o THE SMITHSONIAN Gala NPG Dedication Takes Place October 5 The National Portrait Gallery will resource for research and scholarship as TORCH dedicate its new home with due pomp well as the general public." Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. No. 10, October 1968 and fanfare on October 5. Its opening to Atmosphere will be provided by the the public on October 7 will give the United States Marine Band, playing for Smithsonian its second major new Wash­ the ceremony, and the Dupont Circle ington art gallery in less than six months Consortium, which will demonstrate six after a five-year renovation program at dances that were done at Lincoln's Sec­ the Old Patent Office Building. ond Inaugural Ball, held in the Patent D. C. Mayor-Commissioner Walter Office Building. Washington will join Secretary Ripley The inaugural exhibition will be a pro­ and'Director Charles Nagel in dedicating vocative show of 168 paintings, sculp­ the gallery that Mr. Ripley says should tures and photographs entitled "This New be "a grand and most fitting addition to Man: A Discourse in Portraits." Its the Nation's Capital. Here will hang the theme is taken from Jean de Crevecoeur, portraits of men and women who have who asked in his Letters from an Ameri­ made significant contributions to the can Farmer in 1782: "What then is the history, development, and culture of the American, this new man?" people of the United States. In addition, To develop this theme further, a sym­ here also we hope to develop a significant posium on the culture and character of the nation will be held October 4 and 5, with noted anthropologist Margaret Mead, curator of ethnology at the Amer­ ican Museum of Natural History; Dan­ Book, Show iel J. Boorstin, history professor at the University of Chicago, and Marcus Cun­ liffe, professor of American studies at Will Recall Sussex University, England, as speakers. Miss Mead will discuss "Americans and Their Ancestors," Boorstin "The Mystery Perry Trip of the American Hero," and Cunliffe "What Is an American, or Crevecoeur Just over a century ago Commodore Revisited." Their talks will be foIlowed Matthew C. Perry opened Japan to the by a panel discussion. United States and the rest of the world. The symposium is being financed by a The Smithsonian is commemorating that grant from Time Incorporated through Museum aide Betsy Heck, who helped gather associative items for the NPG opener, historic event with a special exhibit open- the good offices of Sidney James, Time demonstrates the use of Charles Willson Peale's physiognotrace under the watchful ing on October 11 and the first publi- Vice President. eye of the artist himself. cation of Perry's personal journals of the voyage. Opening along with the special "This The three hand-written volumes of New Man" exhibition will be a perma­ nent NPG feature, a sweeping Pres i­ Perry's journals have been edited by dential GaIlery with likenesses of every Roger Pineau of the Smithsonian In- Chief Executive through John F. Ken- Performing Arts Will Take stitution Press, and will be published as The Japan Expedition., 1852-1854: The nedy. President Johnson has asked that Personal Journal of Commodore Mat- no likeness of himself be put on ex­ hibition until he leaves office. Folk Company to Olympics thew C. Perry. The Presidential Gallery will include .... ~ ______Ib ~~nti~~~~~~~llh~~~L-__~~~~~~w~~i~thi~Jl~~4U~ ~~~I~t~i~n~c~lu~d~e~s~a~n~in~t~r~o~d~u£ct~io~n~b~~th~e~d~is~-~George Washington on drama. University's College of General Studies; In addition to the theatres SI is provid­ and Dr. Carl Stover, director of the Na­ ing production facilities and facilities for tional Institute of Public Affairs. A mock-up of the Smithsonian Theatre on the Mall the seminars and conferences. Page 2 THE SMITHSONIAN TORCH October, 1968 NPGOpens (Continued from page 1.) be shown, along with a Stuart from the National Gallery of Art, the NPG's own Rembrandt Peale, and a miniature by John Ramage. An American Indian stamp featuring a portrait 'of Chief Joseph from the NPG collection will be issued in honor of the opening. The stamp will be released No­ vember 4. The opening show will include more than just faces. Helping to bring the ex­ hibition themes to life will be carefully selected genre paintings such as "The Oregon Trail" by Albert Bierstadt and objects that relate either to one of the individuals on display or to a general VERSATILITY-A pair of golden pheasants, given by Lafayette to George Washington, were mounted by Charles Willson Peale, theme. Among them are models for Mc­ artist and amateur naturalist, for his museum. The birds are on display with Peale's portrait in the "amateur and versatilist" sec- Cormick's reaper, Morse's telegraph, and Howe's sewing machine, Daniel