National Museum of Natural History Unearthed

Operation Crossroads

The “Able” test of Operation Crossroads, the first atomic bomb dropped on the Bikini lagoon, on July 1, 1946. It was detonated at a height of 520 feet above the ground. Credit: Government photo in the public domain.

For some reason I do not fear the Atom Bomb era that is with the world. There are and will be I am confident, still enough good men and women in this world to control properly the various advancements of men.

So wrote Smithsonian scientist Leonard P. Schultz on July 8th, 1946, from the U.S.S. Bowditch, the ship on which he had witnessed—one week earlier—the U.S. government’s detonation of an atomic bomb over the remote Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. Schultz was one of two Smithsonian scientists who formed part of Operation Crossroads, the beginning of a program of nuclear testing that stretched into the late 1950s.

Leonard P. Schultz and Joseph P.E. Morrison were curators and seasoned field collectors at the U.S. National Museum (today called the National Museum of Natural History) in Washington, when, on January 28, 1946, the U. S. Navy asked the Smithsonian to send experts to the Marshall Islands—part of a team of botanists, zoologists, geologists, and oceanographers from universities, oceanographic institutes, and government research bureaus. After two weeks of hurried preparations, Schultz and Morrison left Washington, D.C., for California, where they joined the U.S.S. Bowditch.

The participation of Smithsonian scientists on military expeditions was not new. Indeed, Shultz had been on the 1937 U. S. Navy Expedition to the Phoenix Islands, and Waldo Schmitt had been assigned to the 1941 and 1942 Navy expeditions to the Galapagos. However, the size and scope of the Bikini surveys far exceeded any earlier Smithsonian/military cooperative projects.

 Get the full story on the Centennial Website!

Text courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

 

Be Part of the Future of Your Museum

Image courtesy of Smithsonian Instution.

Staring into the brilliance of the Hope Diamond.

Gazing up at an African bush elephant.

Discovering exhibits and browsing collections online.

Getting up close to a Coelacanth fossil.

Participating in a free, interactive educational program.

These are just a few of the memories experienced every day at NMNH. There are many more memories that you, the Museum’s community, shared with us this past year. Whether you visited the Museum as a child, or brought your own children to explore the wonders of science today; if you browse our blogs or stay up to date on our scientific research and discoveries—however you are involved—you are an important part of this Museum’s past. As we begin our next 100 years, we hope you will continue to be a part of our future. And one way you can start is by showing your support and giving back to your Museum. Your gift today will help us fulfill our mission tomorrow. You can contribute to one of our newest exhibitions, like Human Origins, donate to the Ocean Portal, or select a field of scientific study. Wherever you choose to give, your tax-deductible gift will help ensure this Museum continues to provide dynamic educational programs, important scientific research, interactive websites, and amazing exhibits for you and generations to come.

Thank you for being a part of the future of your Museum.

 

Recognizing Our Peers

Today the Museum held its annual Peer Recognition Awards ceremony - a time-honored tradition to recognize our colleagues for their exemplary dedication, talent, and service.  One past recipient is Officer James McGrath, who is featured on the timeline of our Centennial website.  Check out his story below and then browse the timeline for more NMNH stories and history! 

Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

Officer James McGrath of the National Museum of Natural History, Protection Services, offers stickers to visitors who enter his No. 20 Elevator in the Constitution Avenue lobby of the Museum. He starts the day with a roll of 2,150 smiley face stickers, as well as lady bugs, fish and American flags - on an average day, he gives away 800. His record is 1,800 in one day. Children, parents, even senior citizens, have their day brightened by his smile, jokes and cheery stickers. Indeed, Museum Director Cristián Samper has two of Officer McGrath's stickers - of fish - on his Museum ID badge. Officer McGrath is a retired lawyer from Kansas City, Missouri, who was awarded a bronze star in World War II.

 

A Century of Whales at the Smithsonian

Whales have been at the heart of Smithsonian research since 1850, when Spencer Fullerton Baird first came to the institution. Baird was an avid naturalist with a strong interest in marine mammals, and he hired zoologists with similar interests.

Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

Since the nineteenth century, the Smithsonian has also been at the forefront of whale exhibition.  In this photograph from 1903, J. W. Scollick - osteological preparator - mixes plaster while the other men cast the whale's head, up on the beach. The resulting model required eight months to make and was on exhibit in the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904.  Get the complete story and much more!

