The Smithsonian Institution

Les monnaies grecques ont de tout temps été considérées comme les plus belles monnaies jamais produites. Evoquant Goethe, José Maria de Hérédia ou le Président Theodore Roosevelt, cette conférence s’interroge sur les raisons qui fondent ce sentiment. On évoquera le très haut relief, la diversité des types, la qualité de la gravure et l’adaptation à la petitesse du format. On traitera également de la beauté (fondée sur la symétrie) et du sublime (fondé sur la dissymétrie), avec une attention particulière pour les types représentés de trois quarts face et pour l’évolution du goût du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. Platon, Longin, Raphael, Rubens, Winckelmann, Kant, Burke et Ruskin sont quelques-uns des grands noms évoqués à cette occasion.

The Korea Gallery at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History presents Korea's millennia of history and its distinctive culture through ceramics, paintings, textiles, and sculptures, ranging from the 6th century B.C. to the 21st century. Introducing Korea to a broad audience, this book also presents many previously unpublished Korean artifacts and artworks. The authors, Paul Michael Taylor and Christopher J. Lotis,  consider the exhibition to be the "flagship" of a fleet of related activities in the field of Korean heritage, including research, education, outreach, public programs and the development and improvement of museum collections.

This is a biographical guide to African ethnology collections acquired by the Smithsonian  Institution and its predecessors — John Varden's Washington City Museum and the  National Institute — between 1828 and 1943. The guide focuses on collectors of African  material culture, rather than on the objects themselves.

This article introduces an important group of ethnographic, biological, and unpublished archival materials deriving from two expeditions to Madagascar by American naturalist William Louis Abbott (1860–1936). The first was from February to September 1890; the second from January to July 1895 when Abbott rushed back to Madagascar not only to collect for the Smithsonian but also to join the Merina in their unsuccessful war of independence against the encroaching French government. Beyond summarizing localities he visited and the current organization and usefulness of his collections for research, the article attempts to interpret archival records to assess Abbott’s collecting focus, biases, and purposes; his perspectives on contemporaneous events in Madagascar; and also the role that “naturalist” collectors such as Abbott played within the history of anthropology and of museums. Ethnographic information is embedded not only within the ethnographic collections but also within associated biological collections and archives.

This paper tells the extraordinary story of the ‘Schliemann collection’, an unpublished collection of 177 artefacts excavated in Troy in the nineteenth century and bequeathed in 1893 to the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, DC. Specifically, it explores through archival research the role of Heinrich Schliemann, the entrepreneur and archaeologist, and how his approach to archaeology encapsulated universal aspects of Western modernity, including the connection with capital and maintaining a high public profile. The renowned American journalist Kate Field is another key figure, as she lobbied for Schliemann and publicized his archaeological activity in England and the United States. This coincided with Schliemann’s wish to be appointed as a US Consul to Greece; in return, he planned to donate the entire Trojan Collection to the Smithsonian Institution. Although this did not come to pass during his lifetime, Sophia Schliemann selected 177 Trojan artefacts for donation to the Smithsonian after Schliemann’s death. The gift made the archaeology of the distant Troas — at that point a part of the Ottoman Empire — a subject of public interest for the Americans. The paper concludes with reflections on the mobility of the Trojan artefacts after their excavation, and on the layers of meanings with which the Smithsonian’s ‘Schliemann Collection’ was ultimately imbued.

"""Abstract

The central role of exchange in museum collecting merits
greater scholarly attention. We present an anthropological
framework for analyzing exchange practices that illuminates
the complex and shifting meanings collections
accrue through their life histories. We illustrate this by
examining the series of late 19th-century exchanges that
produced a small, but historically important, ethnological
collection at the Oberlin College Museum from the North
American Arctic. The analysis sheds new light on the
uneasy development of ethnology from its natural history
roots, and on the role of small colleges in furthering the
modern sciences curriculum. Examining collection life histories
by way of exchange practices also highlights new
interpretive challenges that accompany old collections.