Web­ tion of the NPG opening show. Photo by Harry B. Neufeld ster's sideboard and a desk from the chambers of the House of Representa­ MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA tives. Charles Willson Peale, portraitist and amateur naturalist, had in his museum a Phenomena Center Studies NASM Offers physiognotrace, a wooden device for tracing a person's silhouette in miniature. · · A f S · I Lunchbox Talk Also on display from his museum are a pair of golden pheasants mounted by Migrating rmy 0 qUlrre s 0 S R Peale. The birds were a gift from Lafay­ by Jim Cornell n pace ace ette to George Washington. Virtual armies of grey squirrels are The Smithsonian Center is coordinat­ With NASA's tenth anniversary com­ Like its sister gallery, the National Col­ marching across parts of the Great ing the efforts of biologists and mam­ ing up, and the Russians' spectacular lection of Fine Arts, NPG will be oc­ Smokey Mountains in North Carolina, malogists in the area who are attempting lunar orbit just past, the National Air cupying its first permanent home in the Tennessee, and Georgia, according to to learn the extent and the causes of the and Space Museum is offering a timely Old Patent Office Building. Unlike the reports received by the Center for Short­ strange migration. topic for their October 9 lunch box talk. NCFA, however, it did not have to wander for a century before settling Lived Phenomena. Early reports from the Great Smokey Dr. C. S. Sheldon III, of the Library down. It was established by act of Con­ Sections of North Carolina previously Mountains indicated that the squirrels of Congress Legislative Reference Serv­ gress only six years ago and used the uninhabited by squirrels are now teem­ were starving and seeking new feeding ice, will speak on "USSR! USA-How Arts and Industries Building as its quar­ ing with the animals, which are even grounds because frost had killed off their They Stand in Space Today" at noon on ters until moving to 8th and F Streets. invading buildings on the path of their usual sources of food. the second floor of A&I. migration. Thousands of squirrels al­ Other talks, all at Wednesday noon, After meeting the challenge of prepar­ The North Carolina Wildlife Re­ ready have been killed on highways and include: ing for its October 7 opening, the Gallery sources Commission, however, now re­ by drowning in reservoirs and lakes as October 16-Dr. R. K. Smith, NASM will have a task just as big still ahead of ports that the squirrels seem healthy, they move westward for no apparent historian, "The Zeppelin and History." it-finding more men of the caliber of well fed, and fat. Walter Edmundson, reason. October 23-CoI. R. M. Calland, di­ those who have seen it through its in­ District Game Protector in western North rector, Project Tecumseh, NAFMAB, fancy. Director Nagel, who came out of Carolina, suggests the squirrel migration retirement to head it up in 1964, plans may be due to "population stress." "USS Tecumseh---':"A Short Progress Re­ Clendening Joins port." to retire permanently and move to Mex­ At the request of the Smithsonian Cen­ October 30-R. K. Preston, NASM, ico sometime next year. And Assistant ter for Short-Lived Phenomena, pro­ "The Man Behind the Swiss Institute of Director J. Benjamin Townsend departs Vietnam Combat fess or Vagn Flyger of the University of Transport. " immediately after the opening to resume Maryland's Natural Resources Institute his position as professor of English at the has gone to the area. He will be joined State University of New York at Buffalo. Artist Program by Professor George Hayes of the Uni­ versity of Georgia's Department of Bi­ John R. Clendening this month be­ ology. Scientists from the Institution's comes the second MHT exhibits specialist own Department of Mammals also may Olympic program to participate in the combat artist pro­ join the research efforts. gram in Viet-Nam. He will be with the (Continued from page 1.) U.S. Marine Corps there from October Although mass migrations of squirrels Both programs will be part of the Arts, staged by James Morris, artistic di­ 15 through the end of November. and other small mammals have been noted 'in the past, this is the first time World Folklore Festival in which 26 na­ rection by Ralph Rinzler, with Timothy Other SI employees abroad this month tions will take part. The Festival has Jecko as production stage manager and include: that biologists have had an opportunity been designated by the Mexican Or­ Marjorie Carr as unit manager. Thomas E. Bowman, Crustacea, train­ to observe the phenomenon while it is ganizing Committee as the most impor­ The Institution also will provide an ex­ ing technicians at the Indian Ocean still occurring. tant part of the multi-faceted cultural hibition of