Behind the Scenes: Mystery of the Hope Diamond

It’s a story that spans four countries, over a billion years of geologic time and 350 years of human history. Fascinating science. A legendary curse. But probably the most memorable moment in the making of Smithsonian Channel’s “Mystery of the Hope Diamond” was the Great Dane.

In real life his name was Mike, and he belonged to the dazzling Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean. In the Roaring Twenties, Evalyn was renowned for staging elaborate parties in her mansion, and occasionally even President Warren G. Harding would attend. For kicks – and no doubt to make an impression -- she had a special collar designed for Mike so he could wear the Hope Diamond. Escorting Evalyn with imperial grace, he’d strut through the crowd wearing the world’s most famous gemstone as if it were a mere dogtag.

To recreate the scene, our production team took over a mansion in the business district of London. After scouring through dozens of head shots and enduring a few eventful screen tests (“Action!” is not a command most dogs understand, and explaining their motivation proved a challenge), we finally settled on a handsome brute named Travis. He had already appeared in several commercials and television shows in the United Kingdom, so he knew the drill. He showed no interest at all in gobbling up our Hope Diamond replica, and once the cameras were rolling he hit his marks like a pro. We never told him about the mythic curse (didn’t want to make him nervous), but by all accounts he remains a very happy and healthy canine thespian. You can watch his performance in the full program at www.smithsonianchannel.com/hope or in this behind-the-scenes clip.

 

Charles Poe, Vice President Production, Smithsonian Channel

Veterans' Day at the NMNH

As Veterans’ Day approaches, most visitors to the Smithsonian think of the military artifacts in the National Museum of American History, but few are probably aware of the role that scientists in the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) have played in wartime.   When the United States entered World War II on December 8, 1941, Museum scientists immediately sprang into action to support the war effort.   The Smithsonian formed a War Committee and the Ethnogeographic Board was established at the Smithsonian to compile cultural and geographic information on combat areas.  Curators began to compile information on all the resources the Museum had in its collections.

Henry B. Collins (1899-1987) at his campsite at Cape Kialegak, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. SI negative # SIA2009-2048. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Archives.

Prior to the war, many Museum anthropologists and naturalists traveled to remote parts of the Pacific that soon became the sites of combat, areas that the U.S. government and military knew little about.  Curators compiled maps, language information, photographs, and other resources.  For example, in June of 1942, the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.  The U.S. military had limited intelligence about this remote region, but NMNH anthropologist Henry B. Collins (pictured above) had done extensive field work in Alaska and the Aleutians.  He was able to provide maps and photographs that the military used to locate landing sites for the Aleutian Campaign.

Museum scientists also compiled the first military survival manual, Survival on Land and Sea. Distributed to millions of soldiers and sailors, the manual gave simple lessons on navigating by the stars, starting a fire, locating safe sources of water and food, avoiding poisonous animals and plants, and surviving in island, desert, tropical and Arctic environments.

(From left to right) Survival on Land and Sea, Ethnogeographic Board, Smithsonian Institution, 1944, cover, image courtesy of Smithsonian Archives;“Making fire with a bow drill,” Survival on Land and Sea, Ethnogeographic Board, Smithsonian Institution, 1944. SI negative # 92-7179, image courtesty of Smithsonian Archives; “Estimating latitude by Polaris,” Survival on Land and Sea, Ethnogeographic Board, Smithsonian Institution, 1944. SI negative # 92-7176.  Images courtesy of Smithsonian Archives.

Equally important to the military was the control of disease – and disease-carrying insects and animals.   In 1942, for every soldier felled in combat, eight soldiers were incapacitated by insect borne diseases.  Entomologists in the Museum worked with the military medical units, training sanitary officers to identify which insects carried malaria, which mammals carried which ticks, and which Crustacea carried the parasitic disease schistosomiasis.   The military sent a steady flow of specimens from war zones back to the Museum to identify and ensure that the correct organisms were eliminated; the Museums received over 10,000 mosquitoes alone in 1944.

Rattus tanezumi mansorius specimens collected during World War II and sent to the National Museum. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Archives.

Other curators enlisted in the military or Office of Strategic Services to share their expertise.  Curator of malacology Ted Bayer became an Army Corporal and used his knowledge about mollusks while stationed on islands such as Biak in the Pacific.  Lt. David H. Johnson, curator of mammals, was stationed at Naval Medical Research Unit 2 in the Pacific and studied the mammal and bird hosts of disease-carrying insects.  In his free moments, he also collected shells and other natural history specimens for the Museum (see rats collected during WWII pictured at right).

A Field Collector’s Manual in Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 1944, cover. SI negative # SIA2009-2528. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Archives.