[museum collecting, Arctic, Smithsonian, history of anthropology, digital media]"""

The Smithsonian Catalogue is full of gifts, trinkets, wall hangings, and assorted chatchkes typical of commercial mail order holiday catalogs.  Almost every piece of this junk, however, is carefully described to appear to be related to the refined exempt purposes of the Smithsonian Institution.  Wonder why?  It has to do with the Unrelated Business Income Tax or UBIT.

A short story mapping out different hypothesis about the peopling of the American continent, with special emphasis on Thor Heyerdahl's notion of a civilizing race of ocean travelers:
"Si el trabajo de Heyerdahl titubea sobre una línea ambigua entre ciencia (era un investigador minucioso) y especulación (sus conclusiones son extrapolaciones narrativas fascinantes que requieren de “saltos de fe” del lector), muchos de sus partidarios siguieron sus hipótesis más dudosas adentrándose completamente en una cueva mística."

This paper introduces an important group of archival materials deriving from two expeditions to southern Thailand by American naturalist William Louis Abbott (1860-1936) in the late 19th century. Beyond summarizing the localities he visited in Thailand, and the current organization and usefulness of his collections for research, the paper attempts to interpret Abbott’s unpublished archival correspondence to assess his collecting focus, biases, and purposes, as well as his perspectives on contemporaneous events in the Kingdom of Siam and in the surrounding, encroaching colonial regions. This also allows for an assessment of the important role these short expeditions to Thailand played in Abbott’s later, much longer period of collecting in insular Southeast Asia, as well as the role that he and other collectors of this period played within the history of anthropology and of museums.

This report by the Founding Director of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives (1998-2002), presents the first Strategic Plan for its first 5 years. The Smithsonian Center was authorized by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in 1997 and opened on August 10, 1998. Its mission is to advance the knowledge and understanding of Latino contributions to U.S. history, art, music, culture, and science. As part of the Smithsonian Institution, the Center provides access to enrichment programs using the Smithsonian collections, exhibitions, and programs as a venue for cross-cultural understanding, community dialogue and development. The Center promotes ongoing research in the field of Latino studies and culture, and provides national audiences with educational exhibitions, public programs, and online and electronic resources. The Center also reaches out to the vast Latino community of the United States by building dialogue and relationships between the Smithsonian Institution and civic, social, and cultural organizations, and colleges and universities. The Center works with government agencies, corporations, and
foundations to foster the development of programming to highlight the rich Latino cultural heritage.

Conference on Protection of Cultural Property in Asia – Interpol
The loss of art and antiquities through destruction, theft, looting, and illegal export and sale has long been associated with dramatic and catastrophic changes in societies such as war, civil unrest, and natural or man-made disasters. However, even relatively peaceful and progressive changes such as the opening of countries for increased travel and tourism or the development of free markets and economies also may stimulate the illegal trade in cultural and religious heritage items.
For traditional Buddhist monasteries and nunneries where valuable religious objects and relics are readily available to the religious community for daily contemplation and worship, there is a special challenge in protecting objects from damage and theft without restricting access.
By
Shaftel, Koestler, DePriest and Beaubien