traditional American crafts Biological Centre, Ernakulam, and con­ The researchers will attempt to dis­ cover: 1. What causes squirrels to mi­ program because "it will display the that have been selected by the Museum ferring with Dr. H . Steinitz, Hebrew unique and individual creative expres­ University, Jerusalem. grate, 2. What specific event, or action, of Anthropology in Mexico. The crafts sion of each nation, and thus contribute chosen for showing were part of the ex­ Henry W. Setzer, Mammals, in Ghana, triggers the start of a migration, and 3. most directly to world peace and under­ hibition collection of the Smithsonian Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Kenya, South How do different and widely separated standing". Museum Shops and were purchased by Africa to confer with colleagues on long­ populations of squirrels communicate Smithsonian programs will be pro­ Dr. Alfonso So to Soria for the permanent range programs of scientific study of the signal to migrate. duced by the Division of Performing collection of the Mexican museum. mammals and associated ecoparasites. George Switzer, Gems and Minerals, in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Venezuela to ex­ NCFA to Open Sheeler, WPA Shows amine gem deposits, visit mines and view mineral collections. John A. Pope, Freer Gallery, attend­ ing the opening of the Tokyo National Museum. Theodore R eed, Zoo, in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya to capture, fi eld study and research the Bongo antelope. Nathan R eingold, Henry Papers, in Leningrad, West Berlin, Munich, Ge­ neva, Brussels, and the United Kingdom to hunt for Henry materials in archives and libraries.

Biological ~ociety The Smithsonian will host the fall meeting of the Biological Society of "Bucks County Barn" by Charles Sheeler "Aftermath of a Storm" by Jacob Kainen Washington Friday, October 11 , at 9 While its sister gallery presents its opening show, the Na­ by NCFA since it opened its new quarters in May. a.m. in the MHT Auditorium. Interested tional Collection of Fine Arts will not be resting on its laurels. Also on display is a selection of prints from the NCFA staff members are invited to attend. NCFA opens two important exhibitions of its Own early this collection of graphics done under the Works Progress Ad­ Theme of the meeting is "Natural His­ month. ministration , The 35 "WPA Prints: 1935-1943" were chosen tory Collections Past-Present-Future." The largest show ever assembled of the work of artist from among hundreds by NCFA curator Jacob Kainen and Speakers from the Smithsonian staff Charles Sheeler goes on display October 10 for six weeks. his aide Caril Dreyfuss. include: Philip Ritterbush, Nicholas The retrospective includes 135 paintings and drawings and 35 Kainen himself participated in the WPA project and is Hotton III, Richard Zusi, William Sturte­ photographs. Among the paintings are many of hi s famous represented in the show by a lithograph executed in 1936. vant, Donald Duckworth, Raymond industrial scenes and five of the six works he exhibited in the Other artists whose work is on display include Raphael and Manning, Stanwyn Shetler, and Richard Armory Show in New York in 1913. Isaac Soyer, George Constant, Louis Lozowick, and Louis Cowan. "Charles Sheeler" is the first special exhibition originated Schanker. October, 1968 THE SMITHSONIAN TORCH Page 3 Underwater Art Added to Shipwreck Study

Shipwrecks are getting to be pretty old hat lineate the position in which the vessel lay, or to Armed Forces History curator Mendel L. to determine whether she had broken up in Peterson-he has explored some 200 of them- sinking." but the latest offered some firsts and some sur- Another job was to do more detailed draw- prising discoveries. And one of those firsts in- ings using watercolors, of the more perishable volved a fellow MHT staffer, artist Peter specimens recovered by the divers, principally Copeland. wooden pieces that Peterson feared would not The Saint Joseph was part of a Spanish long survive out of water. His fears were con- • treasure fleet devastated in the Florida Keys firmed when the inscription on a wooden tray Mendel Peterson and photographer Ed Reinard examine the in 1733. The most perfectly camouflaged wreck disappeared shortly after Copeland completed wreckage of the Saint Joseph. Artist Peter Copeland recorded Peterson had ever investigated, it was in about his drawing. the scene underwater using grease pencil on plexiglass. 