As the war moved from combat to occupation phase, the Smithsonian also prepared and distributed A Field Collector’s Guide to Natural History, another pocket sized book that encouraged soldiers to observe the natural world around them and send interesting natural history specimens to the Museum.  Museum curators carried on extensive correspondence with soldiers in the field, sending them natural history information and supplies, to provide diversion from the stress of combat and monotony of occupation.  Museum director Alexander Wetmore carried on an extensive correspondence with many young soldiers, such as U.S. Navy Pharmacists Mate Sammy Ray, who went on to become an oyster specialist.   After the battle of Palau, Ray wrote to Secretary Wetmore (see letter pictured below) that during the heat of battle at Palau, “I thought that I had made my last bird skin.” He found relief from combat in bird watching and shell collecting, when time and duty permitted.

As the war wound down, Natural History Museum curators had contributed to the war effort but also learned a great deal about the natural history of the Pacific.  They continue their studies of that region today.

Pamela Henson, Historian, Smithsonian Institution Archives

 

U.S. Navy Pharmacists Mate First Class Sammy L. Ray letter to Alexander Wetmore, October 29, 1944, SI negative # SIA2010-0630. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Archives.

Phantoms of the Museum

U.S. National Museum, 1920s. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives, negative number sia2008-2448.

As Halloween approaches, I am reminded of a May 13, 1900, article (see the scan at the bottom of this post) on the National Museum in the Washington Post that reported on “Shades of Scientists Who Walk There Nightly,” (shades was an old term for ghosts). The U.S. National Museum was then housed in what is now known as the Arts and Industries Building.  The guards and staff who worked late reported that the deceased but devoted scientists of earlier eras continued to walk the halls of the Museum at night, guarding over their collections.  Foremost among these was Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), the first Smithsonian curator and second Secretary of the Smithsonian.

Spencer Fullerton Baird, 1880s, first National Museum curator and second Secretary of the Smithsonian. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives, negative number mah-786a.

A naturalist since childhood, Baird brought his collections with him when he came to the Smithsonian in 1850 and dedicated his career to creating a great national museum at the Smithsonian.  The Post asserted that long after he had died, Baird “continued to supervise the affairs” of the Museum he devoted his life to.  Indeed, Night Watchman Lynn reported seeing him repeatedly but that when spoken to, he vanished. 

They also reported that an ominous-looking bird would nest nearby each year and sing a mournful song all through the long hours of the night.  The Post wrote, “He wails away the summer nights, jarring against the sound of laughter and song, until it is conceded that only the spirit of some one of the birds – those that gave up life the sake of science and now fill the cases of the Smithsonian – could, for so many years, harass the souls of those about the grounds.”

The Museum could be a frightening place, even without apparitions.  On one occasion, a Colonel Boynton’s diving suit had been sent to the Museum.  Employees studying it inflated it with bellows and placed it within the fountain at the central rotunda of the building.  They left it there overnight, where it was encountered in the shadows by a night watchman who fled the building reporting a suicide.

Ethnology Hall, U.S. National Museum, 1904. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives, negative number nhb-16245.

The Post also reported on a French gentleman visiting the Museum who stayed past closing time to purchase souvenirs.  As night fell, the front doors had already closed when the watchmen discovered him and attempted to lead him to the side door.  He spoke little English; they spoke no French, so he was alarmed as he was led away.  As they crossed from the American history hall to the anthropology hall (pictured at right), the Frenchman was confronted by a shadowy array of Native Americans that he perceived to be on the warpath, aiming for him.  It took three strong guards to subdue him and carry him, rigid, out the west door into the fading sunset.

At another time, a photographer was granted special permission to photograph a Japanese warrior mannequin carrying a spear.  The mannequin had to be removed from its case and so work was done after the Museum closed.  When the photographer completed his work, the warrior was left outside the case, to be returned in the better light of the morning.   But no one had bothered to tell Night Watchman Donald, so the Post wrote, “It was in the gloaming, when he fell to cogitating upon the beauties of his surroundings.  The water in the great central basin gurgled and babbled ominously.  The spirit of a Mozart, Chopin, or Mendelssohn swept the strings of the ancient musical instruments with slow and plaintive sweeps, while the god of other nations bowed and beckoned him to kneel at their shrine.”  Turning suddenly, he was confronted with the fearsome warrior towering above him, ready to strike and, “He thinks he forgot his official dignity for a brief space of time, which he spent in climbing the stairs for a safer vantage ground.”