XIX. yüzyılın ortalarından itibaren Avrupa ve Amerika’da ekonomik ve siyasi hayat daha rekabetçi ve çekişmeli bir hal almıştır. Ekonomik ve siyasi hayatın odağında yeni hammadde alanlarının aranması, yeni pazarların belirlenmesi, siyasi etki alanının genişletilmesi çabaları vardır. Bu çaba siyasi olarak ilişki kurulan ülkeler hakkında bilgi edinme, özellikle de çok uluslu devletlerin/imparatorlukların hukuk, eğitim, demografik yapı, sosyoloji, yeraltı-yerüstü kaynakları, ticaret vb. konularındaki işleyişini / özelliklerini öğrenebilmek adına “bilgi toplama” şeklinde de yürütülmüştür. Bu dönem aynı zamanda toplanan bilginin depolandığı ve erişime açıldığı merkezi yönetim politikaları ile yakından bağlantılı kraliyet/imparatorluk kütüphanelerinin ve bazı özel nitelikli bilgi merkezi/enstitülerinin de kurulup geliştirilmeye başladığı bir süreci ifade etmektedir. Osmanlı Devleti sözü edilen dönem içerisinde ekonomik ve kültürel alanda Avrupa ülkeleri ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri ile gerek bakanlıklar aracılığıyla ve gerekse bizzat padişahlar siyasi ilişkiler kurmuşlardır. Bu siyasi ilişkiler süreç içerisinde inişli çıkışlı seyirler göstermiş, kimi zaman da ilginç boyutlara erişmiştir. Söz konusu siyasi ilişkilere yeni bir içerik katan unsur “kitap” dolayısıyla kütüphanelerdir. Kitap ve kütüphane, devletin ve toplumun kültür seviyesini, tarihi geçmişini ve insanlığa katkısını ifade ettiği gibi barındırdığı bilgi kaynaklarının sayı ve içeriği ile devletin ulaştığı seviyeyi de kanıtlayan iki önemli aktördü. Bu nedenle kitap, özellikle XIX. yüzyılın son çeyreğinde siyasi iletişim/diplomasi aktörü olarak kullanılmıştır.
Çalışmada bu iki yeni aktör ile başlatılan resmi yayınların değişimi 1868-1917 yılları arasında Smithsonian Institution ile yapılan yayın değişim süreci -özellikle de hız kazandığı 1876-1917 yılları arasındaki süreç- kültürel arşiv mirasımızın en önemli koruyucularından olan Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü Osmanlı Arşivi (BOA) ile Smtihsonian Institution Archives (SIA)’dan alınan belgeler ile anlatılmaya ve dikkat çeken noktaları açıklanmaya çalışılacak, söz konusu dönemde kitabın da bir diplomasi aracı olarak kullanılması üzerinde durularak belgelerle desteklenecektir.

As a contribution to ongoing examinations of expeditions and how their research results have been presented, this paper considers the role of some individual collectors and explorers whose collections resulting from expeditions were later donated to the Smithsonian. Transformations in museum expeditions (at least, their ethnographic components) are shown to have, over time, followed a pathway similar to the transformations in museum exhibitions, evident especially in the changing relationships between the collectors (or collecting institutions), the people whose cultural products and records were collected, and the collection’s or expedition’s audience. The paper also illustrates some recent Smithsonian efforts to revisit, present and interpret these early
expeditions through online and print publications, and provides examples of some current uses of expedition source materials (such as archives and collections). The paper concludes by looking at some other
attempts to make collections acquired during expeditions available to the descendants of those encountered during the expeditions, and to include their perspectives in any contemporary interpretation  of such collections.

Few years ago I was in a small hamlet, called Paḻaiyāṟai (meaning “old river course”) in the company of few of my German colleagues who took me to a high medieval Cōḻa temple for study.* This place is little known to scholars when compared with the much familiar Tañcāvūr, Kaṅkaikoṇṭacōḻapuram, Tārācuram, Tirupuvaṉam and Kuṃbhakōṇam (Nanda et al. 1997: fig. 1).  Paḻaiyāṟai and its antiquely integrated villages (infra) lay within a radius of 8 kms away from Tārācuram to its southeast (Map). There is a middle Cōḻa temple, originally Arumoḻideveśvaram,  today called Somanātha.  I had no idea to work on either the temple or the village at that time but in due course an idea crept into my mind when I thought of the melancholic natives of the village whose faces were awfully serene and mysteriously silent as though they had lost something (infra). I thought an article should be written to honour these forgotten psychic people that were steeped in oblivious glories and vanishing memories, handed down orally from generation to generation. The mental disposition and ideas expressed by the people were interesting from the socio-cultural point of view. Perhaps they wanted to forget their great grandfather’s attestations few of them were related to the Cōḻas, members of the royal household, servants of the palace or inhabitants of the village where the ruling family had its capital-villa. It was this psychology of the innocent people that persuaded the author to work on this brief article.