25 feet of water, covered with sand and ob- Details of ship construction of this period scured by a thick growth of sea grass. It was are scarce, Copeland points out, and the Saint located by a proton magnetometer, a hyper- Joseph added to the store of availalble knowl- sensitive sounding device. edge. Among the mysteries it helped solve was If the ship was the best camouflaged Peter- the question of how the rudder could be turned son had ever investigated, it was the first Cope- without the resulting pressure fracturing the a-______~ _____I'"':' and had ever ex lored. He was in th ~e ~e~x~e:!::d~i-_ __1I~o~n~5_w~o~o~d~e.!.!n__'su.h~a~f~t ...!cth~at~le~d!...._'_'to"__"th~e~s~te~e"_'.r_'_'in'_'b....b_"e"""a_'_'r.'______I tion to try a new approach to shipwreck study. The Saint Joseph revealed that the shaft was the combination of photography with under- surrounded by metal cages that absorbed the water drawing to document more accurately strain. the expedition's discoveries. Among the other finds was the first human "My task," Copeland explains, "was to draw skull ever discovered in a Western Hemisphere underwater, upon plexiglass with grease pencils, shipwreck. Sliding bar shot, a kind of ammu- the various portions of the wreckage thus far nition that lengthened in flight to make it far uncovered, which had been marked with num- more destructive, was another surprise that be red markers by Mr. Peterson. I had to draw turned up. It had not been known that this these sites positioning myself facing South to type of shot was used as late as the 18th North on each site and maintaining a relative century. Two compasses, extremely difficult scale and elevation in each drawing, where to find from this time period, were discovered. possible. The purpose of these drawings was They are being restored in MHT. not only to indicate details of wreck structure, Some of the finds will be shown in a special but also, when put together, to attempt to de- exhibition in MHT next year.

The all-important rudder, left, in a detailed watercolor. Below, the artist at work. Right, a view of the wreckage with directional markings for later determination of the po­ sition in which the ship lay. Page 4 THE SMITHSONIAN TORCH October I 1 968 Desautels' Mineral Kingdom Book-of-Month Club Choice sales of around 100,000. The handsome $15 volume, which the author describes as "a coffee-table kind of book" written for the layman with general interest, will be the subject of a full-page ad in the New York Times Book Review and a double-page spread in Natural History. Desautels, who was featured at a de­ partment store autograph party, is pleased but not especially surprised at the book's apparent success. "I knew there was a good story there and that the art work could be dazzling." He and photographer Lee Boltin, who produced 72 spectacular full-page color illustrations for the book, have already contracted for a volume on gems to come out in about two years. The publishers have offered a free copy for every five books purchased by the nation's 750 rock clubs, and in addition will contribute $2 to Smithsonian's Bosch fund for mineral purchase. It looks like a best seller for Paul De­ The Mineral Kingdom is available in sautels, supervisor of the Division of area book stores and in the Museum Mineralogy. Shops, where SI employees are entitled His first hardback book, The Mineral to a 10 percent discount. It will be one Kingdom, has been selected as a Book­ of four books by Smithsonian authors of-the-Month Club alternate, and pub­ featured in a Shops sales exhibit in No­ lishers Grosset and Dunlop anticipate vember. Davis Named Assistant for NCFA Robert Tyler Davis, a highly ex­ York. perienced museum administrator and Davis most recently was consultant educator, is new Assistant Director of with French and Company of New York. the National Collection of Fine Arts. Previously he was responsible for con­ Davis will assist Director David W. verting a private museum into Vizcaya, Scott in all phases of the Collection's the Dade County (Florida) Art Mu­ operations and, in addition, will be par­ seum, and for establishing its programs. ticularly concerned with painting and At the same time he was interim director sculpture until a curator for that division of the Joe and Emily Lowe Gallery of One of the displays at the Smithsonian-Department of Transportation "Cars of is named. The position as curator of the University of Miami. Prior to that he America-Tomorrow" show on the Mall was actually a car of yesterday, and is now painting and sculpture was vacated when had served as the first professional direc­ a work of art. Smithsonian sculptors James Fisher, Mechanical and Civil Engineer­ Dr. Richard P. Wunder was assigned to tor of the Montreal Museum of Fine ing, and Ann Rushforth, Office of Public Affairs, pose with the untitled figure they the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New Arts. created from parts 'Of a wrecked car as part of the day's entertainment. Dr. Evans Reverses Migratory Pattern by Mary M. Krug lection's