Watson M. Perrygo with snake specimen in the Taxidermy Studio, National Museum of Natural History, 1929. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives, negative number 84-8050.

There is no report of how many of the ancient “shades” moved across the Mall with the collections to the new Museum of Natural History when it opened in 1910.  Sometimes the apparition turned out to be an eccentric employee who had taken up residence in the building, as I wrote in an earlier blog.  But the specimens continued to catch the unwary off-guard.  One of my favorite stories came from the taxidermist Watson Perrygo (pictured at left).  Ever the practical joker, he rigged an old discarded snake specimen in the Taxidermy Studio by placing a hose through its body and attaching it to the steam line for the radiator.   When a new and unsuspecting employee or visitor came to the Studio for the first time, Perrygo would sidle over to the radiator and twist open the steam valve.  The large snake would rise up and hiss at the startled employee, often sending them flying from the building.

The recent film Night at the Museum II: Battle of the Smithsonian brought many of these old tales back to mind, as security guard Larry Daley infiltrated the Smithsonian at night to rescue artifacts shipped by mistake from another museum.  At the Natural History Museum, the Easter Island head came to life at night along with a giant octopus and many other specimens and artifacts.  Click here for information on movies set at the Smithsonian.  Even in the 21st century, visions of museums in the dark of night continue to inspire tales worthy of Halloween night.

Pamela Henson, Historian, Smithsonian Institution Archives

 

The Washington Post, May 13, 1900, p. 26.

The Smithsonian/Roosevelt African Expedition 1909-1910

Edmund Heller.  Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Libraries are books, right?  Yes, and more… when the Smithsonian Institution Libraries acquired the Russell E. Train Africana Collection we became the proud protectors of field notebooks, photographs, glass slides, correspondence, and original drawings from naturalists, such as Edmund Heller pictured at right, and explorers in Africa during the past 200 years, as well as posters, newspapers, tea cups, and other memorabilia illustrating the fascination with African exploration among the folks back home.  We even have the shot-gun of missionary and anti-slavery activist David Livingstone (1813-1873; “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”) and poisoned arrows from a poachers’ camp that was broken up by Mr. Train’s safari group in the 1950s.

More to the point at present, the Africana collection includes original photographs and manuscript materials from the Smithsonian/Roosevelt African Expedition of 1909-1910, that complement the Smithsonian’s own Archives and Museum records.  For example, there are over 100 glass slides, many of them hand-colored, showing Theodore Roosevelt, the hunting party, native peoples, and various wild animals.  There is also a substantial cache of field notes, documents, typescripts for articles, newspaper clippings, photos, and correspondence from Edmund Heller (1875-1939), the American naturalist who was one of the Smithsonian’s representatives on the safari with Roosevelt and was in charge of preserving the big-game specimens (see photos below).

 

Images of Edmund Heller's manuscripts from the expedition (left and center) and the title page of Roosevelt and Heller's Life Histories of African Game Animals (right). Images courtesy of Leslie Overstreet.

In his  African game trails (New York, 1910), compiled from articles that he wrote for Scribner’s Magazine during the course of the expedition, Roosevelt speaks highly of Heller, both as a preparer of specimens and as a comrade in the field. 
After their return, the two co-authored Life-histories of African game animals (New York, 1914 - see above image at far right).

Heller made a remarkable career of expeditions and specimen collecting throughout the world:

• the Galapagos Islands & Peru (1898-99) for Stanford University;

• Alaska & British Columbia (1900) for a U.S. biological survey;

• East Africa (1907) with Carl Akeley for the Field Museum;

• East Africa (1909-10) with Roosevelt for the Smithsonian;

• British East Africa & Abyssinia (1912) with Paul Rainey;

• Central Asia (1916-17) with Roy Chapman for the American Museum of Natural History;

• Central Africa (1919) for the Smithsonian;

• and Central Africa again (1923-26) for the Field Museum.

Heller’s last years were spent, presumably more restfully, as the director of zoos in Milwaukee and San Francisco.

The Russell E. Train African Collection, including the Roosevelt and Heller materials, are held in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, one of SI Libraries’ rare-book rooms, in the National Museum of Natural History.

Leslie K. Overstreet, Curator of Natural-History Rare Books, Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Time to Celebrate!

