute to solvi ng environmental and field , the Smithsonian will not continu e the Delores St. Amand as Harriet Tubman in "Portraits in Motion," one of the ecological problems In developing coun program independent of the Peace Corps, programs attracting visitors to NPG, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this tries . " Sherburne said. month. (See anniversary story, Page 2.) Page 2 THE SMITHSONIAN TORCH October 1978 Portr~~~sa~~lIery ~Iebrates 10th Year With an Eye s;!~tt~~~ub~~~~e~~ers;ty Press of Virginia last year, to become the The fact that photographs of famous first in a series of volumes dealing with Americans now hang in the polished and major collections of the portraits of a given orderly halls of the National Portrait Gal artist. Second in the series will be a book lery represents one more step in a process on the portrait engraver Saint-Memin. A of realization that saw the Gallery open in major work on 18th-century American por the Old Patent Office Building 10 years trait prints is planned for publication in the ago. The museum, once limited to the next two or three years. acquisition of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, got the go-ahead from Con In celebration of NPG's first decade, the gress in 1976 to collect works in a wider Smithsonian Press is publishing three gen range of media.