weak spots and suggest how they only man in the world doing archeologi­ Victor Nunez was head of the Anthro­ Smithsonian forays into other countries can be filled out. cal research in the Baeza area of eastern pological Institute of C6rdoba~ Argen­ are by now commonplace and well docu­ The benefits of his visit from his own Ecuador, he came to SI in 1965 on a tina, before a political upheaval in 1966 mented. But at least one department is point of view were many fold. First of grant from the Guggenheim Foundation cost him his position. Drs. Evans and finding it mutually advantageous to re­ .all, he had access to reference materials to learn the basic techniques of arche­ Meggers, who had known Nunez since verse the migratory pattern and bring unavailable in Peru; he also added to his ology from Drs. Evans and Meggers. He 1961 were eager to coordinate findings of foreign scientists here to work. own personal library, to be shipped home, learned so well, says Evans, that he was the Brazil Program with similar studies Three South American anthropologists stacks of books now available in inexpen­ able to go back and do "100 percent in the three provinces on the Argentine have taken advantage of grants this year sive paperback editions and articles he scientific work" in conducting excava­ side of the Parana river. to work with Dr. Clifford Evans-includ­ could not get there. He had the chance tions and gathering data. "The Smithsonian," says Evans, "was ing one "repeater" and a collaborator in to study the anthropology of countries Padre Porras' Order in Ecuador did literally able to rescue Mr. Nunez' Evans' and Betty Meggers' Brazil Pro­ other than his own, and "looking at not have space for his archeological col­ scientific career" by giving him a re­ gram (see March TORCH.) another society and culture makes it lection; therefore the Smithsonian is now search associateship in the Brazil Program. easier to understand your own," he notes. caretaker of a whole roomful of impor­ Now he and his entire family are in Most important, from both his and tant archeological objects shipped here Evans' point of view, was the chance to for storage and study. learn English. "It gives him a whole new The headquarters of Padre Porras' series of professional contacts and opens order in Rome gave permission for him to him many books previously unavail­ to accept a year's grant from the Amer­ able because he did not read English," ican Philosophical Society and a travel Dr. Evans notes. grant from Guggenheim. He will spend "When I first came, I did not know the next year here analyzing and classify­ enough English to ask for stamps at the ing his archeological materials, coordi­ post office," Fonseca reveals. "This visit nating them with ethno-historic data in has given me a wonderful chance to meet early Spanish records he located, and U.S. scientists like Dr. Evans. It is a hopefully finding correlations wi th dis­ good idea to build relations between coveries from the adjacent Rio Napo American and Latin American scientists." area where Drs. Evans and Meggers A man who would agree with him is themselves did research. Padre Pedro I. Porras, a priest with the The third visiting scientist might be order of Saint Joseph in Ecuador. The jobless were it not for the Smithsonian. Victor Nunez Washington on a Guggenheim Fellow­ Pedro I. Porras ship, permitting him to classify his find­ Peruvian Cesar Fonseca spent the sum­ ings and hopefully to correlate them with mer here on a grant from the Wenner­ the sequences obtained by the Brazilian Gren Foundation for Anthropological archeologists. "Boundaries mean nothing Research between semesters at Cornell in archeological work, but they have to University, mastering English and doing be respected politically," Evans and research on the agricultural systems of Meggers note. lowland and highland Peru. He also, and Nunez will also use SI research fa­ not incidentally, carried out a project of cilities to complete a monograph on other great value to the Smithsonian. field work he conducted years ago. In Fonseca, well versed in .the ethnology this way, he can continue his professional of his own country, went through the In­ career while waiting for the scientific stitution's collections of Peruvian ethno­ climate in Argentina to improve so that logical material, gathered over the last he can return to teaching and research. 80 to 90 years without being properly In the meantime, he will have, along classified. He was able to identify the with Fonseca and Padre Porras, made a objects by culture and tribal group and significant contribution to anthropology note other significant background ma­ at the Smithsonian and in his own coun­ terial, as well as to point out the col- Cesar Fonseca try as well.