To see NMNH at its best is to see its staff sharing their passion for science and community.   The recent Centennial Festival – Looking Both Ways: Past & Forward – found both these passions in abundance with over thirty activities spanning all three floors of the Museum’s public space.  Here are just a few of the highlights:

Image courtesy of Margery Gordon, Smithsonian Institution

-     Forensic anthropologists and curators of the Written in Bone exhibit, Dr. Doug Owsley and Kari Bruwelheide, shared the investigation into the death of 19th-century naturalist Robert Kennicott
-     “Snugglepus the Platypus” surprised and delighted children in the Behring Family Hall of Mammals, as did a costumed shark in the Sant Ocean Hall (pictured at right)
-    Chief of Temporary Exhibitions Barbara Stauffer challenged visitors to imagine future exhibits at the Museum and encouraged them
to share their fondest NMNH memories

Image courtesy of Joni Foote

 -    Karen McDonald demonstrated the principles of scientific illustration with new technology.
-    Special guest (and world champion elk and turkey caller) Gregory Hubbell, Jr. shared sounds from the wild and James Foote (pictured at left) brought a little presidential flair with his impersonation of Theodore Roosevelt.
 
Feeling like you missed out?  Don’t worry!  Many of these activities occur on a regular basis.  Even if you can’t make it to the Museum, we hope to hear from you!  Share your memories, help us imagine our future, and stay in touch by email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.  As we celebrate our past, we’re looking forward to the next one hundred years.  

Sarah Banks, Social Media and Special Projects Manager, Office of Education and Outreach

**Special thanks to Margery Gordon and her assistant Elizabeth Gerold for their herculean efforts to bring us all together for this memorable event!

Recording the Voices of the Natural History Museum

Chip Clark in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, shooting macro-photography (close-up details), 2010. Image courtesy of Debbie Clark.

As part of our celebration of the National Museum of Natural History’s 100th anniversary, we have been recording oral history interviews with the staff.  These audio and video interviews capture life at the Museum and give a behind-the-scenes look at the type of work done here.   The people interviewed represent the many different jobs that make the Museum run – guards, collections managers, curators, taxidermists, food services staff, photographer and exhibits specialist, to name a few.  The interviews were recorded by staff, volunteers and interns, bringing the Museum family even closer together.

One of our first interviewees was Chip Clark (pictured at right), an extraordinary museum photographer, who reminisced about all the things he had learned in his 35-year career at the Museum, noting, “There are no linear paths in my life.”  Clark was interviewed by American University student John Minks and Smithsonian intern Lauren Dare.  His reminiscences became even more precious when he passed away suddenly after his second interview.   

Paul Rhymer with his robo-badger, 1989. Image courtesy of Rick Vargas, Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Guard Andre Bell discussed with George Washington University student Emma Lang the challenges of keeping the Museum and its visitors secure in a post-9/11 world.  He noted that “no two days are the same” in a place like the Natural History Museum, which has 126 million objects and 7.4 million visitors per year.  Daily incidents ranged from lost children, providing directions to visitors from all over the globe, to insects escaping from the Insect Zoo or a visit from President Obama’s daughters.

Exhibit specialist Paul Rhymer (pictured at left) talked with student Cigdem Pakel of American University about how his career allowed him to use his creative skills in ever changing ways, including creating a remote controlled “robo-badger” that was used to train endangered black-footed ferrets to respond to predators such as badgers.  Although he initially did more two dimensional work, his career in the Exhibits Department included taxidermy and moved him into the 3-D nature sculpture that he is noted for today via Paul Rhymer Studio.

Audrey Butler. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

Food services staff member Audrey Butler (pictured at right) has worked at the Museum since 1984 and seen its services and visitorship grow.  With Mark White of the Human Studies Film Archives, she fondly recalled the old days with a revolving food table, known as a carousel, where visitors picked pre-made items, and Butler herself was nicknamed “the Queen of the Carousel.”  Butler is a “people person” who has always cared about the staff and visitors.   In January of 2009, she arrived in the pre-dawn hours to be sure that food was available to the huge number of visitors to President Obama’s inauguration, just one of the many special events she has been part of.

Curator Dave Pawson shared stories of his career studying echinoderms with Museum volunteer Inci Bowman.  A native of Australia, Pawson arrived at the Museum in 1964.  His reminiscences include a trip to Palmer Base in Antarctica, snorkeling off Ascension Island with colleagues to collect specimens, and even diving in the deep-sea submersible, the Alvin.   He shares his excitement traveling along the deep ocean floor glimpsing, and then collecting, organisms never before seen by humans. 

For other Stories of the Museum, see http://www.mnh.si.edu/onehundredyears/life_in_museum_landing.html

Pam Henson, Historian, Smithsonian Institution Archives